The Holidays have passed and whether you’ve made a resolution or goal to lose weight and better your health, taking advantage of what Express Weight Loss Clinic offers is the best gift you can give yourself and your family! Utilizing the clinicians’ expertise at Express Weight Loss will not only help you achieve your weight loss goals but put you on the right track to a healthy lifestyle and a better you! With the help of Express Weight Loss, kick-start your healthy lifestyle journey with these great weight loss tips!
Set realistic goals. Wanting to lose weight and strive for a healthy body is great, but if your expectations exceed the time and effort you’re willing to put in to achieve your goal, then you’re setting yourself up to fail. Don’t strive for perfection because that doesn’t exist, but aim to be the best that you can be!
Eat a vegetarian meal once a week. Not only will you be adding vitamins, minerals and fiber to your diet, having an all veggie meal provides a good change to your weekly meal planning! The recipe options are endless and if you’re missing the hardiness of meat, add legumes and plant based proteins to provide healthy fats, carbohydrates and protein.
Plan your meals for the week and prepare them ahead of time for easy access. Meal prepping is a big deal these days. You can buy reusable and microwave safe meal-prep containers on Amazon in large quantities! On a day you’ve got the time, usually Saturday or Sunday, cook what you want for the week; start with a protein (chicken, pork, salmon, beef) then choose your healthy sides and start packing! I’ve added some great recipes to my Pinterest page. Click HERE to view them! The pre-made meals are great for having to decide on what you’re going to eat for lunch and dinner, and think of all the dishes you are NOT washing!
Keep healthy snacks on hand. All. The. Time. For those of us that have busy schedules that require traveling or being in the car or always out and about, having something easy to grab when you’re hungry will only help your day go by easier and you won’t get a case of the “hangry”! Having a small, portable insulated cooler bag to keep in your car is one great way to carry healthy snacks like string cheese, drinkable yogurts, small hummus packs, fruits, meats and hard-boiled eggs. Adding a frozen, reusable ice block will help keep the food cool, too. If you can’t use a cooler, having a bag of mixed nuts, a meat stick or granola bar stashed in a purse or briefcase will also help the hunger pangs! It’s also important to eat snacks when you’re hungry. I noticed when I stayed at home with my daughter or for days I worked from home and had down time, I found myself feeling hungrier and snacking more than usual. Come to find out, it was because I was bored. What felt like hunger pangs to me, was just my body needing something other than food; like mental stimulation or to get my butt up and move! Don’t confuse the two. If you’re keeping busy, eating right and still feel the need to snack, then by all means eat! When we eat when we’re bored all we’re doing is sabotaging ourselves.
Gradually add exercise to your daily routine. Start slow if exercising is new to you. No need to go all in and work out hours at a time but starting with two-three days a week of light to moderate physical activity for 30 minutes will help speed up your weight-loss. Joining your local gym isn’t really necessary unless you want to take full advantage of what the gym offers. There are so many great at-home work-out DVD’s and online workout programs a gym membership may not be worth the commitment. I have to highly recommend Beachbody work-out videos. Speaking from personal experience, you CAN get success! Not only do they have a plethora of exercise programs for beginners to super elite athletes, they provide coaching, meal planning, support as well as their new On-Demand online video streaming! All of their programs can be completed from the comfort of your own home! Check them out by clicking HERE! If you currently exercise during the week but need change, try adding strength training to your routine. Light to medium weights are great in helping to burn additional calories, but weights also sculpt muscle and build strength!
Save the fast food chains when you really, really need food quickly. There are so many fast food chains where I live it’s ridiculous and what is more ridiculous is how busy they are! The best way to help achieve your weight-loss goal is cutting back on how much you eat out, especially at fast food restaurants. Keep your wallet full instead of your belly by cooking your own meals. By eating out less you’re not pumping your body full of sodium, fats, carbs and sugars; you are also saving money! However, life happens and the occasional drive-thru will ensue and when it does, choose wisely. Order items from the kids’ menu or order a junior sized burger. Salads with a protein or a grilled chicken sandwich are other great options. Skip the fries and order fruit or a side salad. Most fast food joints will do their best to accommodate what you want so don’t be afraid to ask!
Increase your fat intake. And by increasing fat intake, I do NOT mean supersize your Big Mac meal deal or order the fried “everything” dish on date night. Incorporating and increasing healthy fats in our diet are so good for our mind and our bodies. We’ve been brain washed over the years to stay away from fat because fat will make you fat. Totally not the case. Eating healthy fats like fish fats; think salmon, tuna, sardines, and fat from plants like avocados, nuts, and olives, as well as olive and avocado oils, butter, nut and seed butters, dark chocolate, and full-fat dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurts. Adding a healthy fat to your meal can aid in weight loss and will keep you fuller longer. Eating a small avocado to your lunch or cooking your eggs in a tablespoon of butter is a great way to start. Basically, healthy fats help us to lose weight, balance hormones, and eliminate constant cravings!
Don’t make any food off limits. When we eliminate a food group from our diet, mentally, we have already failed. Once I’ve told myself I cannot have bread, I will immediately want to eat anything that contains carbohydrates! There are ways of eating where decreasing a food group aids in weight loss, reduces blood sugars, blood pressure and so on. Eating less red meat, less refined sugars and simple carbohydrates do help your body. However, taking them out of your diet completely isn’t sustainable for a long-term healthy lifestyle. Don’t deprive yourself of the things you love. Life is too short to not enjoy and indulge in foods that are sinful. Enjoy the foods you love in moderation and by all means, don’t beat yourself up after eating a food that is labeled “bad” for you.
Learn how to read food labels. The FDA put Nutrition Facts on the foods we eat for a reason. It’s easy to glance at a food label and find out the fat, calorie and protein content quickly but you also have to understand the serving size of that food to know how it incorporates in your daily diet. Take for example, Pop Tarts; they are packaged two in wrapper; however, the serving size is for ONE pop tart, not both! And the nutrition information on a bag of chips is NOT for the entire bag, but for a certain number of chips. It’s also important to read the ingredients on food labels. My rule of thumb is, if you cannot pronounce the ingredients on a food label then don’t eat it! Eating foods with ingredients you don’t have to Google and you know what they are, the better that food choice is going to be for you!
Don't reward yourself with food. If you’ve made progress in your weight-loss goal, reward yourself with tangible things like a new workout outfit, killer shoes or an outfit to wear out on the town! Recognizing you’ve worked hard to achieve a goal and you’re succeeding because your clothes fit better, you can run further, or your blood pressure has lowered gives you all the reason to celebrate and treat yourself! But, the last thing you should go out and do is eat a big plate of cheese fries or a dozen donuts. Trust me, I know it will taste amazing, but after a few minutes guilt will set in and is it really worth feeling that way? Rewarding yourself with a new pair of jeans or running shoes will have lasting pleasure and only keep you on track to achieve your weight-loss goal!