Weight loss Tip 1 - Eating Out
When eating out, always choose the smallest portion size available. When we choose larger meals, most of us tend to eat past the point of hunger and in doing so consume more kilojoulesthan we need which contributes to weight gain.
Remember that if you are still hungry after choosing a smaller meal, you can always fill up with something else and enjoy a wider variety of tastes in the process.
Weight loss Tip 2 - Chips or Fries
If we absolutely must eat chips, opting for straight-cut and fatter chips instead of crinkle-cut and thin chips will help minimize fat intake. Straight-cut and fat chips have less surface area than crinkle-cut and thin chips so hold less fat. Extra fat equals extra taste, but if we want to lose weight we have to make some sacrifices! Try our Healthy Rosemary Potatoes to staisfy your chip craving.
Weight loss Tip 3 - Water
Try drinking a glass of water before a meal.
If you tend to overeat at certain meal times (like dinner for example), try drinking a medium to large glass of water 10 to 15 minutes before you sit down to that meal.
Drinking water before your meal will partially fill your stomach and may reduce your hunger levels, because often when we think we are feeling hunger, our body is actually telling us that it is getting dehydrated and needs some water.
Weight loss Tip 4 - Alcohol
Offer to be the "designated driver" more often.
If you go out for dinner and drinks with family and friends, offering to be the designated driver will save you hundreds of kilojoules because you can't drink as much alcohol.
In addition to drinking fewer kilojoules, you'll probably eat less as well because alcohol often makes us "let our guard down" and eat when we are no longer hungry.
Weight loss Tip 5 - Sweets or Chocolate
If you often find yourself reaching for chocolate or lollies in between meals, try eating a handful or two of mixed, unsalted nuts instead. For best results, mix your own and include nuts that you don't necessarily eat on their own. Eating mixed nuts together means you won't even notice the ones you don't normally eat.
Although some nuts are relatively high in fat, the fat they contain is good fat that our body needs to stay healthy. And because they are so filling, you will probably end up consuming far less total calories than if you ate a less healthy alternative.
Weight loss Tip 6 - Habits
Try to break unhealthy food associations.
Many of us get into the habit of enjoying unhealthy food and drink while we're doing everyday things like watching our favourite TV shows, visiting cinemas, going to our favourite club, etc.
Every time you go to the movies do you habitually order a large popcorn, ice-cream, large coke, bag of lollies or chocolates before sitting down? Or can you watch your favourite soap opera without a cup of coffee or tea and a few chocolate biscuits?
If the answer is yes and no respectively, you could have some unhealthy food associations that could be making you heavier or preventing you from losing weight.
Weight loss Tip 7 - Riding in the Wind
If you often fail to go on planned bicycle rides because it's too windy, reconsider.
If it's windy outside, it does make it harder to ride our bikes, particularly heading directly into a strong wind. But for those of us who want to lose weight, this is actually a good thing because the harder we are forced to work, the more calories we'll burn each minute!
Just be sure not to try to maintain the same speed you were doing with the wind when you're against it, you may get your heart rate a bit higher than is absolutely necessary.
Just slow down a little and enjoy the ride (as best you can under the circumstances!).
Weight loss Tip 8 - Water
Get into the habit of carrying a bottle of water with you wherever you go.
Keeping water handy will help keep you sufficiently hydrated and will help stop you reaching for the closest thing available when you inevitably become thirsty, such as carbonated drinks full of sugar or coffee, which actually causes further dehydration.
It's a well documented fact that many of us often mistake hunger for thirst and actually eat unnecessary calories when we are actually thirsty. When we are well hydrated, we're also less likely to overeat when we do sit down at the table.
Weight loss Tip 9 - Weekend
If you're a weekend food binger, plan ahead to make sure you have plenty of healthier snackingoptions in the house.
For example, pre-prepare some air-popped popcorn, mix up a blend of your favourite unsalted nuts, have some low fat yogurts ready to go in the fridge and try adding a dash of cordial to carbonated mineral water instead of drinking high sugar colas, etc.
