How To Reduce Weight Naturally
Have you noticed how often we hear about a new diet plan out there telling us how to reduce weight naturally…usually within a very short amount of time. How many 30 pounds in 30 days ads have we seen? Now it’s unlikely to put on 30 pounds in 30 days, so we must realistic to find some workable, long-term solutions that will help us to take the weight off sensibly once and for all. While there is plenty of debate over whether or not yo-yo dieting will ruin your metabolism, one thing is for sure, it is emotionally stressful and drains you of energy you would much rather put elsewhere.
So let’s take a look at the options for getting the weight off and keeping it off! It starts with the mindset. We don’t get into college or grad school or land a new job casually. It takes work and commitment. The same goes for our health, and ultimately learning how to reduce weight naturally and keeping it off permanently is about preserving or restoring our health. There are scary statistics out there to consider. Whereas there may be many variables in some areas of life — what are our astronomically small odds of winning the lottery? — some things are a sure bet. Becoming overweight and obese over time will lead to chronic health problems such as diabetes. It’s as if the body rewards us, congratulations, you have consistently made poor food choices and you now deserve the diabetes!
No, not what we want to accomplish! That being said, we need to focus our efforts towards sustaining health. It’s going to require a lifestyle change.
Let’s take a look at steps to take today to learn how to reduce weight naturally.
Eliminate something unhealthy from the diet right now. If you are a soda drinker, now is the time to stop. You will save hundreds of calories and you will save money. Drink water instead. Flavor it with lemon juice and sweeten it, if you need to, with stevia, a zero calorie sweetener that is all natural.
Get familiar with food labels and nutrition facts. Avoid foods that have unpronounceable ingredients. There’s plenty of clinical evidence showing that food additives and preservatives can pose hidden dangers — the obesogenes are said to impact the hormonal system of the body, and may cause you to gain weight for that alone. Talk about insult to injury!
To curb your appetite, eat a hot, low calorie soup before you consume your meals. A good choice is tomato. If you don’t want to prepare it yourself be careful to find soups that are reduced sodium or low sodium. Whatever kind of low calorie soup you pick make sure that you eat it hot to slow you down. Not only will the liquid fill your stomach but you will also feel less hungry because you’ve given your digestive system long enough to let your brain know you are getting full.
If you have a lot of weight to lose, consider breaking down the goal weight into achievable increments that are smaller. If you need to lose 100 pounds, break it down into five goals of 20 pounds each. Find a way to reward yourself, preferably not involving food! How about, instead, a weekend getaway or some accessories for the new wardrobe you will eventually have to buy.
Get adequate sleep and do everything possible to reduce the stress in your life. Being stressed out can trigger cravings and cause you to overeat or even binge. Beyond that stress triggers the hormone cortisol which in turn raises the level of insulin — the fat storing hormone — in your body and this makes it more challenging and, frankly difficult to lose weight.
Eliminate oils and fats from your diet, even the so-called “healthy fats” like olive oil. Oils and fats contribute nothing but extra calories to the diet. A tablespoon of olive oil has 120 calories. For the same amount of calories you could have two or three bowlfuls of salad with a tasty oil-free salad dressing. Or a couple of bowls of the aforementioned appetite-curbing soup.
Avoid eating any kind of refined carbohydrates. This includes any products made with white flour such as breads, cakes, pies, pasta, pizza crust, biscuits and rolls. Also get rid of white rice, cornmeal and other refined grains. Instead replace them with a reasonable amount of complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, yams, white potatoes (minus the butter and sour cream of course), steel cut oats, old fashioned rolled oats, barley, quinoa and other whole intact grains. Add also beans and legumes to the diet which are rich in fiber and protein.
Avoid fast food completely. Not only will you save hundreds, and sometimes thousands of calories but a lot of saturated fat, salt and sugar as well.
Check out some more suggestions in the video below.
Find imaginable ways to include more non-starchy vegetables in your diet. Try mixing them in with soups, salads, pasta or rice dishes. This will help you to speed up weight loss both by adding more dietary fiber and helping you satisfy your hunger.
Eat only when hungry. To keep hunger from getting ravenous try eating five or six small meals a day, but don’t feel it has to be an absolute rule. Your day may be too hectic with work, school or other responsibilities to make this feasible. But when you do eat, make sure you are including plenty of fiber rich foods such as whole grains and non-starchy vegetables and starchy vegetables as well as fresh fruits which are also high in fiber, especially the soluable fiber that aids in digestion and helps lower cholesterol. It’s when we start to turn to the snack foods and the processed foods that our cravings get out of hand. Eating whole, natural foods will provide satiety.
If you are feeling impatient and looking for faster weight loss that is still safe and natural, be aware that most fast weight loss diets are unhealthy especially if you try to use them for a prolonged period of time. However, there are a few exceptions. You might want to check out Joel Marion’s Xtreme Fat Loss Diet. He is a fitness expert who has relied on an exhaustive search of scientific studies to create a diet that uses this cutting edge research to deliver fast results. The diet is very rigorous and involves workouts as well as a short-term periodic fast, but many swear by it, including bodybuilders and fitness pros who need to get as lean as possible for competition. Find out more at the official Xtreme Fat Loss Diet Web site.
Keep in mind that when you are learning how to get the weight off and keep it off it is an ongoing process and at some point you will reach your goal weight and you will need to transition to maintenance. If these tips and pointers have not been enough to get you started, you may want to check out Diet Solution Program created by certified nutritionist Isabel De Los Rios. It will help you to eat the healthy natural foods that are best for weight loss, and enable you to put it all together with menus, shopping lists, as well as recipes.
It does take some effort and some education to learn how to reduce weight naturally, in our times and society that encourages us at every turn to overindulge and overeat. But your weight loss journey can be a success!