Lose weight and keep it off for good
If weight loss is on the forefront of your goals for 2019, you’re not alone. Year in and year out, millions attempt to trim their waistlines with little to no success. Or, they start off great but lose motivation after a month or two, sliding back into their old habits. What is the trick to losing weight and keeping it off for good? It doesn’t have to be complicated! Here are 10 simple ways to lose weight, and keep it off forever!
1.) Quit dieting! This is actually really liberating! FORGET about dieting, because diets have a start and end date. This is your life. Diets are designed to fail. Instead, make 1 or 2 short term weekly goals that are obtainable and sustainable. For example, “this week I’ll hit 100g of protein every day”, or “I’m going to get in 6 cups of veggies per day”, or “I’m going to cook all of my meals from home.” Keep a log of your weekly goal(s). Every week, you’ll be adding to it!
2.) Keep a food log. A food log doesn’t have to be fancy, just write it down on paper if nothing else. I like My Fitness Pal app because it calculates calories and grams for you, removing guesswork on your part. The best reasons to log your food is it holds you accountable and is a GREAT learning tool. Do you over eat? Do you under eat? Are you eating the right amounts of protein, carbs, and fats to keep the fat burning going? Studies show that keeping a food log greatly increases your chance for success in fat loss!
3.) Remove refined carbohydrates from your nutrition. At first, this will take a fair amount of will power, especially if you’ve come to rely on them for fillers and snacks. You will need to PLAN to eat something else. Instead of relying on these useless foods, focus meals and snacks around proteins and fats. For meals, choose meat or fish paired with roasted veggies. For snacks, try an apple with nut butter, or turkey slices with fresh avocado.
4.) Sub out caloric beverages for water or sparkling water. Flavored sparkling water tastes great without all the sugar or artificial sweeteners. Or get creative and add watermelon, berries, or lemon to regular water.
5.) Be more efficient with your time during workouts. If you’re like me, finding time to get in a good volume of training can be challenging. ALWAYS prioritize fast-paced large muscle group strength training over steady-state cardio, or try High Intensity Interval Training. Go to the gym with a purpose – to crush it every time! Even 20 or 30 minutes goes a long way!
6.) Add more dietary fat into your diet. Fear fat no more. Low fat diets are ineffective and leave you feeling hungry craving carbs, setting you up for failure. Include plenty of dietary fats like egg yolks, fattier cuts of meat, nuts, avocados, olive oil, and coconut oil. These foods give you ZERO insulin spike which is good news for your waistline and will keep you feeling full and satisfied, with less cravings for sugar.
7.) Get your ZZZ’s. If you are well rested, your hormones are more likely to be balanced and favorable for fat loss. Yes, it’s true! This is not arbitrary! In addition you will have a lot more energy to crush those workouts!
8.) Choose multi-joint and compound lifts. Go with squats, deadlifts, rows, and bench presses, rather than spending a lot of time on bicep curls and sit ups. Spot fat reducing doesn’t work because it doesn’t build muscle volume (which is what burns the most amount of calories and body fat short and long term). You want to focus on big lifts to get fit and trim fast!
9.) Do low intensity, longer bouts of cardio. It’s a good idea to use a heart rate monitor to be sure it’s low intensity enough. A common mistake is thinking it’s too easy, cranking up the intensity, and in turn bumping yourself out of the fat burning zone. This then causes your body to pull from a different energy source (sugar and protein instead of body fat.) You want to keep your heart rate between 55% and 65% of your HR max.
10.) Hire a coach!! Even just a few sessions can go a long way! You will learn how to lift correctly and effectively, learn about effective training techniques for your body type, and a coach will give you that extra push and accountability you need to see results! If you value education, a coach is a MUST.
Use these simple ways to lose weight and I promise they will work for you!