It’s frustrating when your body won’t change.
If you’re exercising regularly and still not seeing results then it’s time that you look closely at your diet.
One of the biggest obstacles that prevents you from losing fat and getting into awesome shape is all that processed food that you’re still eating.
Here are the top five ‘healthy’ processed foods that you’re eating that are killing your results and keeping you from attaining your goal weight:
1. Healthy Cereal
Have you seen the cereal aisle at the natural foods market? Its shelves are lined with dozens of cereal boxes, all with bold health claims. There are gluten free cereals, cereals with no corn syrup, cereals with heart healthy grains, cereals with whole grains and even cereals with added vitamins.
Those all sound healthy, right? Well, sure those cereals are technically not as harmful as the brightly coloured cereals from the supermarket, but as far as your fat loss results are concerned, the two are really about the same.
Cereal is a dense source of calories, which means it’s almost impossible not to overdo it when enjoying a bowl (I know I do!!). If your goal is to lose fat, then cereal, even organic, gluten free cereal, should stay off your daily menu.
2. Healthy Packaged Snacks
Popcorn, and other crunchy, packaged ‘health’ food snacks are filled with carbohydrates and calories. Two things that you should be cutting back on when working towards a fitness goal.
The fact about packaged snack foods: No matter what benefits are broadcasted on the package, it’s always going to promote fat storage.
3. Healthy Energy Bars
The energy bar aisle at the health food store is a colourful, wonderland of beautifully packaged, seemingly healthful snacks. The bars contain nuts, fruits, protein and even goji berries. What’s not to love?
All that sugar, for starters. Manufacturers are clever enough to call sugar ‘evaporated can juice’ or ‘natural cane sugar’ or even ‘rice syrup’ but that sugar reacts in your body just the same as any other sugar. It encourages fat storage.
The next time that you reach for an energy bar, consider all of the calories and sugars.
4. Healthy Bread
Have you ever spent time in the bread aisle, reading labels and trying to figure out which is the healthiest? It can be pretty confusing. There’s wheat, whole wheat, gluten free, and sprouted grain. How can you tell what’s the healthiest?
The unfortunate news, for all you bread lovers, is that when it comes to losing centimetres, all bread is a problem. You see, gluten-free bread is filled with just as many calories and carbohydrates as wheat bread or sprouted grain bread.
Your body will convert that healthy bread into fat quicker than you can say ‘burpee’.
5. Healthy Trail Mix
Trail mix is a tricky one for healthy food shoppers. It’s made with nuts and seeds, which we know to be healthy. It’s also often dotted with chocolate, sweetened dried fruits or other treats.
Nuts can belong in a fat loss diet, within certain parameters. For example, a small handful of raw almonds makes a wonderful in-between-meals snack. It’s filled with fibre, protein, good fat, vitamins and minerals.
Never take a packaged food item based on the claims and benefits printed on the labels.
When you’re looking to transform your body, you must guard what goes into your mouth. Packaged foods, even those from the health store, are going to derail your results every single time.
Nothing beats natural foods. Stay away from the processed items.
By Scott Williams
CrossFit Coach and Founder of
Succeed Personal Development &
Succeed Overhaul
www.succeedoverhaul.com