Weight loss Tip 10 - Restaurant Menus
Opt for lighter choices once in a while at restaurants.
Many restaurants have lighter options on their menus these days, some have low-fat options and some have even jumped on the low-carb band wagon and offer low-carb options.
Whenever you're sitting in a restaurant looking through the menu, ask yourself if a lighter option would be a better choice. Where possible choose steamed, poached, boiled or baked foods rather than those that have been fried or deep fried.
Weight loss Tip 11 - Fat Sugar and Salt
Try to reduce the Fat, Sugar and Salt in your diet.
Diets high in fat and sugar are typically also very high in kilojoules or calories which when combined with low levels of exercise or activity can contribute greatly to us being overweight.
In addition, excessive levels of fat, sugar and salt in our diets have been shown to contribute to a variety of serious health conditions.
Foods that are 'low in fat' have 3g or less fat per 100g. Drinks low in fat have 1.5ml or less per 100ml.
Foods 'low in sugar' have 5g or less per 100g and drinks low in sugar have 2.5g or less per 100ml.
Foods 'low in salt' have 120mg or less per 100g.
While all the foods we eat won't have levels of fat, sugar and salt as low as this, these measures can be useful when we are comparing food options.
Weight loss Tip 12 - Workout buddy
Join a gym or hire a personal trainer with a friend. Joining a gym or hiring a personal trainer with a friend has many advantages.
Foremost among these advantages are that you'll have a workout buddy, who can keep you motivated and keep you company while you get used to the gym environment and exercising regularly, and you'll save money because most gyms and personal trainers offer discounts when you join or train with a friend.
Just be careful to make sure that both of you are as committed to exercise as each other and be prepared for the time when your workout buddy isn't able, or doesn't want to, workout any more or as regularly as you do.
Hopefully by the time this happens (if it happens at all), you'll have made new friends at the gym or enjoy exercising so much that you are motivated and happy enough to do it on your own or find a new workout buddy.
Weight loss Tip 13 - Challange Yourself
Participate in a weight loss challenge.
Getting yourself a diet buddy or buddies and setting yourself a 12 week weight loss goal is a great way to lose weight.
Losing weight when you've got someone else to compete against will give you extra motivation and help you to stay on track.
The members of the Weightloss Forum currently have such challenges which you can participate in simply by registering as a member of the forum, which is totally free.
Weight loss Tip 14 - Walk for 30 mins
Walk for a ½ hour instead of watching TV.
Some people believe that watching TV is a great way to wind-down after a hard day and doing exercise is often the last thing on their minds.
But going for a half-hour or hours walk instead of plonking down in front of the TV can help you de-stress, clear your mind and set you up for a relaxing evening and a great night's sleep.
You can make the walk even better if you take your partner, children or dog with you.
Weight loss Tip 15 - Share With a Friend
Share an entree or dessert with a friend.
Many of us put on weight because we make careless or unconscious eating decisions, like automatically ordering an entree or dessert while at a restaurant.
Most restaurants main meals are already too big and as well as eating them, many of us eat entrees and/or desserts as well.
If this sounds like you, start sharing your entree or dessert with a friend and your waist-line will thank you.
Weight loss Tip 16 - Alternate your Exercise Routine
Vary your exercise.
In addition to helping us avoid boredom, adding variety to our exercise program actually helps us lose more weight and become fitter.
When we perform the same exercises at the same intensity, our bodies get used to our routine and stops responding. Muscles only get stronger when they need to adapt. By changing exercises and the order in which we do them, we keep our body guessing and force it to respond and adapt.
Weight loss Tip 17 - How Fit Are You
To get a an idea of your fitness level before starting a new exercise program, try running or walking for 12 minutes and see how far you get.
If you can walk or run 1.6 kilometres in 12 minutes or less, then you're in decent shape. Most beginners won't make it this far in under 12 minutes, so don't be too hard on yourself if you don't.
Beginners should start out at a comfortable pace and increase their speed as their fitness improves.
Weight loss Tip 18 - Eat Leaner Red Meat & Poultry.
