Changing Your Diet:
Switching to Low Glycemic Index Foods

Slow and steady wins the race. The same applies to any sensible approach to weight loss diets.

Making the all important change and switching to low glycemic index foods and being mindful of what you eat is initially difficult.

But, in addition to helping you lose weight, eating more of lower glycemic foods over what you eat normally can also really make you feel more energetic and improve your overall health.

The trick is to slowly but surely start bringing in lower glycemic index foods into your diet; and your chances of success will greatly increase. Before you know it, you will be feeling better about yourself.

Why Making a Change is Difficult

Old habits die hard. The odds are that your eating habits have become ingrained within your lifestyle. Often, this happens to the best of us and is sometimes related to changes in our own day to day activities, and it creeps up and becomes a bad habit before we even realize it.

As a result, changing old eating habits require a lot of will power and a strong and burning desire for a new life. It is not easy but can be done, if you understand that there is no one approach to achieving your end point. Many do not recognize that and that is why they fail on good diets.

Let us be practical. There is generally just two ways to make a change of old bad habits.

Either you make a drastic change and stop bad habits all at once or make a slow and gradual change.

The one you should choose is the one that gives you the highest chance of succeeding, and it will depend on the kind of person you are.

So, the question is what kind of change in behavior modification is right for you to achieve your goal and desire to lose weight and feel better?

Drastic Changes in Diet

If you are one of those people that need to go “cold turkey” in letting go of bad habits, then the drastic approach is best for you.

The advantage of this is that it gets rid of a bad habit right away. There is no temptation by going slowly and half way. However, going “cold turkey” has its downside of a strong craving for the old.

The best way to make the change is start after you have either reduced completely your stock of the foods you want to completely avoid and also reduced the foods you want to eat less of.

It is simply taking away the temptations around the house. Or you could simply give it away, or even more drastic, throw it away, although I am not a proponent of throwing food into the trash.

Once you have achieved the state of not having the foods you want to avoid around the house and less of the foods you want to reduce eating, go through the glycemic index list and make a grocery list of foods with low glycemic numbers, and that you like and will eat.

Now it’s time to use your new list and stock up on low glycemic index foods that are good for you and your health.

Your new pantry gives you a better chance to stop eating the bad foods for you, and start eating the good foods. Obviously, your own determination and perseverance is key, especially since it is easy to cheat. What this does is give a better chance to make the quick change you are looking for.

Gradual Changes in Diet

If you are one of those that cannot take the drastic method, and prefer the slow and steady approach, then a gradual change to your eating habits is the way to go.

You avoid the downside to the drastic approach, avoid the withdrawal symptoms that many face, and it is not all or nothing game.

On the other hand, the gradual approach is not always as easy as it appears.

With a gradual change in diet, it is easy to be tempted by the foods around you that you should be reducing. However, it may be better for you based on your personal likes and dislikes and how you have handled other bad habits you changed in the past.

The good news is that slow and steady can win the race, as long as you are disciplined and continue making progress with the change.

One trick, when you go food shopping, is to buy at least one item on your low glycemic index list and eliminate one item on your high glycemic list. In due course, you will find that it will become easier and easier to make the change you want.

Why Make the Change?

Let’s face it; changing old habits are not easy. It is hard. What we eat and how much we eat is part of our lifestyle. Changing that is a lifestyle change. If it was easy, no one would be overweight.

Just be mentally ready to make the change, in addition to the physical changes you are making.

It can help if you visualize every day your goal and end result, and what it can mean to you. In switching to low glycemic index foods, you will be rewarded eventually with not only a better weight and a healthier body, but also a better life.

Pick up a copy of the Stop Failing Diets ebook to help you start your weight loss plan.

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