Losing weight is by far one of the most tedious processes. This is especially true if you love to indulge in food and are not a big fan of breaking a sweat. However, if you’d like to prepare your body for bikini season and you want to get rid of all the holiday weight, plus the one that’s been there way before the holidays arrived, you’ll need to learn some discipline. From controlling your portions to turning to healthy food choices and incorporating exercises into your lifestyle, you’ll be able to get your body in shape with the following advice.
Regulate your diet
You are what you eat, which means that you must eat healthy in order to be healthy. The more diverse a diet the better you’ll look. This means that you should try to make your meals as colourful as possible. Namely, instead of sticking to white foods, such as white bread, sugar, white flour, white rice, and pasta, which can all only lead to weight gain, you should add a pop of colour to your breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, oranges, berries, leafy greens, whole grains, and dairy are just some of the foods to stick to. If you want to add some protein to your diet eat eggs and stay full for a long period of time.
By avoiding pasta and other starchy foods, you’ll speed up your metabolism and stay satiated for much longer. Starchy foods will also make you feel sluggish, so opt for vitamins, proteins, and fibers instead, to stay energized throughout an entire day. Avoid eating out, but prepare meals on your own because you’ll know exactly how the food is being processed and prepared. Swap junk food for healthy snacks, and instead of having a bag of French fries or a burger, opt for a handful of almonds or a healthy salad.
Hydrate
Water is essential for boosting your metabolism and improving digestion. Both of which are the preconditions for losing weight. 8 glasses of water a day is a minimum you should take in order to keep your body hydrated and jumpstart weight loss. Swap sugary drinks for this healthy liquid and enjoy a glass of water 30 minutes before meals to improve your digestive system. If you want to add some flavour to it, feel free to put a slice of lemon and some mint in water. Black coffee is another good source of hydration that is also highly beneficial for weight loss.
So, if you’re accustomed to macchiatos, lattes, and other milky coffees, you’ll need to forget all about the sweet fatty desserts in a cup if you want to lose weight. Black coffee is also an antioxidant so avoid having it with milk and sugar but allow her to be a great diuretic and help you burn the excess of calories. Green tea can also serve as an alternative for water since it’s been proved to effectively detoxify the body. Thanks to catechins found in green tea, your body will burn fat much faster because they’ll work together with caffeine to promote weight loss.
Ride a bicycle
Regulating your diet won’t be enough unless you introduce some physical activity to the mix. Cycling is one of the best activities that will help you break a sweat, burn fat and tone your body nicely. If you don’t have a vehicle, make sure you look for affordable road bicycles for exercise and start pedalling. A road bike with thin tires and a sleeker frame is lighter and requires less effort during pedalling which will allow you to have long and efficient workouts. Include a higher-intensity ride into your workouts to burn more calories. For best results, go with a course that allows you to pedal non-stop without taking too many breaks.
Each short break you make at an intersection or a stoplight cause your heart rate to drop, which in return decreases the calorie-burning potential of the workout. Take some of the cities bike trails, and opt for safe routes rather than hitting the road. Whether you choose to cycle in the morning, or later in the evening, make sure you cycle for at least an hour every day for the ultimate results. Go to work by bicycle, and try to completely neglect your car. Riding a bicycle instead of driving a car will be much better for your well-being.
Lift weights
Muscle loss can be one of the worst side effects of weight loss. To make sure you do not sacrifice your muscle mass for lean figure, incorporate weight lifting into your workouts. Once the body enters starvation mode, it will start to lose muscles and slow down metabolism, which is why you should make sure to compensate for that by pumping iron. Weight training helps you build muscle, and muscle in return burns more calories at rest. Weight lifting is a great exercise that will offer your body the needed resistance which will in return prevent muscle loss. A toned body is nothing without lean muscles, which is why you should hit the bench and start lifting.
Try out group sports
Aerobics, Zumba, or any other group sport will help you lose weight as well. While dancing to the quick catchy beats, you’ll sweat out all the fat while improving your heart rate. N average Zumba class burns around 500 calories, which is amazing for someone who hasn’t been paying attention to their physical activity much. Sign up for a Zumba class and let the Latino rhythms take you completely to the wonderful land of reggaeton, salsa, and various other types of dancing.
Portion control and calorie counting
Eating less, more times a day is the best recipe for boosting metabolism and losing weight. Hectic lifestyles often prevent us from having regular meals, which can be detrimental to our weight. That’s precisely why you should make your own food, and bring it with you so you can always know that you’re eating healthy and just enough calories to keep you satiated but lean. You’ll sometimes feel unexpected cravings until your body adjusts to the new dietary habits, which is why you should have healthy snacks everywhere.
From baby carrots to whole fruits, nuts and hard-boiled eggs, make sure you can snack healthy instead of opening a bag of chips to cut the time between lunch and dinner short. Keeping a food diary can be highly beneficial; as well, allowing you to know exactly how many calories you’ve taken each day. This will prevent you from crossing the line between too much food and healthy portions, keeping your eating habits in check.
Chewing slower is another good way to control how much you eat. The brain takes some time to process whether our stomachs are full or not, and if you eat fast, you don’t give the brain enough time to alert you in time that you’ve had enough, which leads to overeating and stomach expanding. This further contributes to you wanting more food every day.
Don’t starve
The worst thing you could do to your body is to starve it. Denying your body food will only cause sudden cravings of starchy foods, which will wreak havoc on your weight. Namely, during the period of starving, your body will feed on the stored fats and sugars, making you crave all those carbs that the body had used while you were depriving it of food. To make sure you don’t put yourself in a situation to feel lightheaded and jeopardize your health, opt for portion control that we’ve previously mentioned.
By using smaller plates, you’ll also learn to eat less. Don’t fill up the plate twice but make sure you have plenty of diverse foods in it, and only eat what you’ve put into a plate the first time around. Make sure the plates, cloths or anything inside the room isn’t red, because red has been proven to be the colour that promotes hunger and causes you to eat more than you actually would if you were eating from a yellow or white plate for example.
Final thoughts
If you want to start losing weight, get ready for a plethora of challenges and lifestyle changes. Not only will you have to regulate your diet but become more physically active too. By cutting back on junk food and starting to cook for yourself instead of eating out, you’ll improve your well-being but promote weight loss as well. Make sure you hydrate your body enough with water, green tea or coffee for the best results.
If you mix bike rides, weight lifting and several aerobics exercises, your body will look and feel great all together. Learn to control your portions, eat slower and count your calories to avoid overeating and sugary cravings. Don’t starve, but simply eat smart, and you’ll lose weight in a healthy way without jeopardizing your well-being.
