What is the Healthiest Way to Lose Weight?
This is a question weight conscious people ask time and again!
So here is a short report featuring 50 top tips to help you lose weight
naturally and fast.
At first glance, this list may appear a little daunting.
However the important thing to remember is that to make big changes in your
weight, you only have to make a few small changes at a time, until your ideal
weight is achieved and maintained.
Never forget successful weight loss is about LIFESTYLE CHANGE not crash
dieting, which all of us know, never works in the long run.
So work through the suggestions, one at a time and try to pick just a couple of
ideas that you can TAKE ACTION on now, and then come back in a couple of
days and pick a few more.
OK … So you want to know how to lose weight naturally and fast?
…. well here goes:.
1. Drink Plenty of Water.
Our body needs lots of water … so give it water! Water is not just a way to
flush out toxins and impurities. If you have more water in your system you will
generally feel healthier, and less hungry. Dehydration is also a major cause of
headaches and migraine. And of coarse, water has no calories at all!
As soon as you wake up, have a glass of water. It’s a wonderful way to start
your day and you only need a small glass with your breakfast after that.
Drinking lots of water cleanses your stomach and digestive system. You may
have your morning cup of tea but stick to water after that.
2. Stay away from sweetened bottled drinks...
especially sodas. All those colas and fizzy drinks are sweetened with tons of
sugar and sugar means calories! They are also full of chemicals … flavour
enhancer's, colouring, preservatives etc. The more you can cut out sweetened
bottled and canned drinks and the more water you drink, the better you will
feel.
3. Include in your diet fresh food that contains more water
(eg tomatoes and watermelons). Some foods contain 90 to 95 % water so
you can feast on them without adding pounds to your waistline!
4. Eat fresh fruit instead of drinking fruit juice.
Juice is often sweetened either with sugar or artificial sweeteners, whereas
fresh fruit only contains natural sugar (sucrose). When you eat fruit, you are
also taking in a lot of fibre and vitamins, essential for a healthy body.
5. Increase your fibre intake.
Your body needs fibre (sometimes called roughage) to assist digestion.
Soluble fibre is found in varying quantities in all plant foods, including:
·peas, soybeans and beans
· oats, rye, chia and barley
· prune juice, plums, berries, bananas, apples and pears
· broccoli, carrots and antichokes, sweet potatoes and onions.
Sources of insoluble fibre include:
· whole grain foods
· wheat and corn bran
· nuts and seeds
· potato skins
· flax and hemp seed
· lignans
· green beans, cauliflower courgette's, celery and nopal.
· avocado and bananas
· kiwifruit and tomatoes.
6. Go crazy on vegetables.
Vegetables (like water) are another “secret weapon” when it comes to losing
weight fast. Leafy green vegetables are your best bet. Try to eat, as much
salad in your diet as you can … you will feel so much healthier if you do!
7. Eat intelligently.
The difference between man and beast is that we are driven by intelligence
while beasts are driven by instinct. Don’t just eat something because you feel
like eating it. Ask yourself whether your body really needs this piece of food at
this time … discipline and will power are your keys to long term success.
8. Control that sweet tooth.
Remember, sweet things nearly always mean more calories. It is natural that
we have cravings for sweet things especially chocolates and other
confectionary. However, take this weight loss tip seriously … go easy on
sugary things and each time you consume something sweet understand that
there will be a price to pay!
9. Set Fixed Times to have meals and stick to it.
Try to have food at fixed times of the day. You can stretch these times by half
an hour, but anything more than that is going to affect your eating pattern.
The result will be that famished feeling that puts your diet under pressure and
could result in you “breaking” and stuffing yourself with loads of “bad food”!
10. Avoid snacking between meals.
Do not fall into the trap of constantly snacking between meals. This is
especially true for those of us who have to travel a lot. We may feel that the
only way we can get a bite to eat is to use café snacks and junk food. The
main problem here is that most snacks and junk food are full of fat, sugar, salt
and saturated oils. Just think … those French fries may look tempting but they
are terrible nutritionally speaking.
11. Snack on vegetables.
You will get pangs of hunger in between meals. However this is something
that you can control very well. Carry with you a good supply of “snack –
vegetables”! Try munching on carrots. They are an excellent way to satisfy
hunger pangs and are also very good for your eyes and teeth. True, you might
end up being called Bugs Bunny, but its miles better than being called fatso!
12. Go easy on tea and coffee.
Tea and coffee are pretty harmless in themselves but when you add the
milk/cream and the sugar … thats when they become fattening. Did you know
that having a cup of tea or coffee with cream and two cubes of sugar is as bad
as having a big piece of rich chocolate cake!
13. Try to stick to black tea or coffee.
Black tea or coffee is good for you. But personally I would recommend tea
rather than coffee. The excess caffeine in coffee is potentially harmful, (esp if
you drink a lot of it) because it is an alkaloid that affects other functions of
your body and metabolism.