Fat contains 37 kilojoules (9 calories) per gram while protein and carbohydrates only contain around 17 kilojoules (4 calories) per gram so it makes sense to try to reduce the amount of dietary fat in our diets if we are trying to lose weight.
One relatively simple way of doing this is to eat the leanest red meat and poultry available to us.
As well as buying the leanest meat and poultry we can in the first place, we can also trim off any access fat from our cuts of meat and remove any skin from our poultry.
Weight loss Tip 19 - Portion Control
One of the reasons many of us are putting on weight year after year is that we have lost all sense ofcorrect portion sizes.
Because most meals served in restaurants and at home are much larger than we actually need to maintain a healthy body weight, some people use a very simple technique to successfully lose weight and keep it off – they only eat half of what is on their plate!
Could this work for you?
Weight loss Tip 20 - Walk during your lunch break.
For most of us our lunch break is an ideal time to go for a walk but many people miss this opportunity to build their fitness, relieve stress and burn precious extra calories.
If you aren't motivated enough to go walking alone, organise a walking group among your colleagues, you're sure to find other people who want to get fitter and lose a little weight.
Weight loss Tip 21 - Increase your Incidental Exercise
Park your car further away from the shops and walk.
Increasing the amount of incidental exercise we do each day is one of the secrets to successfulweight loss. By parking further away from the shops than you normally would you'll force yourself to increase the number of steps you take in a day which will help burn off extra calories and help improve your fitness.
Weight loss Tip 22 - Be Realistic
Set Realistic Goals. Successful weight loss doesn't happen overnight, it takes months and years, not days and weeks.
Concentrate more on changing your habits than you do on what your bathroom scales say and with time what they tell you will start to reflect the changes you've made in your life.
Weight loss Tip 23 - Clean Out Your Cupboards!
Don't Keep Goodies You Can't Resist In The Cupboard.
Keeping chocolates, lollies, soft drink and other tempting goodies in your cupboards makes eating them inevitable.
Even people with very strong will power have moments of weakness from time to time and if we've got a lot of weight to lose, will power is not likely to be one of our strong points.
Clean your cupboards out (including those nooks and crannies where you've got an emergency stash of chocolate hidden!).
What you'll find if you do is that when you go looking for goodies to satisfy a craving you'll be forced to eat a healthier option which in time will become your new habit.
And remember; there are plenty of shops full of goodies that will still be there when you're ready to eat them in moderation again.
Weight loss Tip 24 - Support
Have A Support System In Place To Help You Stay Honest.
Because dieting is a day to day challenge it becomes easy to feel lonely. At the end of the day, dieting is one of those things that no one can do for you but they can help; particularly if they are dieting themselves or have successfully dieted in the past.
Having a support system can take many forms including family and friends you trust, work colleagues or fellow dieters on a weight loss forum like ours.
Sometimes having a solid support system is the only way to make it through a tough day.
If you've been obsessing over a particular food or you're tempted to eat for reasons other than being hungry, a telephone call, an email or writing a post on a forum may be just the way for you to regain control.
Weight loss Tip 25 - Eat More Than Just Three Meals A Day
If you've ever dieted before you'll know that 3 meals a day just doesn't cut it; particularly when the new diet severely restricts calories.
When we restrict calories, our body senses it and slows down our metabolism (the rate at which it burns energy) to compensate. One way of overcoming this is to eat smaller meals more frequently, say every two or three hours or five to six times per day.
Weight loss Tip 26 - Pre-Plan All Of Your Meals
There's an old saying in business “Plan the work - work the plan”.
This saying is just as applicable to successful dieting as it is to successful business.
By pre-planning and where possible pre-preparing your meals, you'll find those times when you're in a situation where you're tempted just to grab a quick take away and set your diet back weeks will almost disappear.
Weight loss Tip 27 - Keeping a Diary
Keep A Food Diary Or Weight Loss Diary.
Keeping a log of what you eat, when and why you eat it allows you to look at the big picture and learn more about your eating habits.
Be sure to write down as much information as possible and use the knowledge you gain to plan ahead and change your daily eating habits for good.
