We have never known as much about food as we do today. There is something about healthy eating in almost every magazine, TV shows educate us about food and healthy living, nutrition guides and flyers are available in drugstores, grocery stores and doctors' surgeries - and as a result, we actually know what is healthy and what is not. How to lose weight successfully and what we should avoid.

But do we really know?

Have you ever felt like a failure because you eat so healthily and do everything right and still don't lose weight? Does it sometimes make your head spin when one friend swears by light products and the next puts butter on her bread because fat is supposed to make you slim? Or your naturopath warns you against dairy products and your doctor recommends drinking more milk for your bones?

I have to admit - sometimes I get a bit confused by all the information. Mainly because I'm not necessarily the scientifically minded type, and when someone hits me over the head with some study results and figures, I sometimes don't know at first whether nuts, for example, are healthy or not!

My motto is: don't let yourself be driven crazy, let common sense prevail and don't forget that we all have different metabolisms. What works great for me doesn't necessarily have to be good for you.

Maybe the word error annoys you. And I don't like to talk about mistakes either. But in this case, I just wanted to put into words a little drastically what I see so often and what simply makes me sad. Sad because I see someone making an effort and then giving up in frustration because it doesn't work.

It seems like a waste of time to me. And it misleads other people who then say: "See, it's no use anyway. So I'm not even going to start."

I then think to myself: "If only people knew a few basic things about nutrition and metabolism, they wouldn't have so much trouble losing weight."

So here are the 8 things I consider to be the biggest mistakes when losing weight - or actually when switching to a healthy and beneficial diet in general:

Mistake number 1: You rely on your willpower to lose weight

I keep hearing: If I had more discipline, then losing weight would work.

This is a misconception. Discipline or willpower is not unlimited. Willpower is a kind of power source in our body, similar to a cell phone battery. When the battery is fully charged, willpower helps me to do (or not do) the things I set out to do.

And you know what happens when you use your cell phone excessively and can't charge it in between: suddenly the battery indicator flashes like crazy and poof - your cell phone is off.

Every dayyou make decisions that require your willpower. No, I'm not going to take the croissant my colleague offers me. Yes, I will go to the gym at lunchtime, as I had planned. No, I'll resist the temptation to stop at the kiosk on the way to my daughter's school and grab a chocolate bar.

The more incidents like this that occur during the day that require your willpower, the faster your battery drains. But even normal activities like making decisions meeting, completing tasks and staying focused, or negative feelings such as anxiety and being overwhelmed, drain our battery reserves.

Sleeping recharges our willpower battery - which is why we often have more willpower in the morning than in the evening! Do you now realize why you suddenly can't resist watching TV, especially at 8.30 pm, even though you've held out so bravely all day? We'll show you how you can promote healthy sleep in another blog article.

Incidentally, another aggravating factor that completely drains your battery in no time at all is when your blood sugar is at rock bottom. Then your willpower disappears faster than you can look.

Mistake number 2: You underestimate the addictive factor of refined foods

food, i.e. food that is eaten as it is grown, has virtually no addictive effect.

But things like white sugar, white flour, rice cakes, pasta, potato chips and so on are no longer real food. The author Michael Pollan describes them as edible, food-like substances.

And these are empty, don't have enough nutrients, don't fill us up, but taste "like more".

It has already been proven that such refined products stimulate the same areas of the brain as cocaine. Like a drug! And food can also be a kind of drug that calms you down, numbs you, soothes you or even makes you a little indifferent.

That's why it makes so much sense to treat such products as addictive substances and avoid them completely if you want to lose weight. But also: that you deal with things other than food, which also have a huge impact on your well-being.

Because if you are frustrated at work, unhappy in your relationship or angry with your parents, then you will often find it difficult not to comfort yourself with food (or drink).

Mistake number 3: You approach things too hesitantly

No matter where I am, there's one sentence I hear almost without fail when it comes to healthy eating. "I'll eat anything, as long as I don't overdo it with the quantities."

And this is exactly the attitude that is often used when losing weight. You still want to enjoy life, not give up anything completely, and so I often see people who want to lose weight not eating anything sweet all day, but then in the evening they simply "have to" have a piece of chocolate. Or they eat bread in the morning and then "give up carbohydrates" all day, only to drink their glass of wine in the evening.

If your goal is really to lose weight, then I recommend that you make a strict change, at least for the first 14 days. With fixed rules and no exceptions.

Firstly, it's much easier to change your habits this way and you're much more likely to stick to what you've set out to do (see mistake number 1). Secondly, you'll achieve success much more quickly, so your motivation is higher and it's much more fun. And thirdly, there is a much higher chance that you will break away from your addictive behavior.

Mistake number 4: You rely too much on calories

The The popular belief is that I only need to eat fewer calories than I burn and then I will automatically lose weight. This may sound logical, but it doesn't work in practice because calories are not just calories. More important than counting calories is to consider the effects of food on my metabolism.

And if you want to lose weight, it is particularly important that you eat things that result in a low sugar release. This is because high sugar levels lead to high insulin levels and insulin prevents fat breakdown and promotes fat storage.

