You work hard to keep up with your daily walking and biking routines and you certainly count every last calorie. But maybe two months at best into this routine, you end up eating chocolate cake at your office birthday parties, grabbing happy hour mojitos—and before long, you finally realize you’re no longer on a diet.
If there is any lesson to be learnt, it is that restrictions in any form do not work with weight loss. And the better approach would be swapping in for one or two healthy switch-ups a few days at a time to your daily routine—no more all-or-nothing approach—ultimately this WILL lead to more weight loss than you can ever imagined.
Below are some tweaks you can make to you daily routine to lose weight fast—these are recommended by women who have lost at least 50 pounds in 6 months. Use their slim-down secrets and transform your body for good.
1. CUT BACK ON EATING OUT.
If you like dining out all the time, cut back on eating out at
restaurants to just once a week. And when you do eat out, order
something healthier like a grilled chicken salad instead of a large bowl
of pasta or hamburger and fries.
2. STOP STOCKING UP ON SNACKS.
Stop routinely buying snacks at the grocery store and stocking up your
pantry with them. If you don’t see it, chances are you’ll reach for
something else. What a couple of these women did was to vut up fresh
carrots, broccoli and cauliflower and place them in container boxes
upfront inside their refrigerators. When they were hungry and looking
for things to eat, the first thing they saw was something healthy in
their refrigerator.
3. HAVE A HEAVY BREAKFAST.
Never go without breakfast. Eat at least 300 calories of a healthy mix
of protein and whole grains. This will keep you satiated for the whole
morning and make you snack less throughout the day. If you need a go-to
breakfast, try a whole grain sandwich with natural peanut butter and
apple or banana slices. It works well to keep your hunger down.
4. FIT IN EXERCISE WHENEVER YOU CAN.
There’s no need to always schedule exercise—and certainly no need for
workouts to be at least 30 minutes. If you can fit in small bouts of
exercise whenever possible, like doing jumping jacks or crunches during
television commercials, dancing while washing dishes or speed walking
your errands, you’ll end up in Slimville quicker than you can imagine.
Each 5 minute session not only burns extra calories, it also keeps you
from mindlessly munching when you’re bored or when you’re watching TV.
If you keep this up, you’ll be more toned than if you stick religiously
to a 30 minute treadmill session every single day.
5. QUIT SMOKING.
If you smoke, then quit. There is no way anyone can exercise and feel
healthy and light up at the same time. A study conducted by the
University of Alberta showed women who quit smoking but kept the same
eating habits lost more than 30% of their bodyweight 2 months after they
had their last ever cigarette. An explanation was that women who smoke
frequent restaurants and bars more often where more mindless drinking
and eating occur.
6. CLEAN OUT YOUR PANTRY.
Clean out your pantry, cupboards, office drawers of unhealthy, processed
snacks. Replace with with lower-calorie foods such as roasted sunflower
seeds or natural apple sauce. In due course, you’ll start to make
better choices automatically.
7. SWITCH UP YOUR HAPPY HOUR ACTIVITIES.
Instead of nights out catching beers, wings, movies, popcorns, etc, get
your group to start walking and running. It could be as simple as
spending 2 hours walking around a mall and window shop. Of course, you
should leave your purse in the car to avoid any impulse purchases—save
your money for new outfits after you’ve lost 50 pounds.
8. CRANK UP THE TUNES.
Load your iPhone with music that make you look forward to going to the
gym. The music should energize you, allow you to pick up speed on any
exercise or machine.
9. LOAD UP WITH VEGETABLES.
Pile on vegetables to the foods you love—like eating pizza topped with
arugula and green peppers instead of pepperoni—you can become full so
quickly that you’ll probably have no room left to eat things like chips
or super-rich desserts after.
10. RUN FOR 20 MINUTES.
Start running 20 minutes a day during your lunch hour or you can break
it up into two 10 minute sessions. A study conducted by the University
of Alberta found women who ran for a strict 20 minutes a day lost up to
35% of their body weight in 2 months. On top of that, every woman who
participated in the survey reported that the distance they covered in
those 20 minutes increase by 15% and they now have so much additional
energy 52% of them stopped drinking caffeine in the morning. Need more
reasons to run today?
11. DRINK 2 GLASSES OF WATER BEFORE YOU EAT ANYTHING.
You heard me right. Drink 16 ounces of water before each and every meal
including snacks. You’ll be eating a lot less than before. The downside
is that you will have to go to the bathroom more often but that’s a very
small price to pay for losing big weight.
12. EAT LESS SALT.
Salt attracts water, causes bloating and triggers overeating. A study
conducted by the University of Alberta found women who gave up salt
entirely for 2 weeks ended up losing between 2 to 4 inches off their
waistline.
13. CUT OUT ALL SUGARY DRINKS.
Soda, fruit juice, and other drinks add calories without doing anything
to satisfy your hunger. Cut them out and watch yourself slim down fast.
14. CATCH MORE SLEEP.
Sleep not only reduces stress, helps us heal faster, and prevents
depression—it can also help shave off pounds. That’s because sleep loss
is linked to changes in appetite and the metabolism of glucose. An hour
more of sleep will help you shed more weight than an extra hour of
walking on the treadmill.
15. DON’T BE TOO HARD ON YOURSELF.
Obsessing over losing weight can become counterproductive. Stress does
crazy things to your body and you will have a harder time losing weight
if you stress about it. So stay calm, eat clean, and move more. If you
need a sensible guide on eating clean, eating whole and living skinny,
there is a little-known diet plan called the 2 Week Diet which will
teach you these things. Getting your eating habits and lifestyle in
check will increase your metabolism—allowing you to shed weight and shed
it fast.
Women who have followed the 2 Week Diet reported losing up to 20 pounds and 2-4 inches from their waist in just a matter of 2 weeks—the methods in the 2 Week Diet are all backed by science.