You CAN Lose Weight Without “Starving”
The other day, one of my weight-loss clients told me that she’d been “starving” while waiting for lunchtime to come around.
Of course, she didn’t mean that she was literally starving. She was just trying to say she was feeling “especially hungry.”
But I always discourage people I work with from using that word, because — aside from being insensitive to the fact that lots of people really ARE starving — it just creates a terrible mindset for anyone who’s trying to eat purposefully and lose weight.
Whenever you say that you’re starving (even in jest), some part of you begins to panic. And that feeling of panic can lead to bad decisions — like choosing to eat the next thing in sight.
And when the next thing in sight is a bag of chips or a sugary snack — that’s a choice that won’t help you reach your weight-loss goals and probably won’t even alleviate your hunger for long.
So before switching into panic mode, I advise my clients to take a breath — and instead of saying “I’m starving” say “I’m okay. I’m just hungry and I need to eat something.”
I always tell them to start by drinking water first (because hunger is very often dehydration in disguise!) and to remind themselves of WHY they’re trying to lose weight.
After that, it takes them just a few extra minutes to think of a healthy, filling option that will satisfy their hunger, nourish their bodies, and still help them reach their weight-loss goals.
Remember, you’re always in control of the food you eat — that’s an amazingly liberating idea!
Learn to eat because you’re hungry — not because you’re “starving” — and you’ll take a giant step down the path to a positive weight loss and mindset.
Be sure to try my new nutrition program — the 2B Mindset — available now on BODi.
It’s a healthy approach to weight loss that shows you how to coexist with food in real-world situations, outsmart your cravings, and manage setbacks before they even occur.
Best of all, it is designed to help you feel full and satisfied after every meal — so you can lose weight happily and learn to keep it off for good.
Ilana Muhlstein, MS, RDN, created the 2B Mindset as a way to help herself lose 100 pounds — and keep it off — after years of unsuccessful dieting.
After becoming a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, she refined her breakthrough approach to healthy eating into a system simple enough for everyone to learn. To date, hundreds of her private-practice clients have successfully lost weight using the same powerful principles she developed for herself.
Today, she’s excited to share those secrets with anyone who wants to lose weight without feeling hungry or deprived — with the 2B Mindset.