5 Foods That Are Messing Up Your Diet and Hard Work

These items that are high in sugar and low in nutrients will just leave you feeling hungry and tired and will ruin all the hard work you've put in to changing your body. Here are a few suggestions that you can use to replace the bad with the good.

1. Fatty Appetizers
Diet mistakes can begin even before your entree arrives and are especially troublesome for a hungry palate. Avoid starters such as fried cheese, chicken fingers and piled-on-high nachos. Instead, look for a light soup or salad to take the edge off your hunger without saturating your taste buds with grease and salt.

2. Pre-Packaged Dinners
Melted meals or stuffed sides can be very high in calories. Dense and concentrated, a one-meal splurge will leave you with a hard to recover rehab for the rest of the week. Instead, go for meals that are jammed with high volume, high fiber veggies and are based on lean proteins like fish or chicken.

3. Bags of Chips
These light-as-a-feather bags of carbs have the natural water content of the food replaced by fat from frying. Couple that with the "I can't eat just one" seasoning to inflict maximum carnage in the impossible-to-put-down bag of heavy calorie air. Go for crunch in raw veggies and use low fat dressing to hold you until mealtime.

4. High-Calorie Beverages
Frappes and smoothies are at the top of the list of weighty ways to stay hydrated. For a healthy hydrating option try water with infused ingredients like citrus or berry juice for added flavor. Herbs like mint and ginger refresh are also great to add to water and are calorie free!

5. Sweets
When the going gets tough, sugar gets going. Sweets can coat your blood cells with sticky sugar and cause chaos. No matter how full you feel, your brain will override this when sweets are in the picture. Try to finish your meal with fruit or a small piece of chocolate.