Be honest: you don't like to eat healthy all the time. Is that true? That's one of the most frequent questions I get! Can I never eat "xyz (insert your favorite junk food or comfort food here)" again?

Honestly: I don't always eat healthy either! But almost always. The question is: what is actually healthy? But I'll write about that elsewhere, otherwise the article will be twice as long...

Today we're going to talk about when you get the urge for an iced coffee when you're standing in front of the supermarket's chiller cabinet. Or for chips when you drive past a fast food outlet.

6 tips for losing weight without giving up

1. A stable base prevents cravings

Do you want to lose weight healthily? Or improve your gut health? After all, the question of 'sinning' often arises when you set out to eat better.

That's why I want to make it clear at the beginning of this article: If you constantly crave unhealthy or junk food, if you often struggle with cravings or cravings for sweets, then I recommend that you first build a foundation by eating a healthy everyday diet. And that means: eat "real" food and not ready-made products, stick to foods with a low impact on your sugar levels and insulin secretion, drink enough water and try to stick to three meals a day.

2. home-made beats bought

If you make so-called sins or treats yourself, you will almost always end up with something better and healthier than if you buy these things. Especially when it comes to products with dough or sweets.

Fancy some nibbles? Buy unseasoned (organic) nuts and roast them yourself in the oven with the spices of your choice. You'll save yourself things like maltodextrin, vegetable oils, sugar or low-quality salt.

Fancy some iced coffee? Buy some organic vanilla ice cream and make it yourself. I've written down the recipe for you here:

Because in addition to lots of sugar, ready-made iced coffee often contains artificial stabilizers and thickeners.

Making your own chocolate or sweet potato fries is also very easy and you'll find that it tastes even better than store-bought!

3. organic beats conventional

Sometimes people look at me the wrong way when I say that I almost only buy organic products.

But when I read labels, I often notice that organic products contain less to no "crap" than conventional products. However, that doesn't mean that organic potato chips are healthier than conventional potato chips, you just can't find certain products in acceptable quality (and I would recommend either making them yourself or enjoying them in small quantities and on rare occasions).

Where this works quite well is with chocolate, for example. Or with ice cream. Or with certain sauces. But as I said, I usually prefer to do it myself. It takes less time than you might think.

4. asking is allowed

In a restaurant, you are the paying customer - so you are allowed to ask how something is cooked or prepared.

Is the salad dressing homemade or bought? If bought, then it's better to order vinegar and oil to your table. Because store-bought salad dressing full of emulsifiers, sugar and flavor enhancers is not worth the sin. The chips are hand-cut from fresh potatoes? Why not make an exception!

You can also make your own requests. For example, that you want the meat plain, not coated in flour. Or that you would like lots of vegetables and few side dishes. Make a conscious choice of restaurants - those that cook fresh, seasonal and regional food.

5 Trends make our lives easier - but watch out!

We live in a time when more and more healthy options are available ready to buy. You can take advantage of this if you want to go low-carb, vegan, paleo or avoid sugar, for example.

However, the manufacturers of such products are of course also interested in making a profit, so it is important not to just believe the marketing and attractive packaging and thoughtlessly buy products that seem healthy.

For example, manufacturers of gluten-free diets or lactose-free products have managed to make many people perceive these foods as particularly healthy. Even though some of them contain a lot of carbohydrates or fast sugars!

But there are also more and more companies that are really thinking about how they can support us with products that promote our health and don't attack it. So it's worth taking a closer look and asking questions!

6. the crowding out effect or "crowding out"

Anyone who knows me knows that I did some of my training and work experience in the USA. And that's where I picked up the great expression "crowding out".

Paraphrased in German and put into the context of nutrition, this expression means that instead of banning everything you consider unhealthy, you prefer to eat more of what is healthy. And the more healthy things you put on your plate, the less unhealthy things there are on it.

So instead of "I'm giving up all sugar from now on", it becomes "I'm eating lots of vegetables and high-quality oils", for example. Do you know what I mean? Because if you focus on everything that you forbid yourself, then the desire for it will automatically increase. Change your focus and your behavior will automatically change with it.

Losing weight without sacrificing anything - about your inner attitude and self-love

To conclude this article, I would like to talk about a topic that is very close to my heart. And this topic has to do with why many people fall back into old patterns after successfully changing their diet. Or just don't get back into "sinning" in the ways described above.

I recently had a great conversation with my friend Hiba from Geneva, who is a psychologist and food coach. And I think that's a really great combination of skills!

In our conversation, I said that in my opinion, nutrition can be the first or most obvious domino that brings about a whole cascade of positive changes in life. The domino that triggers a positive chain reaction in our lives.

And she said that for her, this first domino is self-love or mindfulness for yourself and your needs.

I think we're both right :-) It always depends on where you are in your life at the moment. Perhaps the topic of self-love, or even more so the need for it, is too abstract for you, in which case nutrition is definitely something more tangible and, in my opinion, a good place to start.

But if you want to eat healthily in the long term and, above all, sustainably, then nutrition alone is usually not enough.

In the beginning, you usually try it with discipline. But discipline wears off at some point. And then the mindset, the inner attitude and also somehow the self-love or the will to get the best out of yourself come into play.

And it is precisely these aspects that are missing in many nutrition programs. Methods on how to eat healthily, lose weight, build muscle and so on are a dime a dozen. And don't get me wrong - knowledge is important! But knowing about nutrition alone is obviously not enough.

That's why our popular Darmglück podcast deals with topics such as rewards, motivation, sticking with it, habits and so on, in addition to step-by-step instructions on nutrition. Because we don't want short-term results but change or transformation of old patterns.

What is your opinion on this? How do you deal with the "unhealthy" food or the exceptions? Do you think your inner attitude plays a role in the success of a dietary change? What do you think is the domino that triggers a positive cascade in your life?