Top Tips From TAME YOUR INNER OCTOPUS! Eating Doesn't Have to be an Event; Keep It Simple Most Days.

One way to lose weight and keep it off permanently is to de-emphasize food on an everyday basis. Food is basically fuel for our body and we only need a certain amount of it each day. If we eat more than our body burns off it shows up as excess fat on our body. It's as simple as that in most cases.

It goes back to "Eating to Live" versus "Living to Eat". Yikes! That's a mouthful if you stop and think about it. I can still hear myself saying the following: "I'm starving! Let's go get something "good" to eat. Where do you want to go?" Let me tell you one thing, ultimately the place I chose was not a place where I ate a simple, healthy, and in the right proportioned meal.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying food. I love to eat but I realized over two years ago that my thoughts cannot be centered around what I am going to eat next throughout the course of a day. I have to always have my basic plan in place. Food used to control me; now I control what I eat. I now realize why I gained 40 pounds of excess weight in the first place. I now have the knowledge of how to keep the extra weight off and under control. I know food is important in my life but I acknowledge that I must always aim to keep it "simple" most everyday of the week. I call that my "on track" daily eating habits. I try to go straight through the weekend eating this way. Guess what, keeping it simple and eating many of the same foods each week but in a slightly different manner at times is perfectly fine because it works and if it works, keep doing it!

It's OK to stick to meal plans that work for both you and your family. It's OK not to bring foods into your home that are known to be high in sugar and fats. This way, no one will be tempted to eat them because they won't be hanging around staring at you in the face each day. It's great to continually be working on healthy "replacements" for the high fat and sugary items in your life.

There's nothing wrong with eating "off track" every now and then. My gosh, we have enough birthdays, holiday celebrations, or special occasions all throughout the year to eat "off track".

It's best not to treat each day as if it were a holiday or special occasion in our lives when it pertains to what we choose to eat. We can't continually be rewarding ourselves with foods we know prevent us from losing weight or maintaining our "ideal" weight.

It's best to keep it simple, eat in a healthful manner and aim to eat what our body is capable of burning off each day. Doesn't that make great sense for all of us?

Have a great day!