Cut these 5 foods if you want to lose weight

You’re probably like me and have tried every diet in the book to get rid of those last few ounces of belly fat. This is so you can feel confident in your bikini on hot tub nights with friends! It was only after I realized how simple it could be that I started to see results.

I’ll clarify: If you don’t love yourself WITHOUT the extra weight, then you won’t love yourself without it. Weight loss is not the same as self-love. You have to focus on this before you can expect to make any real changes in your life.

There are some simple guidelines that you can follow in order to lose weight, without having to overthink it. Since nutrition is often a pitfall for weight loss and health goals, I wanted you to understand it.

Here are five foods that YOU should give up to lose weight. Can you change your life by cutting out these foods? Perhaps not! These are my five favorite changes to make. If you like, it’s a good way to get the most bang for your money.

Foods you shouldn’t eat

It may seem crazy to you, but iceberg and gummyworms go together for me. It’s a complete waste of time to eat iceberg lettuce, which contains ZERO nutrients. To get more vitamins, I substituted it with spinach, kale or garden mix. Dark chocolate has a lot of antioxidants, but candy like gummy worms cannot say the same.

A word of caution: If these same foods, which are devoid of nutrients, are part a family celebration or holiday tradition, they may be “doing” something for you. The two go together. The birthday cake that my mother has made me for every birthday of my life may not be full of vitamins but it is a source of great joy. So I count it as a nutrition. You’ll lose more weight if you are balanced.

This Chickpea Pasta Mac N Cheesy recipe is an excellent example of how to make your food work for you, not the other way around!

Randomly added sugars

It just makes perfect sense. Save the sugar until you can taste it! Pasta sauces, salad dressings and coffee drinks can all have a lot of sugar added. You can’t help but want a cupcake sometimes, but I bet you don’t crave spaghetti because of the sweetness? Don’t waste time! Check the nutritional label to find out how many added sugar grams there are. I tend to avoid anything that has more than 10 grams of sugar per serving or 5 grams added sugar.

If you are addicted to four-pump venti mochas it may be time to cut down on the sugar in your coffee until you no longer miss it. You will adjust and have poppin’ abdominals in a month.

Fried food

Okay, I love french fries. I love them. Fried foods can be really bad for your health, and not just because of their high calorie content. The oil used to deep-fry your food is polyunsaturated and highly inflammatory for your body. This is because free radicals are released by heating the oil to frying temperature. This oil is used over and over again, and as a result, it releases more free radicals, which can cause many negative reactions to your body. Premature aging, weight gain, and brain fog are among the many effects.

The fat in frying food gives it a flavorful taste. You can still enjoy the same deliciousness by baking sweet potato fries. (You can even cover them with butter!) It won’t harm your health. What about fried foods? You should only eat them for special occasions, and not because they are aside. Watch out for oils like soybean, palm and canola. Opt for avocado or extra virgin olive oil instead!

Meat & Dairy

The meat and dairy situations are very similar to soy. It’s not a big deal to eat GMO dairy or meat occasionally. This can be a costly lifestyle choice, especially if you cook a lot of red meat. But rBST, and rBGH, are hormones that are added to the diet of cows raised conventionally to increase their size and milk production. Both could have an effect on humans.

While I’m aware that hormones are present in meat and have always been, this has been true for as long humans have eaten animals. We have only recently started adding hormones to meat (to make money from more meat and milk). I’m not sure if this is safe, especially if you consume dairy and meat daily for the rest of your life. Even when you consider the fact that even tiny doses can have a big impact on our bodies.

For me, with my existing hormone problems, I don’t want to take any extra risks. For me, balancing estrogen levels provided great results with both weight loss and PMS symptoms. So I will continue to do me. When you can, try to buy organic dairy and meat.

GMO soy

You’re right, this is a very controversial topic. Soy is a proven estrogen mimic in the human body. Does this fact alone spell the end of everything? Absolutely not. It’s not a problem.

What if I told that GMO soybean is used in everything? Soy is used in small amounts to make everything from frozen meals to baked goods. You can find it everywhere. If you eat a lot processed food every day, you are getting soy.

You may also be estrogen-dominant due to your lifestyle, which can cause you to store body fat and experience PMS symptoms.

Would you reach for a huge block of GMO Tofu? Most likely not. It’s not because I believe soy is evil or will kill you. I think that we ingest enough of it already without realizing it, and we don’t really need more. When I do eat it, I prefer organic and fermented versions.