It’s a fact.  80-90% of weight loss is a healthy diet.  Where people (I used to be one of them) fail is that they try to do too much too quickly.  Who can blame you?  With headlines like this:

Kim Kardashian looks great! But how many times do we see "Lost 5 pounds in 5 days" or "Lose a dress size in one week?"

Often,these fad diets that these celebrities go on cut out entire food groups, which is not sustainable and definitely not healthy.  Habit is not destroyed in 5 days, so as soon as you start eating those carbohydrates that you eliminated for a short period once again, the weight will come back on. 

Speaking of habit, I’ve had my history of them.  Many pounds ago when I made the life decision to change my naughty eating ways, I had one bad habit in particular: Ice Cream!  Oh boy, I loved a big bowl of ice cream.  Now like a guy who smokes, I don’t even look twice at it.  Shortly after cutting out this indulgence, I lost even more weight.  I can see why!!! Here’s the skinny on Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream: 180 calories per 1/2 cup serving, 6 grams of saturated fat (<—the bad evil kind of fat), 20 grams of sugar.

I used to be crazy in love with homemade vanilla ice cream!

So, as soon as I got over my wicked obsession with Blue Bell, I traded it in for a love of yogurt, the first being Dannon Activia in Vanilla flavor.  Here’s the skinny on Activia: 110 calories per 1/2 cup serving, 1.5 grams of saturated fats, 17 grams of sugar.

Chocolate. Ohhhh a girl’s best friend, next to a cute pair of heels and diamonds of course.  The next bad habit to break for me was dark chocolate covered blueberries.  Of all kinds of chocolate, dark chocolate is the best for you, and blueberries are great as well.  However, it’s best to have them fresh instead of in the dried fruit form.  Dried fruit is often loaded with sugar. Here’s the skinny on Dark Chocolate Covered Blueberries: 170 calories per 1/4 cup serving, 4.5 grams of saturated fats, 22 grams of sugar. 

Then, I heard my favorite doctor in America, Dr. Oz talk about greek yogurt on his TV show. 
You won’t see TV commercials for it, because it’s not like other yogurts.  It is not loaded with sugars and processed flavors that make it so sweet and thus sell better in stores.  It’s very thick, creamy, and good! Here’s the skinny on Oikos Greek Yogurt: 65 calories per 1/2 cup serving, 0 grams of saturated fat, 4.5 grams of sugar.  It has all the live cultures that Activia has, but 13 less grams of sugar!
Currently, I’m at a point where I’m in love with nut butters, specifically almond and cashew butters.  They are delish.  However, you gotta watch the calories on those things.  Here’s the skinny on MaraNatha Almond Butter: 180 calories per 2 tbsp, 15 grams of monounsaturated fats (<—the good fats!)
I’ve come across a great substitute for high calorie, high fat nut butter.  I’ve ordered it online and it should be here next week!  So look out for a review. The take away is making little changes in your diet over time will lead to permanent weight loss, not making drastic changes in two weeks.  Be patient and embrace exactly where you are because it’s always a beautiful place to be. 
  
Have you made small changes  in order to break through weight loss plateaus?  What are your guilty pleasures/bad habits that you are trying to cut out?
xoxo MarathonSweetheart
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