Do you find yourself familiar with the following drill? Pledge to count every last calorie. Decide to follow a rigorous diet. Only to find yourself feasting on cupcakes and happy hour mojitos days, maybe weeks after you take that mighty pledge. Oh, oh! Diet over?? Not necessarily. Here are a few, effective ways to cut down on those calories. They don’t revolve around crazy diets, deprivation or bizarre supplements. Cash in on these proven secrets to transform your body into a healthy one.
1. Gulp Down Gallons of Water
Water has zero calories and carbs with little or no sodium at all, making it the ideal slim-down drink. It jump starts your metabolism and flushes out excess water weight. If the idea of plain water doesn’t appeal to you, add mint leaves or lemon wedges to it. A smoothie, sports drink, or light beer, on the other hand, contains about 100 calories per serving. These 100 calories aren’t going to be as effective as an equivalent of food. Hence, they are a waste. Also, they contain high amounts of sodium and carbohydrates, which puff you up by retaining water.
2. The Bread and Pasta Way
White grain products such as spaghetti, white rice, and sandwich rolls are rich in carbohydrates and cause bloating, especially around the belly region. Cutting down on these will help slim you down within no time. Carbohydrates digest very fast, leaving you hungry and prone to overeating. Instead of replacing them with whole-grain bread products, which still trigger bloating, substitute them with vegetables for a week. In this way chips and dip can become carrots and dip, a chicken sandwich can become a chicken salad. The complex carbohydrates from vegetables take longer to digest, leaving you fuller for a longer period of time. Vegetables are mostly water by the constitution, so this helps flush out extra water weight.
3. Sweat it out!
A workout that gets your heart rate up will burn calories instantly. Consider cardio kickboxing, boot camp workouts and spinning to get your heart rate soaring. Half an hour of each of these activities burns around 200 to 300 calories. What’s more, it tones your legs, arms and core making them tighter and sleeker. Also found to be effective is alternating short bursts of cardio with slower activities. Commonly known as interval training, this can be incorporated in every session in order to accelerate the weight loss process.
4. Coffee to the Rescue
You depend on coffee to make your morning at work counterproductive, don’t you? A cup of Java with skim milk or black one hour before your workout will energize you. You will find yourself burning more calories, without having to push yourself harder. It improves circulation in people who are not, well, coffee addicts. Better circulation results in better workout as your muscles require oxygen. Coffee is also effective in reducing muscle pain. Caffeine can preserve your overall fitness and reduce age related injuries.
5. Get Your Beauty Sleep!
An extra half hour, whether you sleep for 8 hours or 5 can refresh you such that you make better food choices. This leads to avoiding quick sugar fixes for breakfast. You’ll find yourself more energized and less lethargic, making you more active and receptive to the idea of going to the gym. More restful sleep which is around 7 to 8 hours gives your metabolism that much needed boost. Since your body builds muscle when you are asleep, better sleep is tied to better muscle tone indefinitely.
Armed with these tips, losing weight will no longer be a herculean task! So, what are you waiting for? Get Set GO!
