Say Goodbye: My Top 10 Weight Loss Tips
Ever get totally frustrated with starting and stopping your weight loss journey? Up and down the same 10, 20, 50 or 100 pounds? Over and over? how do people lose then maintain? These top 10 tips are ones that skinny people use to get and stay skinny!
Eat Frequently
Eat every 3-4 hours and include protein and carbs in a 1:1.5 ratio (at the most), 1:1 is optimal for weight management/loss. In other words if you are eating an egg, about 7 grams protein, the carbs should NOT exceed about 10 grams. Ladies, keep the protein to around 14 grams for a snack and 28(4-5 ounces) for a meal and never exceed 30 grams of carbs for a meal if you are trying to lose weight. Gentlemen, you need to stay in a similar range for snacks, but can go as high as 40 grams (6-7 ounces) of protein in a meal.
Sugar is Sugar
Don’t fool yourself. Agave, coconut sugar, honey, maple sugar and other “natural sweeteners” are all very similar to sugar. Just because it is fructose, the sugar in fruit, and may cause a slightly less increase in blood sugar, all are empty calories. Those sweeteners still play a role in diabetes, may stimulate fat/triglyceride production and are not really helpful in weight loss. If you must sweeten, use stevia or small amounts of real natural, raw sugar. Also, gluten free is not carb or sugar free, read the labels.
Move Your Body
Sitting is the new smoking. Move at least 30 minutes or 10,000 steps per day. It will reduce your risk of heart disease, vascular disease and stroke by up to 30%!
Can’t find 30 minutes to move or time to plan your meals? The next time you are in the car alone, turn off the radio, and consider whether your health and the health of your family, is a value or not. If it is, consider time like money, how are you spending your time? Assess and re-assess time spent in front of the TV and Social Media.
Plan
Plan and purchase your meals/food twice a week, like Sunday and Thursday. It will reduce your impulse spending and the need to “grab” or “order-in”.
Make Extra
Make extra lots of extra protein to have leftovers for lunches and dinners. It doesn’t take any longer to make 6-8 burgers or chicken breasts than it does to make 2. Put the leftovers away in single-serving containers for easy grab-n-go lunches and dinners.
Make it Convenient
Trader Joe’s and most grocery stores have pre-cut and mini versions of many vegetables. They also have spiraled zucchini that can be used in place of pasta and has very few carbs.
Hummus, peanut butter and guacamole come in single size serving packs. This will make it easier to portion control and quickly create lunches and snacks. Target and most larger grocery stores have them.
Sleep
Sleep a minimum of 6 hours, uninterrupted to get cortisol and hormone balance back under control. Your body needs rest and repair. Cortisol and other hormones will hold the weight on if you are not sleeping and can mess with your blood pressure. Sleep is a BIG deal. Wearing the “I only need 4 Hours Badge” is not an honor.
Reflux is a major issue for many of you. Digestion requires the rest and repair functions to be engaged. Your body WILL NOT digest your food properly, by producing enough digestive juices (acid and enzymes), when you are stressed. Eating on the run, not sitting down, while working or driving and long term stressors contribute to decreased production of the digestive juices, this is the actual cause of reflux. Slow down for 20 minutes and take a digestive enzyme with HCl. This will reduce, even heal reflux.
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