14. Count the calories as you eat.
This is a basic but frequently forgotten tip. These days you can get a good
idea of what calories are in most food items, as packaged foods tend to have
the calorie content printed on them.
15. Burn out those extra calories by the end of the week.
If you feel that you have consumed more calories than you should have
during the week, then make sure that you work off those extra calories by the
end of the week. A momentary lapse is not the end of the world. Remember,
this is a LIFESTYLE CHANGE not a rigid crash diet.
16. Stay away from fried things.
Fried things are an absolute no-no. The more you stay away from the frying
pan, the more weight you will lose! Fried food is generally bad because it is
fried in oil or fat. And even if the external oil is drained away, there is still a lot
of oil and fat absorbed by the food itself. So stay away from it.
17. Do not skip meals.
One of the worst things that you can do while watching your diet is skip meals.
Contrary to what you might think, missing meals is bad as it disrupts your
metabolism, creates terrible hunger pangs (increasing the likelihood that you
will “break” and start snacking) and if repeated over a long period of time, will
send your body into “starvation mode”. Try to have at least three regular
healthy meals every day.
18. Fresh vegetables are better than cooked or canned vegetables.
Try to eat your vegetables raw. When you cook them, you are in fact taking
much of the goodness and vitamins out of them. And canned vegetables are
processed which means that the food industry will have added all the usual
“food demons” (sugar, salt, hydrogenated oils, artificial flavourings etc). When
you buy your vegetables its also good to see if the label says “pesticide free”.
19. Not more than one egg a day.
Depending on your metabolism type, too many eggs may not be such a bright
idea. For most people, it’s best to reduce your intake of eggs to maybe three
or four a week. But for those of you die hard egg fans, you may have up to
one egg a day but nothing more than that.
20. Make chocolate a luxury and not a routine.
Chocolate is not a part of your new healthy diet! Even bitter (black) chocolates
are not particularly good for you because even though the sugar is less, there
is still cream in them. Milk chocolate is full of sugar and cream. So avoid.
21. If you can say no to alcoholic beverages please do.
Alcoholic beverages are not good for you. Beer is definitely fattening and most
other alcoholic drinks are full of sugar and adversely affect your liver if not
drunk in moderation. The other issue of course, is the fact that the most
important ingredient in your achieving your target weight is WILL POWER.
You have done a fantastic job walking past your favourite Chinese takeaway
all week, but will you still be able to do so after a few drinks with your pals …
who are all of coarse piling in there to order huge curries!
22. Try to have breakfast within one hour of waking.
It’s always best to have a good breakfast within an hour of waking so that your
body can charge itself with the energy it needs for the day. The idea is not to
wait until you get really hungry and then end up snacking. Breakfast is
acknowledged as the most important meal of the day but it is often the meal
many people neglect the most.
23. 50 to 55% of your diet should be carbohydrates.
It is a myth that you should try and avoid carbohydrates when you are on a
diet. Rather the other way round I say. Carbohydrates are a ready source of
energy and so 50 to 55% of your diet should be carbohydrates.
24. 25 to 30% of your diet should be proteins.
Various processes and activities are continually going on in our bodies.
Things are broken down and being built back up again. Resistance to disease
has to be built up, recovery from illness too is needed and for all this the body
needs plenty of proteins. So see to it that 25 to 30 % of your diet consists of
proteins.
25. Fats should only be 10 to 15 % of your diet.
You need only this much of fat so keep it at that.
26. Try and adopt a vegetarian diet.
A vegetarian diet is undoubtedly better for those of us watching our weight ...
even if it is only temporary. There are a lot of big advantages in keeping to a
vegetarian diet but this is a subject outside the scope of this report. If you
can’t go totally “veggie”, make a non- vegetarian diet a weekend event or
something special rather than the norm.
27. Choose white meat rather than red.
If you must have your meat, white meat, which includes fish and fowl, is miles
better than red meat, which includes beef and pork for those of us trying to
lose weight.
28. High Fibre multigrain breads are better than white breads.
Remember how important it is to increase the fibre content of your food; well
this is one way that you can. Multigrain breads are not only far superior in
terms of fibre but also have much better protein content as well.
29. Reduce your intake of pork.
Pork is not something that can help you to lose weight. The fattiness of pork is
the reason. So the less pork you eat the better. And remember that pork
includes pork products, things like bacon, ham and sausages.
30. Limit your sugar intake.
Sugar is public enemy number one for people trying to lose weight, and part
of the “unholy trinity” of sugar, salt and hydrogenated oils. These three
demons wreck havoc with our healthy eating strategies. Avoid all three as
much as possible.
31. Graze 5 to 6 times a day.
Instead of sticking to just three meals a day, try grazing. Grazing means
having 5 or 6 smaller meals instead of three king sized meals. It is an
excellent way of getting your stomach used to smaller quantities of food and
should mainly consist of fresh fruit and vegetables.
