As the New Year begins to come upon us, most of us are thinking about losing weight as our New Year’s resolution. Dieting doesn’t have to be hard and you don’t have to make too drastic of a change all at once. Start with baby steps and gradually work your way up. For example…if you are used to drinking sweet tea with sugar, try substituting the sugar with artificial sweetener. Artificial sweetener has zero calories and is healthier than granulated sugar. Another change you can make is switching from regular sodas to diet sodas. Once again, you will get zero calories with diet sodas versus the regular soda, click for source. Some will debate that diet sodas are just as bad, but this is a gradual change and you can eventually wean yourself off of sodas for good. If you desire that sweetened taste of soda, I have found that drinking Crystal Light satisfies me completely. Crystal Light has a wide variety of flavors and it’s added to your water to boost it from that plain boring water taste.
If you are really serious about losing weight, you will need to incorporate some type of physical activity into your life. You can start out doing 15 minutes a day of something you really enjoy and work your way up to 45 minutes. If you don’t have much time to spare in the morning or evening to do a full workout, try breaking your workouts down into 10 minute increments. Do 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening. Workouts such as ZUMBA, dancing, roller skating and swimming are all fun forms of exercise that will not bore you and will keep you interested in your workout. The key is to find something you enjoy doing. Don’t forget to switch it up every month to give your body a change and challenge. Your body will get used to the same routine after a while and it’s best to shock your body into something different. For minimum results, research has shown that by doing at least 30 minutes of activity at least 3 times a day will give you results.
If you can burn 500 calories a day by exercising or reducing your caloric intake by 500 a day, you will be on your way of losing at least one pound a week. It takes 3500 calories to gain a pound so you will have to burn 3500 calories a week to burn that pound off. If you are looking for a change in your diet, here are a few tricks you can start with.
Drink plenty of water
Water is known to give you that full feeling and when
drinking water before a meal, it will help you eat less. Most people will benefit from drinking 64 oz of water a day. Drinking ice cold water has also been know to help raise the metabolism, which helps to aid in weight loss.
Incorporate some fruits and vegetables into your diet.
The fiber in fruits and vegetables will help fill you up and keep you satisfied longer. Try adding mandarin oranges to your salad mixed with slivered almonds and a low fat dressing. This is a very delicious twist to the everyday salad.
Find other like minded people who have the same interest in losing weight.
These friends or family members will help keep you on the right track as well as give you support. You will also be their support when times get tough or when you just feel like you need someone to give you that extra push.
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