Have you ever been on Pinterest and been scrolling through and some random spammy looking pin promises a loss of 50 pounds in like a month? And they promise that you will achieve it by either taking some random pill or by drinking some tea or juice? Let me drop a truth bomb on you… a juice cleanse plan is not vital to weight loss.

In fact, dare I say that it could be detrimental to your weight loss?

Wait, what? Yes, girl. Listen closely.

Aren’t you tired of doing these crash diets and cleanses and then you may loose a few pounds for a few days and then gain those few pounds right back?

You’re basically getting nowhere, right?

Here’s why you’re not getting anywhere with your weight loss. It’s because you’re not learning how to eat within your body’s caloric range.

That juice cleanse plan you’re thinking about purchasing? I want you to put that out of your mind and start thinking about improving your relationship with food.

Because, you not only want to lose weight, you want to keep it off, right?

What good is it to lose the weight if you’re going to gain it all back?

It’s time to stop the back and forth. And, guess what? It’s simpler than you might think. I’m a huge fan of flexible dieting. HUGE fan.

That’s how I lost my weight  was by a caloric deficit and flexible dieting. Once I reached my goal weight, I slowly added calories back in until I reached my baseline calories and voila. I learned a lifestyle. (You can figure your baseline calories by going here)

Let’s talk about flexible dieting and why it’s so much better than a juice cleanse plan.

Here is the basis of it. Eat. Real. Food. Don’t be afraid to eat whole grain bread and don’t be afraid to eat a piece of bacon.

At the same time, don’t be afraid to eat the occasional piece of pizza. Wait. WHAT DID SHE SAY?! Yep, you heard me. Before you get too excited and think I’m telling you to eat chicken nuggets and pizza as the bulk of your diet, let’s back up a bit.

Flexible Dieting for me has been a life changer. Eat real food. That’s it.

Your chicken should be chicken and your spinach should be spinach. Don’t be afraid to eat fruit, eat lots of colorful vegetables and drink lots of water. Your water doesn’t have to be room temperature & boring all of the time mix it up! Think outside the box. Do you like coffee? Awesome, drink coffee. No, I’m not talking about 480 calorie lattes at the mother ship Starbucks. Coffee with a bit of coconut milk and Stevia Drops. Be smart, make good food choices, and find an activity you love to do to keep you in shape.

Keep in mind that flexible dieting should be the 80/20 rule. 80% of awesome, natural, and whole foods and the remaining 20% being “other”.

There’s an awesome book that walks you through this called Mini Habits for Weight Loss: Stop Dieting. Form New Habits. Change Your Lifestyle Without Suffering by Stephen Guise and he teaches his readers how to make small changes for big results.

This is the exact philosophy I used for my transformation of 60+ pounds lost from a dangerous and unhealthy pregnancy. I didn’t have this book when I started my weight loss journey.

I made myself the promise that I would eat real food, I would workout and run consistently, and I would make small decisions every day to be healthy again. Which is exactly what I did.

When I came across this awesome book, I knew it would be a great resource for you, my readers who are trying to figure out why they can’t lose and keep the weight off.

My day to day consists of real food such as meat, veggies, fruit, and complex carbs. This type of eating did not happen overnight but it was consistent small steps and decisions that helped me get to the point that I realized I didn’t want junk food everyday.

Do I have the occasional pizza? Absolutely. My pizza of choice is thin crust meat pizza, if we’re being honest.

But when I have pizza, I do NOT punish myself in the gym afterward.

Nope.

Because I have established healthy habits and it’s because I allow myself the occasional pizza and/or chocolate and ice cream that keeps me from over eating and engorging myself with junk food because I haven’t completely deprived myself of it. I just plan how and when I will allow the treat meals.

I’m a firm believer that depravity leads to overindulgence.

Personally, I have gotten to the point that I legitimately don’t want to engorge myself because I know it makes me feel bad when I do. It’ll make me feel sluggish and don’t feel well for a few days afterward.

Allowing the pizza (example) every now and then (about once a week, actually!) has made me not feel deprived and in turn has helped me get to the point that my body craves real food and the pizza (again, example) is a treat and not a staple.  It’s totally a mind thing y’all.

Changing your mindset can get you further than punishing yourself. I promise.

Confession – I used to do a juice cleanse plan all of the time because I thought that they were going to get me to my goals faster.

Girl. I can’t tell you how wrong I was. They were horrible. I was starving, the juices were lumpy and little did I know they were crammed with sugar.  But, I wanted so badly to lose the weight that I did them anyway.

It was when I was finally educated on food and that food isn’t the enemy and that food actually empowers me to reach my goals that the game changed.

Guess what? Food empowers you to reach your goals when understood and used properly.

Grab that book, you won’t regret it. And for the love of pizza, stop with the juice cleanses and yo-yo diets.

Go into a caloric deficit based off your personal baseline calories, then once you reach your goal weight, refigure your baseline calories, and slowly add calories back in to your overall diet over the course of some time to allow your body to readjust and voila.

You’ve learned a new lifestyle.

Guess what? You’ve totally got this. That book will help you. It has helped several of my clients improve their relationship with food and how to use food to your advantage. You’ve got this. I believe in you!

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