The following is a guest article by Cheryl Conklin. I am a foodie and after 35 years in the food industry, a food expert. But, I struggle with the management of my own weight. What Cheryl writes is spot on with what I have learned and believe. Enjoy the article

We’ll get this out of the way right now: exercise is extremely important. Regular exercise is one of the most reliable ways to improve your health, and this should not be minimized. However, its impact on weight loss is generally overestimated. Most of weight loss comes down to diet, which means that strenuous workouts, while useful for cardiovascular health, should not be your key focus. Here are a few ways to lose weight and get in shape that aren’t focused on fitness.

Think Long Term 

The prevalence of “quick fix” diets in our culture has led to a skewed perspective on how changing your food habits work. Fad diets tend to prioritize rapid weight loss above all else, and many of them do achieve this in the short term. But, when you look at the long-term results, they simply don’t work.

This is because drastic, impractical, and restrictive changes to your diet are not sustainable. A diet only works while you are doing it, and be honest: do you really think you’re going to live off a handful of foods for the rest of your life? This goes for any evidence-backed dramatic diet, such as Keto and Paleo Diets – while it is possible to lose and keep off weight through them, they are a big commitment. Unless you really think you can stick to them, you are better off learning to incorporate healthy eating into your lifestyle.

Get Informed On Gut Health

Your gut is filled with a vast variety of good bacteria, which help keep your digestive system running smoothly. They are also believed to have a big impact on various other areas of your health, including weight loss.

While a lot of it comes down to your natural gut flora, you can actually influence what goes on in there through diet and supplements. For instance, a prebiotic fiber called XOS– commonly found in foods like milk and rice bran – can boost your gut microbiome and help you digest your food better.

 Adjust Your Vocabulary

 This is a simple thing, but it can have a huge impact on the way you approach food. The way you talk about your diet habits invariably influences how you feel about them, and the vocabulary we have created around certain foods can be extremely toxic. This listby Medium outlines the words and phrases you should be letting go of, including “guilty” and “calorie limit.”

Learn To Eat Mindfully

You’ve probably heard of mindfulness within the context of meditation, but it can actually be applied to various areas of your life. This includes the way you eat. At its core, mindful eatingis about taking a thoughtful and considered approach to your diet habits. This means learning to pick up hunger cues so you don’t over- or undereat, thinking about nutritional value, taking the time to savor your food, and creating regular habits around your meals.

According to the Guardian, the weight loss effects of mindful eating have been provenby a recent study. You probably don’t realize how much food you consume mindlessly, so this can be an extremely useful exercise in figuring out where you are going wrong in your eating habits. It’s also extremely positive, as it helps you eat better and eat less by focusing on enjoying food more, rather than less.

What all of these tips have in common is that they are about adjusting your perspective on diet. The conversation and culture around weight loss has been unproductive – and sometimes, even dangerous – for many years, and it is important that people understand that. Weight loss is a great way to get healthier and to feel better about yourself, but it needs to be done in a responsible way. By combining this attitude with regular exercise, you can achieve your long-term goals in a way that enriches your life rather than making it harder.

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