People are daunted by the fact that weight loss seems so utterly overwhelming and difficult to do with a busy schedule and no time left over for exercise and cooking healthy meals instead of eating quick fast food fixes on lunch breaks. Here’s the good news: it’s not as hard to do when you have some tricks under your belt to help keep you on target when you feel like devouring four doughnuts during your morning meeting at work.
Small Meals, Frequently
If you eat five meals per day, your body never goes into a fasting state, and you feed your energy without feeding your waistline. Take the amount of hours per day you are awake and divide it by five, and that’s how many hours should be between each of your five small meals. If you are awake fifteen hours a day, you should eat every three hours. Make sure they are balanced meals that contain a small amount of protein as well as a high fiber content and you will find that you are full longer. Spicy foods and hot liquids like tea or coffee also help to trick your body into feeling full.
Find a Calorie Burning Activity you Love and Get Moving
Some people love the social aspect of dance classes. Shy people may like to do an exercise video in the comfort of their own home. And more and more people are so pressed for time, they only have an opportunity to go for a brisk walk around the company grounds on their lunch break. Do whatever you can to make sure you raise your heart rate for thirty minutes most days, and make it fun. Find out what motivates you and do it. Do something slightly (or entirely) different every four to six weeks to keep yourself interested as well as make sure your body doesn’t get used to whatever you are doing and stop burning as many calories.
This Isn’t High School: Cheating is Okay Now and Again
Once a week you should have a cheat meal. Human bodies are amazing machines that get used to whatever we throw at them very quickly. If you eat a low calorie diet every meal of every day, your body will go into starvation mode and get used to surviving on fewer calories, which may mean you will stop dropping weight. One meal per week of eating whatever you want does wonders to throw off the balance so your body can maintain weight loss. It also does wonders for your motivation to know you don’t have to give up chocolate cake for eternity.
Your Grandmother was Right, Rome wasn't Built in a Day
If you’re losing weight the healthy way, after your initial first couple of weeks of water weight loss, you shouldn’t lose much more than two pounds on a good week (unless you are quite a bit overweight, in which case you may lose more). Do the math. If you need to lose fifty pounds, that could take you more than six months. Give yourself some leeway to lose weight slowly so you do it the right way and keep it off. There may be weeks where your body doesn’t lose at all. Don’t get discouraged. Just stick with the diet, switch up the exercise routine a bit, and realize all you stand to gain if you lose!
Lisa Annunziato - Lisa Annunziato is a full time pharmaceutical sales representative, part time freelance writer, and full time health nut. She has a ...
