In a day in age where the majority of us find ourselves spending more time sitting in front of a computer screen than getting out and being active, healthy habits are more important than ever. If you don’t have time to go to the gym every day you need to make short workouts count; if you don’t have time to cook a balanced organic meal every night, then you need to prepare healthy snacks you can take on the run or grab on a whim.
The following is a list of 7 of our top weight loss tips that we’ve found to work for busy individuals who are trying to balance work, family, exercise, eating, and a million other tasks at once.
1. Pass the Bread Basket-Did you know that sugar and carbohydrates essentially break down into the same glucose molecules? This means that bread and sugar are derived from the same elements and will pack the pounds on in similar manners. Try to avoid bread for the most part, but if you’re a sandwich lover, make sure you’re using whole grain bread and enjoy your sandwich open-faced on only one slice of bread.
Similarly, skip the bread basket at dinner. If you’re starving, fill yourself up with water until your entrée arrives.
2. Stay Hydrated-No, drinking water does not aid in weight loss directly, but it has many indirect weight loss attributes. Drinking water helps avoid food cravings, it keeps you hydrated so you won’t mistake thirst for hunger, and water helps channel nutrients through your body so you can process them properly and not store an excessive amount as fat.
3. Make a New Playlist-There’s no better workout motivation than running, spinning, walking, etc. to your favorite music. Update your ipod or mp3 player so you’re excited to get out and get moving. Studies have shown that those who exercise to music exercise harder and for longer because of the happy distraction.
4. Prepare Food Beforehand-If we could place a huge stress on any of these 7 tips, this one would be it. Preparing healthy snacks and meals is the absolute key to weight loss success. Think about it, when do you tend to eat mindlessly? At night after dinner? Grabbing snacks at the gas station on your way to work? Don’t have time for lunch so you go through the drive through? Make time to prepare low calorie, low fat choices.
Find an evening where you can spare a few hours, grocery shop, and then go home and make up snack bags filled with fruit and vegetables to store in your fridge. We also like to cook several chicken breasts at once, cut them up, and store them in bags in the fridge as well. This way, when you’re starving when you get home, you can throw the chicken on a salad, in whole wheat pasta, or eat with a light marinade and vegetables and not have to worry about snacking while your dinner is cooking.
5. Decide Whether or not You’re Really Hungry-Knowing whether or not your body actually needs to be fueled can be tricky. Often we feel the urge to eat if we’re bored, or sad, or tired. Really being in tune with your body takes practice. A good rule we’ve found is deciding if you’re hungry enough to eat an apple. If you are, then you’re probably hungry enough for a meal, if an apple doesn’t sound appealing, then you’re probably not hungry enough to eat yet.
6. Eat Protein at Every Meal-Protein plays a larger role in weight loss than many people believe. If you incorporate protein into your 3 large meals every day, you’ll watch the weight fall off. Protein is digested slowly and therefore keeps you feeling fuller for longer, it also helps you build lean muscle mass which will naturally increase your calorie burn.
Eggs are a good source of breakfast protein, turkey at lunch time, and chicken, salmon, or lean red meat for dinner. Good high-protein snacks include almonds, tuna, and protein shakes.
7. Increase your Physical Activity- Although losing weight and maintaining it thereafter is approximately 80% about what you eat, it is also extremely important to exercise as well. Exercise takes you out of the house and away from tempting food, it burns calories, it improves your sense of well-being, and it builds muscle so that as you lose weight, you’ll appear toned and defined instead of skinny-fat and flabby.
Ready, Set, Go
These are just several of our favorite weight loss tips which work excellently for weight maintenance as well. These ideas will help you develop new habits and these small changes will have a large impact on your weight if you let these concepts become lifestyle choices. If you’re looking for a diet supplement that will jump-start your weight loss and enable you to see the results you need to stay motivated, then one of the best diet pills, Apidextra, is a supplement we’ve come to know and trust.
Developed naturally to support fat burning, appetite suppression, and metabolism, Apidextra is our #1 choice when it comes to safe and effective diet pills that work quickly.