Lose Weight This Christmas!
Filed under: Health and Fitness
It’s not too late to start losing weight. Read on for our top ten tips on how you can attend all of those celebrations, enjoy your favorite Christmas treats and enjoy yourself - and still lose weight!
1. Don’t cut out all the food you enjoy. Switch to lower-fat alternatives or smaller versions. Use an olive oil spray for frying. Cut the visible fat off steak and grill it instead of frying. Choose low fat cheese, sunflower spread instead of butter, skimmed milk. If you crave chocolate go for treat-size not king-size. When eating out you’ll find that many restaurants now point out the healthy options in their menus. You can also help yourself - don’t use the butter pat that comes with your jacket potato. Order salad but ask them to hold the mayonnaise dressing. Decline the Parmesan cheese to top your pasta. Choose fruit juice mixers instead of soda.
2. Keep a food diary. Write down everything you eat - that way you can keep track and it’s easier to compensate for those parties!
3. It may seem like a hassle, but take those extra few seconds to measure portions properly. Use scales in the kitchen - 50g of pasta is enough for one portion but if you don’t weigh it you’re bound to cook too much. Always measure alcohol consumed at home too - alcoholic drinks contain hidden calories. If you’re strict with yourself at home you don’t need to feel guilty about allowing yourself a treat when you go out.
4. As soon as you lose a size buy new clothes! Not only is a reward for your success, people will notice and that will give you the confidence to stick at it!
5. Be honest with yourself. It’s the average food intake and average weight loss that matters. If you overeat today you can balance it tomorrow. If you only lose a pound this month, be more determined to lose three pounds next month.
6. Exercising is the key to success. If you don’t enjoy exercise, try to vary your routine to make it interesting. If you don’t like walking but love nature, take yourself out to the countryside at the weekend. Maybe you’d rather read a book? You can read on an exercise bike! Perhaps you’re a music fan? Dancing is great exercise - and this is the right time of year for it too! You can compensate for one treat too many at those Christmas parties by spending the rest of the evening on the dance floor!
7. Eat enough protein - you need about 50g a day. There are three reasons why protein is important:
a) High-protein foods slow down the movement of food from the stomach to the intestine, which means you feel full for longer;
b) Protein increases blood sugar steadily, avoiding the ’sugar-rush’ of more rapidly digested carbohydrates;
c) It takes more energy for the body to digest protein than it does to digest fat or carbohydrate - so you will burn more calories as you digest it.
Since many protein-rich foods also contain a lot of fat this can be tricky. Eggs are a great low-fat choice - new research shows that eating eggs for breakfast could result in up to 2lb a month weight loss. Fish, beans or skinless chicken are good choices too.
8. Drink milk. New research shows that calcium, particularly from milk, can be an aid to weight loss - and it will help with your protein intake too. Eating three servings of low-fat dairy products a day can lead to more than 10% reduction in body weight. It’s easy too! Have cereal with skimmed milk for breakfast, sandwiches with low-fat cheese slices for lunch and a low-fat yogurt as a snack.
9. Drink plenty of water. This is crucial for the proper function of your liver and kidneys, which is essential for weight loss. One of the liver’s main functions is the metabolism of fat - that is, converting stored fat to energy. But if the kidneys are water-deprived, the liver has to do their work too, lowering its total productivity. This means that it can’t metabolize fat as efficiently, which for you means slower weight loss. In other words, drink enough water and your kidneys will function optimally, leaving your liver to its own work of burning fat. If you don’t like water try adding some sugar-free cordial.
10. Consider taking supplements. There are natural products out there that can help to bind fats, allowing your body to remove them before they are absorbed. Some supplements also have the added benefits of decreasing food cravings, suppressing appetite, or even reducing cholesterol in the blood. Taking one of these products after you’ve enjoyed a Christmas party could give you the edge you need for sustained weight loss. But do your research first - make sure any supplement you consider using is clinically proven and endorsed by respected medical professionals. There are many sites out there that does product reviews and I recommend you go to provendietproducts.com to see their weight loss product reviews and then be able to do some product comparison.
Hopefully these tips will help you sustain your weight loss and still enjoy a very merry Christmas! Merry Christmas to you all!
The author is a freelance reviewer at provendietproducts.com. They offer honest reviews, tips and tricks regarding weight loss products, control and issues.
Tags: cholestrol, christmas, diet, fat, lose weight, lose weight christmas, obesity, weight loss, xmas
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