Mistake number 5: You eat too much fruit

"Fruit is healthy and has no calories. That's why I can eat as much as I want and not put on weight."I hear this statement all the time.

However, fruit also contains sugar and if sugar increases your insulin secretion, then excessive fruit consumption also makes you fat. Also, not everyone tolerates fruit equally well, and a belly bloated by fruit makes you look fatter than you actually are. My colleague Romy has even written a book about this called "Fruit Bulge".

My recommendation: if you want to lose weight, limit your fruit consumption to 2-3 portions a day (and one portion is equivalent to a handful)! It's best to eat fruit with a meal and not in between! Because mistake number 3 is:

Mistake number 6: You eat too often

In the past, and sometimes still today, it was recommended that you eat 5-6 meals a day so that you never get hungry. In reality, however, we can easily go 4-5 hours without food without collapsing from hunger.

The important thing is simply to make sure that you eat filling foods that contain enough protein and fat and slow carbohydrates that don't spike your sugar levels at the three main meals.

This is because cravings between meals don't usually occur because you haven't eaten enough, but because you have become hypoglycaemic due to high insulin levels.

Mistake number 7: You eat unconsciously or more than you think

Our mind sees what we want to see. Your mind is programmed to lose weight and only sees what you are doing for it and what you are giving up. In doing so, you may overlook the saboteurs.

Possible scenario: You are proud that you only ate a salad in the canteen at lunchtime, but at 4 p.m. you feel hungry and grab an apple. This leads you to open the packet of rice cakes at 5 pm after all. At home, you can't wait until you're sitting at the table and keep popping something in your mouth while you're cooking. After dinner you're full, but in front of the TV you get that empty feeling again and grab some healthy almonds to nibble on.

What I'm trying to say is that sometimes we think we hardly eat anything. But the reality can be different.

Why don't you write down everything you eat and drink for a few days? And pay attention to what you notice.

Mistake number 8: You drink too little or the wrong

If you want to lose weight, you should only drink water. 30-35 milliliters per kilogram of body weight. That's 2.1-2.5 liters for a 70 kg person, for example.

Water is a cleansing agent and a means of transport. It helps to remove waste products and toxins from the body and to transport nutrients to their destination.

A little coffee and tea are certainly okay too, but these are not counted as part of the fluid intake.

However, I have noticed time and again that even weight-conscious customers drink things like fruit juices, spritzers, zero sodas or milk. 3 macchiato lattes a day? That's almost a liter of milk! Milk is not a drink, even if it is liquid. Milk is a food.

1 glass of orange juice? It has the same amount of sugar as a glass of lemonade.

Diet or zero cola? The sweetener causes stress in the metabolism and confuses our signals, has an unfavorable effect on the intestinal flora, often increases food intake and hunger for sweets and is addictive and probably also fattening.

Nothing new? Move from thinking to doing!

You think these 8 points were nothing new to you? That may be! But they are exactly the things that I have often observed in my practice.

Nutrition is not difficult or complicated if you limit yourself to the most important points. And in my opinion, the most important points already account for 80% of success!

But to achieve this success, you have to walk the walk. You don't have to read about it, think about it and gather information, you just have to do it!

5 habits that sabotage your weight loss success

Sometimes it is not our diet that prevents us from losing weight, but a few habits have crept in that hinder or even make it impossible to lose weight. Here are 5 examples of these habits that sabotage weight loss success:

1. you always eat the same thing

Humans are sometimes creatures of habit. And if we like something, we prefer to eat it every day.
But even if these are particularly healthy things, such as green leafy vegetables or sunflower seeds, if we eat too much of the same thing, the body may get so used to this way of eating that it no longer reacts with weight loss (similar to training, where the body gets used to the same exercise over and over again and you then have to set new stimuli).
What can you do?

Change your menus. Eat different vegetables, try something you've never eaten before or haven't eaten for a long time, get inspired by fresh, seasonal produce at the market and simply reach for different foods when you go shopping.

This also applies to breakfast, by the way!

2. you compensate at the weekend

You take super good care of your health during the week. You bring your own food to work, you don't let yourself be tempted by the cakes on offer or the drinks machine in the office and you go to the gym regularly.

But at the weekend, you skip everything. Braid for breakfast? That's just part of the weekend! An ice cream in the afternoon? One thing's for sure, I've been watching my diet all week. Your friends are meeting up for pizza? I can't sit there and eat nothing! Everyone's drinking wine? I don't want to be a spoilsport! A weekend like this can undo our 5-day efforts during the week in a flash.


What can you do?

Treat yourself to an exceptional meal at the weekend. It's best to think about when you're going to have it, with whom and what you're going to eat. would like. Choose something that you particularly enjoy and that you may have missed a little. Incidentally, this exceptional meal even helps to keep your metabolism active and many people use it to lose weight particularly efficiently.

