" 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 100 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.
32. Watch your fat intake.
This is so important. Each fat gram contains 9 calories so by reading the total calories on a food and knowing the quantity of fat, you can estimate the % of fat, which should in no way exceed 30% of your total food intake.
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
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!
51. Give your Exercise Routine the time it deserves.
Easier said than done! Most of us have hectic schedules but if you view your new healthy lifestyle as important, you will MAKE THE TIME to exercise properly.
52. Select an exercise pattern to suit your life style.
All of us have different life styles and professions so there is no sense in trying to “follow the book” too rigidly. Try and follow an exercise routine that is suitable for you. You have to understand that even more important than the exercise itself is sticking to it. So unless you choose something that you are comfortable with and enjoy, the likelihood is your new exercise routine will fizzle out.
53. If you can walk … then do so!
Don’t use your car or public transport for short journeys. Get in the habit of walking whenever possible. Don’t stand too long in a fixed position. Pacing about is a good thing to do. If you are thinking deeply about something, try pacing about, it will aid in your thinking.
54. If you can stand, then don’t sit.
The golden rule is to choose a position that is less comfortable and keep moving about. Activity is the name of the game.
55. Don’t be a Couch Potato.
It is the easiest thing in the world to become a couch potato. You know what we are talking about don’t you! That shapeless thing that sits or reclines on a shapeless chair in front of the television and stupidly munches away at something fried! If you are inclined to become a couch potato, break the habit, cut at the very root of the vine. And do you want to know what the best way is to do that’? Take away that favourite chair of yours! In fact, it would be a very good idea if you could keep a chair that isn’t too comfortable in front of the TV.
This will discourage any tendency to spend too much time in it!
56. If you have a sitting job, stand up and stretch yourself every half an hour.
Many office jobs today are sedentary and involve very little physical movement. This is especially true for those who sit and punch away at the keyboard or the mouse all day long. So if you have such a job, make it a point to get up at least every half an hour and stretch yourself.
57. While making telephone calls try walking up and down.
It might just seem like common sense, but I’m sure you’ll agree this is that this is an excellent suggestion.
58. Use the stairs instead of the elevator.
Elevators make us very lazy. There may be no sense in trudging up twenty flights of stairs because by the time you get to the top you will be totally pooped! But what about coming down? If you have the time, you can easily come down the stairs instead of using the elevator and coming down is not at all exhausting.
59. Smoking is bad for weight loss.
Many argue that smoking contributes to weight loss, as nicotine is an appetite suppressant, However, often forgotten is that smoking leads to other conditions such as erratic eating habits and excessive dependence on things like coffee and sweets. We all know smoking is treble bad (lung cancer, heart disease etc) but it actually causes weight gain as well!
60. You don’t have to run a marathon to stay fit!
10 minutes of cardio each day is good enough for most of us. Too much running can be harmful as already mentioned.
61. How much walking should I do?
15 minutes of brisk walking a day is enough to keep most of us fit and well.
62. Any distance is walk able if I put my mind to it.
Consider walking to places that you would not normally consider. Walking to work is an obviously starting point but use your imagination. Explore sites of local interest. Get a book of good local walks from the library or surf the net for ideas. Walking should never be boring!
63. Some have reported that they lost more weight when they drank black coffee before a workout.
While there’s no hard data to support this, nutritionists speculate that the caffeine in coffee makes the body rely more on fat for fuel during the work out.
It’s worth a try!
64. Coffee can be dangerous.
Avoid drinking coffee in excess, as it tends to desensitise your body to the fat burning effects of caffeine.
65. Stop using remote controls!
Remote controls are the key tools of a couch potato and the bane of a prospective weight loser. They may be remarkable gadgets in themselves but from the weight loss point of view, they just aren’t very helpful. The same thing holds true for other remote controls as well. As it is we have remote controlled TVs, DVD players, A/Cs, garage doors, gateways and so on.
Convenient … yes. Healthy … no!
66. Don’t watch too much TV!
TV in general encourages inactivity. Now, there is nothing wrong with multi channel TV. What we strongly advocate though, is that at the very least, you get up from where you are and change the channel of the TV each time you want to watch something different!
67. Do things yourself.
Often when we come back tired from work, we tend to get others to do simple chores for us. These things are no big deal. They are things that we can very easily do for our selves but we don’t. That is why we often ask our kids to fetch us this or take away that. Similarly at work, don’t have others running around after us all the time. Increase your activity levels across the board. Do it yourself!
68. During commercial breaks walk about.
If you must sit all evening with your eyes glued to the tube, then at least spare your eyes the agony of a commercial break. When the next commercial flashes on screen, instead of sitting around, get up and take a walk. Reach over and try to touch your toes or do any such simple exercise that will at least get the blood flowing in your veins.
69. Wriggle your toes and your fingers whenever you can.
Most widely known as a stress buster, this simple exercise gives you a chance to get your hand and feet joints moving.
70. Turn on music and dance like a mad thing!
Have you got a dance mat? If not … get one! Close the door of your living room, turn on your sound system to the highest volume possible (don’t worry about the neighbours!) and then do the wackiest dance that you can think of.
Jump up and down. Run on the spot. Roll all over the floor. Pretend that you are Michael Jackson or Madonna (you never see them keeping still) and do every boogie move that you know. Activity, activity and more activity … that’s
71. Get off a block or two before journeys end and walk the rest of the way.
You might not have time to fit in long walks into your busy schedule but this at least, is one way of ensuring that you do a bit of walking everyday. Just adding a few blocks a week to the distance walked will make a huge difference in your overall health. If you take the bus or the subway, get off at an earlier station and see if you can walk the rest of the way. If you drive to work, see if you can get space in a parking lot that is a short distance away from your office.
72. When nobody is watching try doing pelvic gyrations!
The mid section of our bodies is the part that gets the least exercise. This is why the signs of weight gain are mostly prominently seen there. It is the same reason why we find it very difficult to lose weight in that section. So consciously try to give that part of your body a little bit more of exercise.
Stomach crunches might be too strenuous an exercise to start off with but pelvic gyrations are relatively mild. Pelvic gyrations make you thrust your midsection towards all directions and this is a great way of tightening your muscles in that area. Of course, if you lose a bit of weight in the process … so much the better!
73. Tuck in your tummy!
Get that proper gait. And the best way to do that is to tuck in your tummy and inflate your chest. Do not let your tummy hang above your belt line like some unruly layer of flesh. Bring it under the belt. Each time you tuck in your tummy, you will feel the pressure on the muscles of your stomach. OK … this one is a bit of a “feel good” physiological tip but its all part of the overall “look good, feel good” plan!
74. Breathing exercises are great.
You might be surprised to know that breathing exercises too can lead to weight loss. If you do breathing exercises properly, you will find that you can exert a lot of pressure on the muscles around the mid section. You can feel a tightening of these muscles each time you breathe in or b