So, it's New Year's resolution time again. Are you preparing for the umpteenth New Year's diet recipe? Which one will it be this time around? The cookie diet, the cayenne pepper diet, the Suzanne Somers diet, the maple syrup diet, a rapid weight loss pill, or one of the other quick weight loss fads of the moment? Why don't you join me in making this New Year's diet a common sense occasion? Let's take a look at 5 easy-to-take steps that can introduce you to the best diet for life. Steps that stop yo-yo dieting permanently, while ensuring fat loss and a healthy, toned body.
Step 1. Don't Get Ripped Off With Rapid Weight Loss Pills And Potions
We have all seen the ads:
Lose 10 pounds in 3 days.
30 Pounds in 30 days.
Drop 2 sizes in 2 weeks without exercise.
Vibrate your way to a slim figure.
Shake off 50 pounds of fat with magical shakes.
The weight loss industry knows its vulnerable target market intimately - especially when it comes to New Year diets. These innovative marketers are very much aware of the buttons they need to push to get you to part with your hard-earned cash. The two main themes are instant gratification and anything that sounds like an easy, quick fix.
Let's use our common sense. The weight came on over a long period. The bad habits weren't formed overnight. How can we expect to lose all the 'bad stuff' overnight and keep it off for life? If we don't change our lifestyles, the unwelcome pounds will just come piling back - and invite a bunch of friends to boot. How many times have you dropped a number of pounds in a short period, only to gain it back with dividends within an even shorter period? Isn't it time to say: 'Enough'?
Step 2. Use Your New Year's Diet To Lose Fat, Not Water And Muscle
It is fairly easy to lose weight. It is much harder to keep it off. If you want to be successful in your weight loss efforts, you need to keep a close watch on your body composition. If you are losing water and muscle, you are not doing your body any favors. In fact, you will be slowing down your metabolism, causing an even greater weight gain headache.
If you choose the road of patience, you will be more likely to lose the fat, without putting your metabolism on a go-slow strike in the process. There simply is no way to do this overnight. Your target should be to lose around 2 pounds per week. Use tools such as a skin fold caliper to check that you are in fact losing fat. This can be done at home, but you may get more accurate results at a health club.
Step 3. Throw Out The Shakes, Meal Replacements And Starvation Tactics
The best diet for life should include a new health style for your whole family. You can't live on meal replacements or cabbage soup. Your body and mind will never be satisfied with a shake in place of a filling, chewy, delicious, aromatic meal. Meal replacements can never be long-term solutions. They simply put your body into a sort of starvation mode, which is why you simply gain the weight again when the diet is 'over'. You need a diet and nutrition plan you can maintain for life.
Frankly, we have been made to enjoy good food. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, we can and should even feel free to 'cheat' from time to time and enjoy a treat, without losing the weight battle. Try not to make food an issue. Teach your kids to prepare food in a healthy low-fat way, and they will never have reason to deprive and punish themselves with starvation diets. We need the aroma, the textures, the beautiful colors and the pleasure of good, healthy food. Make that part of your New Year diet recipe.
Step 4. Take Out A Calculator And Learn To Do The Math
Perhaps we should stop thinking in terms of a New Year's diet altogether. If you need to drop 10 or 30 or even 100 pounds, you can do this by simply making a few sums and changing some habits. You will not even feel deprived. Did you know that you could save 22,000 calories and lose around 6 pounds of fat in a year by simply switching from whole milk to skim milk? Or that by reducing your daily mayonnaise habit by one tablespoon daily, you could make another 9 pounds of flab and fat disappear over 12 months? This without taking any other steps.
Do some research and find other examples that can easily be incorporated into your new family healthstyle. Get the kids involved and they will soon discover that they only need to make smarter food choices. What can be easier than this? You can even give a prize to the family member who comes up with the most useful New Year diet suggestion.
Step 5. Make Family Activity A Fun Part Of Every Day
If you want to change the size of your butt, you have to drop the 'but' and start exercising. There simply is no other choice - you move, and the fat will start to move. Excuses and inactivity won't get you into that skin-tight pair of jeans. Don't have the cash for a gym membership? No problem. There are many affordable fitness equipment tools for home use. Put on some of the best workout music, and get an exercise ball workout going. Or set the kid in you free with an urban rebounder exercise routine.
Frankly, you don't even need to buy any special equipment. How about a brisk walk or a family bike ride daily? Twenty to thirty minutes of activity 5 days a week, will make a huge difference. Your metabolism will be revved up, enabling you to burn fat faster, even while you sleep. Used to saying 'I just have to look at a piece of pie to gain 5 pounds'? When your metabolism starts to work efficiently, this problem will disappear. You will find that extra pounds begin to look for another host. You can also add workouts with free weights. The extra muscle mass will become like a furnace when it comes to burning calories. Doesn't this sound like a new year diet recipe for success?
Aren't these 5 common sense steps all doable and affordable? If you need more guidance when it comes to nutrition and a weight loss cardio workout, you can tap into the knowledge of experts who know exactly what you need to do to burn the fat, while you feed the muscle.
Isn't it time to forget about yet another apple cider vinegar diet? Isn't it time to take the first steps in the direction of a new health style, while putting together your family's New Year's diet?