Weight loss Tip 28 - Ask Your Waiter
When Eating Out, Don't Be Afraid To Ask For What You Need.
In the future, restaurants are going to be forced to make their mainstream menus much healthier as more and more of us become increasingly conscious and knowledgeable about good nutrition and demand to be offered healthier food choices. Until then it's going to be up to us individually to speak up and ask for what we want.
Luckily, most restaurants are getting used to adapting their food to the dietary needs of their patrons. Most waiters don't even batter an eyelid when someone requests an entrée sized meal as their main, their salad dressing on the side, or their fish steamed instead of pan-fried.
Weight loss Tip 29 - Shopping
Shop With A List And Shop The Perimeter.
Have you ever noticed that in every supermarket you've visited, regardless of its banner, that the staple products, like bread, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy (notice that most of these are unprocessed) are situated around the perimeter while products like chocolate, soft drinks, potato chips, biscuits, lollies and the like are in the aisles near the centre of the supermarket.
This being the case, those of us watching our weight should do most of our shopping around the outside of the supermarket and only venture into the inner sanctum for other essential items. We just need to be aware that some of those essential items will be strategically placed right next to the chocolate bars and this is where our shopping list comes in.
Once you have your shopping list, only buy things that are on it and nothing else.
Weight loss Tip 30 - Don't Be Obsessed By The Number
Look To The Mirror And How Clothes Fit Instead Of Scales. Let's face it, how we look and feel is what matters most.
Don't get too caught up on what you weigh. Scales don't differentiate between body fat and muscle (even those fancy ones that purport to do so) and body weight is only one of the measures that can provide us with feedback about our progress.
So what if you've only dropped a kilo or two, or even weigh the same as you did when you started! The important thing is, do you look and feel better?
Weight loss Tip 31 - Eat Meals On Smaller Plates.
Getting used to eating smaller portions is often more important that getting used to eating healthier foods when it comes to weight loss.
Two simple ways to reduce our portion sizes are to leave some of the food on our plates uneaten or to eat everything on a smaller plate.
Because some of us can't stand leaving food on our plate the best option is usually the smaller plate.
Weight loss Tip 32 - Plateau
Keep Going... Plateaus Happen!
Our bodies don't like dramatic change.
Thousands of years of evolution have taught our bodies that dramatic weight loss is a bad thing and it has automatic responses designed to minimise the damage.
Most people do notice immediate results when they first start a diet. Inevitably, these results drop off sharply after a few days or weeks.
Weight fluctuation is quite normal and sometimes our body just needs to get used to the idea of being at a new weight, even if it is a healthier one.
Above all else, persistence and consistency are the most important aspects of any weight loss program or diet. If you experience a plateau, don't waste your time worrying about it, just stick with your program and try mixing things up a bit and you'll get there.
Weight loss Tip 33 - Inspire Yourself
Tape a picture of your skinny self to the refrigerator for inspiration. To remind yourself what you can look like.
Weight loss Tip 34 - Dressing Tip
To make a delicious low fat mayonnaise, simply combine one teaspoon Dijon mustard or one teaspoon of satay sauce with a low fat yoghurt.
Weight loss Tip 35 - Sweet Craving
When you get a sweet tooth or feel like something you know you shouldn't, go brush your teeth.
Even if you do go ahead and eat you won't like the taste as much and it may stop you from craving it again in the future.
Weight loss Tip 36 - Negative Calorie Food
If you're having problems dropping the kilos, consume Negative Calorie Foods. These are foods that take up more caloric energy to digest then the calories that are in them.
Foods that are claimed to be negative in calories are mostly low-calorie fruits and vegetables such as celery. grapefruit, lemon, lime, apple, lettuce, celery, broccoli and cabbage. The only truly negative calorie beverage is ice water, which has no calories but requires the body to expend some energy to raise the liquid to body temperature.
Your body has to expend energy in order to digest and absorb foods, in fact, 10% of your daily caloric intake is used to process foods in your body. So these "negative" calorie foods are foods that take more calories to digest then actual calories in the item of food.
