Smart ways to drop those holiday pounds

Get fit the smart way

Don’t skip

Losing weight should not be equivalent with deprivation and starvation. In fact, skipping meals is not effective (unless you go to the extremes, which is harmful to your entire body/organs). Skipping meals is bad for dieting due to the fact that it:

• Deprives the body of the fuel it needs to function properly
• Messes with your blood sugar and insulin response which can lead to diabetes
• Leads to binge eating later

Do it the right way

Losing weight or at least maintaining a healthy weight is never a bad idea. But it needs to be done the right way. Here’s the right way….

• Add to your diet instead of subtracting from it. This means add healthy foods such as fresh fruits and veggies, lean meats and other protein sources such as eggs and nuts, whole grain breads and yes, even some fat.
• When it comes to fat, it’s better to go with a small amount of the ‘real thing’ than a lot of the substitutes. Eating a pat of real butter will give more flavor and fewer calories than 2-3 pats of a substitute. You can eat less real cheese, sour cream etc. and get more flavor than more servings of the substitutes.
• Go whole when it comes to milk. Dairy products (the real ones) are fat burners and the vitamins and calcium in whole milk are necessary for women.
• Get walking. It’s low impact and highly rewarding. Every 30 minutes you walk is 100 calories burned. Take the stairs. Park a block away from the store. Get off the bus a bit earlier.
• Get active. Make a point of doing household chores every day. Don’t shy away from yard work. Bending and reaching to put dishes away, pick up toys and so on…all of these burn calories.
• Lighten the foods you love. Go for yogurt instead of ice cream. Eat 2 slices of pizza instead of 3. Don’t clean your children’s plates. Don’t finish their kids’ meals. Drink water, unsweetened tea of diet soda.
• Speaking of water…drink it! Hydration is key to a healthy and trim body. And the colder the better. It takes calories to warm the body. Drinking icy cold water burns calories and hydrates! Wow!
• When you and your hubby eat out, split an entrée. The portions are way more than one person needs, anyway. Just ask for an extra plate and order an extra salad-dressing on the side.
• Use smaller plates. Call it psychological, call it psycho, call it whatever you wish. But it’s a proven fact that filling a smaller plate will make you full faster and you’ll eat less than using those giant dinner plates we have in our cupboards.
• Be patient. It takes a lot less time to put calories into your body than it takes to burn them off. Think about it…you can consume 600-1,000 calories at dinner (which lasts less than a hour), but it takes 3 hours to walk off 600 calories and a little less than an hour of pilates or yoga to burn of those same 600 calories.

Be kind to yourself

The goal to being the owner of a happy, healthy body is to be one who isn’t obsessed with dieting. The trends and fads that have you fasting, cleansing, dropping hormones on your tongue and depriving yourself of certain food groups are quick-fixes that don’t last and can do great harm to your body.

Instead, opt for the only truly effective diets there are those that focus on fruits, veggies, lean meats, and whole grains and do not impose strict rules but sustainable lifestyle changes that benefit the whole body.