Why is it so hard to lose those last pesky 10 pounds? Well, there are many reasons why it is difficult. Once we have gotten results with diet and exercise, we tend to ease up and start to slide back into a false sense of security. You may feel like you deserve a treat, then you just open the floodgates of cravings. Another reason we stop losing weight is when we reach a plateau. This means that your diet and exercise routine is now just maintaining the current weight. You need to change what you are doing – bump up the intensity of your workout and lower calories to get to the next level. Whether you are at a plateau or need to change your diet and exercise routine, here are a few tips that may help you lose those last 10 pounds!
Join a Bootcamp
This may sound a little scary but grab a friend and just do it! You’ll be challenged physically and have fun. Yes I said fun!
Drink a Glass of Water Before You Eat
Drinking a glass of water will not only hydrate you, but will help you consume less calories. Your stomach will feel full faster, you will eat less and over time lose weight. Read more on drinking water to achieve weight loss.
Don’t Eat Foods with More Than 1 Ingredient on the Label
This means, eat fresh fruit, vegetables and unprocessed organic meats. If a food label contains more than one ingredient on the label you can be guaranteed that it has added fat, added sugar added sodium and added chemicals that can mess with your body’s natural chemistry.
Cut Out Meat
I hear you carnivores screaming at me now. Yeah, yeah, you don’t have to go cold turkey, oops, poor choice of words. Cutting out meat all together may greatly reduce your chance of heart disease and some cancers including breast, colon prostate cancer. Eating a balanced vegetarian diet even a few days per week will over time cut out many grams of fat and calories. In turn helping you stay healthy and slim. Meatless Monday anyone?
No Sugary Drinks
It may come as a surprise that drinks contain a lot of unnecessary calories. A few examples of high sugar drinks are – Coca Cola 12oz can = 39g sugar, Vitamin Water 8oz = 13g sugar, Arizona Iced Tea 24oz can = 24g sugar, Orange Juice 8oz = 24g, Mountain Dew 20 oz bottle = 77g sugar, Red Bull 8.3 oz can = 27g sugar. Drink water, you’ll get used to drinking it and you will eventually prefer water over these sugary , fattening drinks.
No Eating After 8pm
According to our friend Dr. Oz, eating after 8 may cause you to overeat and make wrong decisions. This is when the snack foods like chips and dip, popcorn and nachos are so desirable. These are high fat, empty calories that make you fat faster.
Use an App to Keep Track of Your Calories
This is a fun way to keep track of your calorie count for the day. There are many apps out there such as My Fitness Pal, Calorie Counter, MyNetDiary and Noom to name a few. These apps help you to log your exercise and track your calorie count daily. They take the drudgery out of calorie counting because there’s a huge database of food. If it doesn’t have what you are looking for, all you have to do is scan the bar code or type in the first few letters of the food. You must try one of these apps! It really makes you think twice about what you put in your mouth. Study’s show, when exercise and calorie tracking are combined, there is much greater weight loss achieved.
Eat More Vegetables
Veggies are filled with nutrients and fiber. They fill you up and are much lower in calories than all the other stuff on your plate. So try eating mostly raw and steamed vegetables when you want to lose weigh. Your bowels will thank you for it too!
Portion Control – Don’t Eat Until You are Full
I remember my parents making us eat everything on our plates. There was no way they were wasting good food. Well, when you eat everything on your plate, even when you are no longer hungry, that’s extra calories and it’s training you to over eat in the future. Try measuring out proper portion sizes at every meal and drink a glass of water before you eat. You will lose weight. Find out what 11 foods are negatively affecting your weight loss efforts.
BONUS TIP!!! Eat foods that are known to burn fat. Yes you can eat fiber filled, whole grain foods and burn twice as many calories during digestion than processed foods. Some food has a thermogenic effect, this means you are burning a percentage of calories just by digesting the food. Give yourself an advantage by eating fat burning foods.
Now you have 9 weight loss tips to try. These suggestions will push you out of your comfort zone and towards losing the last 10 pounds. As Nike says, “Just Do It!”.
