Don’t spend hundreds of dollars on some less-caloric-junk-food program. Choose a program that teaches you how to make good lifestyle choices while eating real food. The only way to make your weight loss permanent is to think of it as a healthy lifestyle, not a diet. Make weight loss less important than feeling healthier.Whole30 is a great program. You can buy the book, or just read the rules here:http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/ Here’s what you do: Spend 30 days eating lots of veggies, some fruits, and good quality proteins and fats. You don’t have to buy powders or special weird foods or anything at all. Just eat good food.Here’s what you can’t do: No added sugar, no fake sugar, no alcohol, no white potatoes, no grains, no dairy, and no legumes (that includes beans, peanuts, and all soy ingredients.) No MSG, no carrageenan, and no added sulfites. Corn is a grain – no corn. Maybe it sounds like giving up a lot, but basically, you’ll just be choosing real, nourishing foods over less-nourishing foods. You have to have access to vegetables, though. It is super important that you have veggies at every meal, along with your healthy source of protein. And remember, your protein should be coming from food, not expensive synthesized powders and weird food replacements. Eat real food!It’s hard in a dining hall setting where someone else makes all the food and your options are limited. Usually, the dining hall food is full of soy, grains, dairy, and sugar. These foods are all inflammatory for many people. They are also not very nutritionally dense. Lots of calories, not a lot of vitamins-per-calorie, so they’re not satisfying. Food that has a lot of calories but doesn’t satisfy makes you eat more, and also wrecks your metabolism. No wonder most people gain weight at college! But it’s possible to make the best choices you can while at college. Always choose as many veggies as you can. Is there a salad bar? Make your own dressings, and eat a salad at every meal. Choose the protein-rich option from the hot line, skip the grains, and load up on veggie sides. Find out how the dining hall cooks the food. Ask about the oils, broths, and sauces they use. If you have access to a real kitchen, make as much of your food from scratch as you can.If you order the book that goes with the Whole30 (It Starts With Food) you will find not just the science and other reasons behind following this plan for 30 days, but also a plan for transitioning back out. One by one, you test how you respond to individual off-plan foods, and determine if and how often you want to eat them. For example, after completing thirty days without dairy, grains, sugar, legumes, alcohol, or additives, you might test how you react to dairy. You add dairy foods, but at first, not any of the other off-plan foods. See how you feel over the course of a couple days. Then stop eating dairy, and test a different food. Test rice, and see how you feel. Stop eating rice, and test a different food. You may find that you feel phlegmy when you eat dairy, depressed when you eat wheat, bloated when you eat soy, but just fine when you eat a bowl of rice. You may find that none of the off-plan foods makes you feel any specific bad way, exactly… Just that you feel somehow better without them. Or you may not feel any different with or without any specific foods, as long as you eat mostly cleanly, most of the time.This is just one example of a good plan – choose one that fits you. The most important thing is that it be something you can do with the resources available to you. Make sure it’s a plan with real food, not fake food. And make sure it teaches you how to transition back off of it. And don’t forget to take care of yourself in other ways – get plenty of rest, drink lots of water, and move your body.Good luck!...
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