3. you eat standing up in the kitchen in the evening

It's late, you're hungry, you want to eat something but don't know what.... You grab a piece of cheese, a few spoonfuls of yogurt, a piece of chocolate or maybe a few nuts, an apricot and a piece of bread. You no longer feel restless and hungry, but you haven't really enjoyed the food either. In less than 5 minutes, you may have consumed more calories than you realize. And if you do this several times a week, this alone can sabotage your weight loss success.

What can you do?

Make sure you eat a filling dinner that ideally keeps you full until you go to sleep. However, if you still feel hungry before you go to bed, allow yourself to have a snack! Make a conscious decision about what you want to eat, put it on a plate, sit down comfortably and enjoy every bite of your evening snack.

4. you eat too sweet for breakfast

In the morning, you prefer to eat crunchy muesli, cornflakes, fruit yogurt or a chocolate croissant. Or you drink chocolate, orange juice or an energy drink.

Do this and don't be surprised if you have a ravenous appetite for pasta or chips at lunchtime and if you need all your willpower not to reach for the jar of sweets or buy a snack bar from the vending machine in the afternoon.

What can you do?Drink a green smoothie in the morning, eat an almond muesli, natural yoghurt with a fruit, avocado spread with some ham and a piece of rye bread or a scrambled egg with mushrooms and save the sweet breakfast for a rare exception.

Do you find it incredibly difficult to give up sugar? Then it could be that sugar addiction already has you in its grip!

5. you can't say "no" to the after-work drink

Sure, you need it! Your boss has annoyed you, your best friend's husband is a jerk and your car is acting up again. Or your work colleagues are all drinking too, you don't always want to be the only one giving up everything, you're not really losing weight anyway, so it doesn't matter now.

What can you do?

Find another way to get rid of the stress of the day! Go swimming, ride your bike, dance to your favorite song, pet your pet, call your girlfriend, take a yoga class or just cook yourself something delicious and healthy for dinner.

If you're out with your work colleagues, enjoy their company and order yourself a mineral water with lemon.

If you don't want to tell others that you're watching your figure, remember that you're not accountable to anyone and you don't have to explain why you do or don't do something. I have this quote from Christine Hassler that fits perfectly with this topic:

"No" is a complete sentence. You don't need to complete it with a reason or an excuse." ("No" is a complete sentence. You don't need to follow it with justifications and apologies.)

What are the consequences of these mistakes when losing weight?

You get back into the old rut. Perhaps gradually, but perhaps very quickly.

And with every new attempt, the frustration increases, perhaps also the disappointment with yourself. And you forget what the original reason for losing weight was.

You wanted to feel lighter. More attractive. And more self-confident. The exact opposite has happened. You might even be thinking to yourself: "I'm starting to not care anyway. It's not working anyway. I've already tried sooo much. I'll just stay the way I am."

And that's exactly where I'd like to invite you not to give up!

There are even more consequences if you don't take care of your diet. It's not just about feeling slim and attractive. Other costs of not eating a balanced, beneficial diet are:

• Chronic fatigue. And as a result: susceptibility to errors. I don't think I need to tell you what this could mean for you at work or on the road.
• Health problems. Allergies such as hay fever, digestive problems, mood swings, thyroid disorders, inflammatory processes, pain, autoimmune diseases and much more are direct consequences of nutrition. Does that sound far-fetched to you? Then think about it: everything you eat gets into your blood. Is distributed throughout the body. We incorporate or transform it. You are made up of what you have eaten.
• Financial consequences. You buy fitness subscriptions that you don't take advantage of, spend money on therapists or doctors, buy unnecessary shakes and products or even lose your job at some point because you're not fit.
• Relationship problems. You are in a bad mood, irritable, frustrated. This inevitably affects your relationship, your children and other family members. Arguments, living apart or even separation can be the result.
• Reduced quality of life. Poor nutrition reduces stress tolerance, promotes aggression and generally makes you feel unfree, as you often no longer act in a self-determined way (see mistake number 2). In addition, you probably also realize that every health problem you have also reduces your well-being. We are not made to go through life tired, sick, sad or in pain.

You can probably think of even more possible consequences. Just think about what it would mean for you personally if you didn't take care of your diet.

I admit, that was a bit of a dark tone, but I 'm tired of the fact that hardly any authority figures (teachers, doctors, artists, politicians and whoever else we have) ever honestly tell you to your face that you are harming yourself with an unfavorable diet.

It is trivialized wherever you look. But the fact that we are getting sicker and sicker as a society - what is the reason for this if not the degenerate diet of our time? But before we now If you're already moping, I've already come up with the solution: simply stop making the 8 mistakes above :-)

What you can do now

In order to avoid overstretching your willpower battery, I recommend that you set clear rules and ideally also write yourself a meal plan. Because if you know what you have to do, you won't constantly ask yourself whether you have to do a) or b). You'll always know what to do next.

To take the power out of food addiction, I recommend eating real, wholesome food. Vegetables, nuts, fish, meat, eggs, pulses, good fats. These are all foods that your metabolism knows and that allow it to send you the right signals. Cut out refined products, sugar, sweets, white flour and convenience foods and only drink water.

And last but not least: don't go too easy on yourself at the beginning, but rather follow clear rules, with no exceptions.