Weight loss Tip 37 - Tired When Exercising
If you're overweight and start to feel tired while walking or you find yourself with a hill to climb, do what I do:
Think about what you've done to yourself through neglect and bad living. Get angry with yourself, and speed up while you're going up that hill (don't run). You'll find that you get to the top quicker that way.
Walk down the other side with your head up high. You did it. Watch out world - nothing can stop you now!
Weight loss Tip 38 - Go Dancing
Dancing is a great form of exercise because it's fun and doesn't feel like exercise at all. Best of all you'll burn plenty of calories, get fitter and meet lots of new friends.
Check out our directory to find a dance class in your state.
Weight loss Tip 39 - Ride your Bike to Work
If you don't have time to exercise outside of working hours this is a great way to get your daily does of fat burning activity.
Because you'll be planning your day ahead on the way there and planning your evening on the way home you probably won't even realize that you're exercising and the time will fly.
If riding to and from work is a bit much to begin with, catch a train to work with your bike and ride home.
Weight loss Tip 40 - Workout at Home
Buy some exercise DVD's to keep at home and use them on rainy days.
Exercise DVD's are very cost effective and are very convenient because you can use them at any time that suits you.
Weight loss Tip 41 - Negotiate With Yourself
If you are going to have a treat, work out how much exercise you need to do to burn it off and only have that treat if you are willing to do the exercise.
Weight loss Tip 42 - Stop Sabotaging Your Potential for Change
We subconsciously use defense mechanisms to shield us from situations we perceive to be scary or painful. A part of you may want to grow and change, but another part may be resisting because change always moves you into new territory in your thinking and emotions.
If you find you are getting anxious, fearful, angry, frustrated, dismissive or unmotivated, then defense mechanisms are at work. Watch for them and know them to be signs of fear that wants to hold you back. Then courageously move through them.
Weight loss Tip 43 - Emotional Eating
Recognizing emotional hunger (as apposed to real physical hunger) is one of the keys to overcoming or staving off frequent emotional eating.
Some of the characteristics of emotional hunger include:
* Emotional hunger comes on suddenly.
* One minute you're not hungry at all and the next minute you're starving.
* Emotional hunger often craves specific food, like pizza, chocolate, or a cheeseburger.
* Emotional hunger begins in the mouth and the mind, not the stomach.
* Emotional hunger often accompanies an unpleasant emotion.
* Emotional hunger involves automatic or absent-minded eating.
* Emotional hunger isn't satisfied when you're full.
* Emotional hunger makes you feel guilty.
Weight loss Tip 44 - Keep the Faith
Keep believing in yourself.
You are in control and have the power to make changes in your life.
Weight loss Tip 45 - Moods
Develop new mood regulation strategies.
For example, share your problems when anxious and exercise when you're bored.
Weight loss Tip 46 - High Fibre
Try to eat more foods that are high in fibre.
Research shows that people who have diets high in fibre typically have lower body weights, lower body fat and lower body mass indexes.
Some researchers believe that the high incidences of obesity in the western world is in part due to the fact that our diets are typically very low in fibre compared to other regions of the world such as Africa and Asia, where diets are predominantly plant based.
Weight loss Tip 47 - Fruit vs Fruit Juice
Where possible, eat whole fruits instead of drinking fruit juices.
Many fruits have most of their goodness in the skin which isn't always used in making fruit juice.
Weight loss Tip 48 - Whole Grains
Replace white rice, bread, and pasta with brown rice and whole-grain products.
These products are less refined than their white counterparts and often have much more fibre in them which is digested slower, keeps us feeling fuller longer and releases its energy slower which keep our blood sugar levels even and helps us avoid cravings.
Weight loss Tip 49 - Deal With Your Emotions
If you internalize hurt and rely on food to deal with negative emotions, don't swallow your emotions for the sake of sparing others from getting upset.
If they've upset you, let them know about it and tell them that you won't tolerate that kind of behaviour in the future
Weight loss Tip 50 - No One Is Perfect
Love yourself for who you are and forget about trying to be perfect.