32. Go ahead cheat … but only occasionally!
There are many things, which you should avoid when sticking to your new
healthy lifestyle. However we all suffer from the “fallen flesh” from time to
time, and one piece of Grandma’s chocolate cake won’t kill you! But make
these occasional indulgences the exception rather than the rule and try to
make up for it by eating fewer calories throughout the rest of the day.
33. Go easy on Salt.
As mentioned (in 30) too much salt is very harmful and one of the major
causes of obesity. Make a point of really cutting down on salt. Read the labels
for cans and other processed food, and restrict the amount you use in
cooking.
34. Change from Margarine to reduced fat or cholesterol free butter.
Margarine is arguably one of the unhealthiest foods you can eat and is full of
chemicals. Modest portions of reduced fat natural butter are much better than
margarine and other artificial butter substitutes.
35. Instead of frying try baking without fat.
Baking is by far a healthier method of preparing food than frying. Baking
requires less oil or fat.
36. Use a non-stick frying pan for your cooking...
so that you do not have to add oil. The golden rule is to try and avoid as much
oil and fat as possible and a non-stick frying pan is a great help in this regard
when cooking.
37. Boil your vegetables instead of cooking them ...
or even better, eat them fresh. However if you do not like eating your
vegetables as they are, try steaming them without adding anything at all. This
is probably the healthiest way to eat cabbages, cauliflowers and a host of
other vegetables.
38. Carry parsley with you.
Parsley is an excellent vegetable to munch on in between meals. Not only is it
good for you in terms of vitamins, but it is also a perfect way of making your
breath fresher!
39. Choose low fat substitutes or no fat substitutes.
Fat is in modern food by the bucket load, and even though we need a
moderate amount of fat in our diet, its intake needs to be carefully regulated.
Remember, our bodies need nutrients and not just calories. Fats give us
nutrients but with more calories than proteins or carbohydrates.
40. God gave us teeth for a reason.
We should develop a habit of chewing all of our food properly. This is
essential to add saliva to the food, and saliva ensures that that sugar is
digested, as it should be.
41. Dry wine is better than sweet wine.
Sweet wines naturally contain a lot of sugar. On the other hand, with dry
wines most of this sugar has been fermented away, so from the weight loss
point of view, dry wines are better.
42. When you decide it’s time to start working out, start slowly.
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t achieve your fitness goals after the first
week! Many people make the mistake of thinking that if they really push their
bodies through exercise, they can lose tons of weight in a couple of frantic
workouts. This is quite dangerous in fact, because if you push your body too
far in the early stages, you are likely to end up with sprained joints, a sore
back, torn ligaments and a host of other painful injuries. Slow and steady
wins the race!
43.Check your weight before you start the routine
Do not expect a radical change immediately. It might be one or two weeks
before you notice any changes. However it is crucial that you continue to
monitor your weight. Celebrate small victories! View even the loss of a few
pounds as a big achievement!
44. When you do notice a change, reward yourself.
When we say reward we do not mean go and eat a shed load of chocolate
and sweets! Maybe you could go to the movies or buy yourself something
nice like a new dress or a trinket. This is the kind of reward system that will
keep you going. Save on the money that you wanted to spend on ice creams
and chocolates and treat yourself to something more substantial!
45. You can take a day off from exercise every week.
This is not just a weight loss tip but it is part of the exercise routine. Your body
needs a day off from an exercise routine so do not hesitate to take a day off
from what ever you have been doing.
46. Exercise out of doors as far as possible.
There are two advantages of doing this. One is that it gives your body a
chance to get much needed fresh air and sunshine. The second advantage is
that pleasant surroundings keep you perked up and motivated … a good
positive mental attitude is key to executing a successful weight loss program.
47. Use reliable exercise information.
Extensive research has been done on the subject of exercise and plenty of
information is freely available. Browse the net or get a book or two on the
subject from your local library. Read only authorities and respected sources.
Key information would include detailed nutritional advice as well how much
you need to exercise each day in order to burn off the desired number of
calories.
48. Be careful with expensive gym memberships.
Gyms are fine but many simple and highly beneficial exercise routines can
be done at home or in the park. Walking and swimming are simple and cheap
ways to get started.
49. Try to get somebody to exercise along with you.
Teach your new weight loss tips to others and get an “exercise companion” if
possible. But make sure it is somebody who is positive and supports your
endeavours, as a critical person or even an apathetic or indifferent companion
can do much damage to that all-important positive mental attitude. There will
be days when you feel just too lazy to crawl out of bed in the mornings. On
such days, the knowledge that some body is waiting for you outside is enough
to get you out of bed and get going with some healthy exercises!
50. Stop when your body has had enough.
There is no sense in pushing it too far. When you have worked out for a
considerable time, your body will start giving you signals. Heed those signals.
This is particularly true in the early stages. Take one step at a time. Stop
when you are out of breath or when a part of your body tells you that it has
had enough!
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