Weight Loss Tips
September 14, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
Losing weight is easier said than done. If you’re like most people, you’ve probably embarked on a journey that involves weight-loss plan after weight loss plan. Only to lose a little bit of weight to gain it right back. The key to losing weight and keeping off the pounds involves changing your eating habits and your lifestyle for good. Here are some weight-loss tips that will help you adopt a healthier eating plan which in turn will keep you slim and fit for life!
1. Keep a Food Diary
If you’re overweight, your current eating habits are probably the main cause. So, the best way to get a handle on what you eat and why is to keep a diary of all the food you eat. In it, you should record what you eat, how hungry you are on a scale from 1 to 10, the time you ate it and what was happening when you were eating. By doing this, you will probably discover some triggers that make you eat when you aren’t even hungry! Try to confront those things and you could have save yourself from dieting altogether.
For example, you might discover that it’s a habit to have a bagel whenever you get into the office even though you just ate breakfast and you aren’t really that hungry or you could find out that you sprint for the candy bar machine every day after your ten clock meeting because you are so stressed out. Identifying these destructive eating behaviors and taking measures to stop them can go a long way to helping you in your weight-loss efforts.
2. Limit Your Portions
The next time you have a meal, look at how much you actually eat and you’ll probably notice that you are eating huge portions and more than enough to satisfy your hunger. Try to gradually whittle the portion size down until you are eating about half what you normally would eat. The next time you eat with one of your “skinny” friends take a look at how much they put on their plate - how does that compare to what you eat?
One good tactic for this is to put the amount that you normally eat on your plate, and then cut it in half. Eat one half now and save the other half for later. If this seems too drastic for you at first, you could just cut out a quarter of what you normally have. Try to eat slower and these smaller portions of food will probably be just as satisfying as your heaping plate of food.
3. Eat More Meals
It’s a known fact that eating more meals will actually help you lose weight as long as you’re not ingesting more calories while you do it! Splitting the total amount of food you eat into five meals instead of three will help keep your metabolism revved up and you will actually burn more calories.
4. Don’t Deprive Yourself
One thing about dieting is that you often have to deprive yourself of the foods you really love to eat and this is why most people fail at dieting. Losing weight and staying slim involves changing your eating habits for life. No one wants to believe that they can never have another piece of chocolate cake. The key here is to still be able to consume your favorite foods, but in moderation. Instead of having chocolate cake every sj g,e day, treat yourself to it once a week and try eating a smaller piece and savoring every bite.
5. Find an Exercise You Love
Exercise is critical for your good health and can help you burn calories and boost your weight-loss efforts. A lot of people don’t exercise, though, because they simply don’t like it. However, there are so many different forms of exercise out there there’s sure to be one that you’ll enjoy. Walking, tennis, swimming, biking, yoga, dancing - all of these can provide you with exercise benefits. Finding exercise that you like will ensure that you stick with it and actually look forward to doing it! We recommend that you do at least 15-30 minutes of exercise a day regardless of which diet you are doing. Exercise is critical to staying healthy.