1. Do some aerobic exercise every day! Try to do between 30 and 60 minutes of aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, aerobics, dancing etc) every day. However, if some days you can only do 15 minutes, that's still a lot better than doing nothing! Forget this twice-a-week stuff. Our bodies were designed to be active on a daily basis. When we're active our metabolism is super-charged and it also puts us in a healthy frame of mind.
2. Incorporate intervals into some of your aerobic exercise sessions. Intervals are brief periods (about one minute) of more intense exercise mixed into your regular aerobic exercise sessions. For example, if you're walking, you would do a one-minute interval of faster walking about every five minutes throughout your exercise session.
Here's how it will look: you start with your normal three to five minute warm-up and then five minutes into your workout you do your first interval, one minute of faster walking (or perhaps jogging). At the end of that minute, you should feel slightly out of breath and ready to slow down. You slow down to your normal exercising speed for the next four minutes and then your fifth minute is another one-minute interval. Continue this pattern throughout your exercise session and you'll derive several benefits:
- intervals increase your aerobic fitness level. While doing your interval you cross the anaerobic threshold into anaerobic metabolism, forcing your body to become conditioned to more intense exercise
- your increased level of fitness means that a given level of exercise will feel easier and that you will be able to exercise at a higher intensity which burns more calories
- your increased level of fitness also means that you will be less fatigued from daily activities and you'll have more "energy" throughout the day
- intervals increase your basal metabolic rate (BMR), causing you to burn more calories 24 hours a day
- intervals cause you to burn more calories during your exercise session and for several hours afterwards
- intervals will tone the involved muscles to a greater degree than your regular aerobic exercise would
- intervals can make your exercise less monotonous and help the time pass more quickly
- intervals can help you to get past a weight loss plateau
- intervals will energise you!
3. Tone your muscles with weight training at least twice a week. Toned muscles really boost your metabolism and cause you to burn more calories 24 hours a day - yes, even while you're sleeping you'll be burning more calories!
4. Always eat breakfast! Skipping breakfast sends a message to your body that you're "starving" because you haven't had food in 12+ hours. As a protective mechanism, your metabolism slows down and your body begins to burn your muscle as fuel. Breakfast also gives your body the fuel it needs to exercise effectively!
5. Look for situations to be active. Park as far from the shopping centre as you can rather than looking for the closest spot. Use the stairs rather than the lift or escalator, do more jobs around the house yourself, like washing the windows or the car or mowing the lawn. Look for the "difficult" way to do things - the way that requires the most effort - and see these situations as opportunities to be active!
1. Write down 3 reasons WHY you want to lose weight.
This is the first and most important step. If you don’t know WHY you want something, it won’t be as important for you to get it. Be positive with your goals. Don’t write down things like ‘I don’t want to be this big or this fat’ or something equally as negative. This is telling yourself what you don’t want. Try not to write down meaningless things; instead write down positive goals like – ‘I want to look great in my little black number on Valentine’s Day’ – this is telling yourself exactly what YOU WANT.
2. Believe in yourself.
How often have you admired someone and their achievements and then instantly thought ‘I would love to be able to do that, but I just couldn’t’. We are all human and we all think like this on occasions. But don't limit your achievements by your thoughts. You CAN do whatever you want to do – you can do whatever you REALLY want to do.
3. Identify reasons and occasions when you overeat.
If you THINK about the places, times, people you are with when you eat, the occasions and reasons why you overeat will become glaringly obvious. THINK about it – is it at work, at home, at the weekends, at night, when you are with certain people, when you are alone? THINK and ASK because the answers are in the questions.
4. Make gradual but permanent behaviour changes.
Not an instant step, but a very necessary and a very possible one. Gradually change the contents of your fridge to healthier products, steadily increase your fruit and vegetable portions, phase out those biscuits and treats and make smart choices a part of your everyday life. Healthy eating will become a healthy habit!
5. Reduce your portion sizes.
It is a fact that if we weigh too much we are eating too much. Sometimes we are eating very healthy foods, but we are eating too much of them. So it is vital that we become aware of how much we are eating and that we reduce it. Use a smaller plate, weigh food on your kitchen scales initially so that you know the weight of the general every day food items, use the same size of plate for meals so that you know how much food to put on it. We have to get used to controlling the portion sizes and hence the amount of food we eat.
6. Drink water!
Dehydration, often mistaken for hunger, can lead to fatigue, slows the metabolism and can reduce our concentration and short-term memory. Drinking at least 1½ litres of water each day will not only help fill you up but can ease joint pain, help your organs such as the kidney and liver work more efficiently and improve the condition of the skin (and help banish cellulite).
7. Always eat breakfast!
Skipping breakfast sends a message to your body that you're "starving" because you haven't had food in a number of hours. As a protective mechanism, your metabolism slows down and your body begins to burn your muscle as fuel. Breakfast also gives your body the fuel it needs to exercise effectively.
8. Make exercise a regular habit.
Exercise is perhaps the ‘secret weapon’ in successful and permanent weight loss. There is nothing with greater body benefits than exercise. We can start gently and build up gradually - a short walk is a fantastic way to begin or choose some other activity which you enjoy such as swimming, aerobics or playing tennis with a friend.
9. Tone your muscles with weight training.
Toned muscles really boost your metabolism and cause your body to burn calories faster - yes, even while you're sleeping, you'll be burning more calories!
10. Look for situations to be active.
Park as far from the shopping centre as you can rather than looking for the closest parking spot. Use the stairs rather than the lift or escalator, do more jobs around the house yourself, like washing the windows or the car or mowing the lawn. Look for the "difficult" way to do things - the way that requires the most effort!
When you start putting these 10 easy steps into place, you will start on the road to healthy weight loss this year.
1. Set yourself some weight loss goals and timescales in which to achieve them.
2. Eat 3 meals a day.
3. Eat low fat foods.
4. Set yourself a fitness plan
5. Stop making excuses and do it!
6. Mix with supportive, positive people.
7. Always make a list before you go food shopping.
8. Don't eat between meals.
9. Be enthusiastic about your health and fitness campaign.
10. Picture yourself at your goal weight, looking terrific!
11. Be as active as possible in everyday life
