Most Tried and Trusted Weight Loss Methods
Some years ago, women were led to believe that they could lose weight if they stuck a photo of Cindy Crawford in a bathing costume on their refrigerator door. Sadly, this didn’t work.
As we stood eating ice cream in our kitchen in the early hours of the morning, studying the photo of Cindy in all her gloriousness, we came to realize that even if we did lose weight, we’d never look that good in a bathing costume.
It seemed to have the opposite effect to the one we were told it would have, and instead of motivating us to lose weight, it sent us reaching for yet more ice cream. It’s no surprise then to find that nowadays very few photos of Cindy Crawford pouting in her one-piece remain on the refrigerator doors of women who’ve battled most of their lives with a weight problem.
And if we’re now all out of role models, what do we need to do in order to achieve the weight loss goals we’ve set ourselves?
Make Healthy Purchases When Grocery Shopping
If it’s not available to you to eat, then you can’t eat it. Don’t make losing weight any harder than it has to be. When shopping for groceries there are two important rules to remember:
- Always shop on a full stomach so you’ll be less inclined to load up your shopping cart with unhealthy purchases.
- Don’t buy cookies (or any foods that might spell disaster for your diet) “just in case” you have visitors.
If you shop for food when you’re hungry, there is more chance that you will “over-shop,” and there’s also more chance that you will buy foods that appeal more to your hunger than your dieting plan.
And don’t feel that you have to stock certain foods for when you have visitors. Tell all your friends that you want to lose weight and that your house will be a cookie-free (or muffin-free or chocolate-free) zone for the next six months.
Your friends won’t expect you to feed them with snacks when they visit if they know that you’re trying to lose weight.
Don’t Consume Empty Calories
Consider everything you put into your mouth and before doing so ask yourself whether it’s worth the calories. When on a calorie-controlled diet, you have a set amount of calories to “spend” (consume) in a day. Don’t blow a large percentage of this spend on a quick-fix such as a chocolate bar or pastry.
If you conserve your calories as you go through the day, you will be able to treat yourself to an appetizing snack in the afternoon, or a glass or two of wine with your evening meal. Remember that every calorie counts so make sure you use it the best way you can.
Alcohol is sometimes referred to as “empty calories” Although, everyone has their own definition of empty calories foods; it’s those foods (or beverages) that you consider aren’t worth the calories.
However, if you enjoy a glass of wine or beer with your meal then you will consider that being worth the calories, and will be content to sacrifice, say, a bread roll and butter for a glass of wine. This shouldn’t have too much of a detrimental effect on your weight loss plan providing that you keep count – of both the number of calories exchanged and the number of glasses of wine consumed!
The problem is, of course, that one glass of wine can all too easily lead to two. Restricting your intake of alcohol can have amazing results on a weight loss diet. People often forget the number of calories a unit of alcohol contains – about 85 calories for a small glass of white wine — and are at a lossto understand why their weight increases when their consumption of food doesn’t. Alcohol’s the reason!
Make Small Changes for Big Results
Making small changes to the way you prepare food can result in significant weight loss. Although it’s difficult to see how one can lose weight sim ply by refraining from spreading butter on a piece of bread, this practice is usually applied to other food preparations, which over time add up.
For example, there’s no need to spread butter on bread if you’re using a sandwich filling that contains oil such as tuna mayonnaise. Likewise, there’s no need to automatically reach for the fat or oil when cooking: broiling or grilling food requires no fat and, furthermore, allows the food’s natural supply of fat to drain away.
When sauteing foods, a non-stick pan is a good investment as it means you can cook with no or very little oil. These are good practices to adopt, as if maintained over a period of time they can become a habit that will help you not only to lose weight but also to maintain your weight loss.
