Five
Lifestyle Tips for a Leaner You
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Wouldn’t
it be incredible if every pound you lost stayed off forever?
It’s easier than you think if you make consistent lifestyle
changes. (A lifestyle change is something that you can truly
do most days of your life without too much effort or deprivation.
Everything else is just another diet! ) Choose one or more of
these lifestyle tips shared in my book, Scale Down. Start applying
them to your life and you’ll begin losing fat without
dieting.
TIP
#1: Change Your Thinking
Do you really believe you can get and stay lean for life? If
you don’t…you won’t! Get in tune with your
self-talk. Discover your lies…and replace them with truth!
You believe what you tell yourself most often. So, what do you
believe? In the human mind, the most dominant thought wins.
If you tell yourself a new truth long enough, your behavior
will change. Make an audio tape with the new messages you truly
want to believe and play it a two to three times each day. You’ll
be amazed at what can and will happen over time. Within several
months, your new self-talk could reset your “automatic
pilot” and lead you down a leaner lifestyle path!
TIP
#2 Change Your Attitude
Get rid of your old diet mentality and legalize all foods. If
you can have any food you want, any time you want it…then
you don’t need to have it all right now. Give yourself
permission to enjoy your favorite foods without feeling guilty.
Chances are your cravings will diminish and your willpower will
increase. And, while you’re at it, get rid of your “all
or nothing” attitude as well. It’s not either a
“diet day” or a “blow out day”. Every
time you think you’ve gone a little too far off the path…start
fresh right then and there. Don’t wait until the first
day of the week, the first day of the month or the first day
of the year. Restart again and again…right now…even
if it is Wednesday afternoon!
TIP
#3 Increase Your Energy
The higher your energy, the less likely you will be to overeat.
There are several important factors that will energize you to
the max. Each is important in its own right, so make sure you
don’t neglect any of these critical factors:
Eat
to stabilize your blood sugar: Include
a good source of protein and fiber in most meals and snacks,
especially at breakfast and lunch. Shoot for at least 30 grams
of fiber everyday. Try to avoid highly processed or sugary foods
until after lunch. This will help you maintain a more stable
blood sugar and that will significantly diminish cravings.
De-stress your life:
Stress releases hormones and sugar into your blood stream creating
a vicious cycle of fat storage and adrenaline rushes. When the
excess sugar released during stress goes unused, (since most
of us aren’t being chased by a wild animal) it ends up
getting stored as fat. The answer: Decrease your stress.
Sleep
until you are rested: Well-rested people have
higher mental, emotional and physical reserves. The body regenerates
at the cellular level only during deep, quality sleep. Most
people need a minimum of 71/2 hours per night. Try it…you’ll
be amazed at how well you’ll perform in many areas of
your life…including your lifestyle.
Exercise
for maximum energy:
Don’t wait to get up and get moving until you have enough
energy to exercise. Get moving purposely every day and you will
have more energy. You’ll feel better, more focused and
have better self-control. Get at least 10 minutes of purposeful
activity every morning before you jump in the shower. In seven
days, you will definitely feel a difference. The ideal is to
work toward at least 30 minutes of purposeful activity (a.k.a.
“exercise”) most days of the week.
TIP
#4 Burn More Calories
The bottom line to all weight management is simply: Calories
In vs. Calories Out. But, most people severely underestimate
how many calories they eat and over estimate how many they burn
during exercise. If you only eat ten calories more than you
burn each day, you’ll gain an extra pound of fat every
year. It’s the small stuff that adds up over time. So,
take action and reverse that equation by burning more calories
each and everyday. Just a little improvement can make a huge
difference over time!
The
average woman eats over 2,000 calories per day, but she only
burns about 1,700. That’s the perfect formula to gain
about 30 pounds in a year. And people wonder why Americans are
getting fatter every year—it’s simple math.
Here
are a few ways to burn a pound of FAT off your body each week:
1. Eat 500 less calories every day. (That’s about 2/3
of a scone at Starbuck’s)
2. Burn 500 calories more every day. (That’s about 4 miles
of walking or jogging)
3. Eat 250 calories less and burn 250 calories more each day.
(That’s a lifestyle change)
4. Get motivated to burn more calories with a Caltrac activity
monitor.
4. Build two pounds more muscle and increase your metabolism
100 calories a day.
6. Always park farther away, take the stairs and walk instead
of ride whenever you can.
TIP
#5 Creative Ways to Eat Fewer Calories
Practice
portion control:
Eat one-third to one-half your normal food portions whenever
possible. Leave part of your sandwich on the plate or eat only
half of your cookie. You’d be amazed at how this simple
technique will work…if you practice it consistently. Consider
this: If you’ve been eating an average of 2,400 calories
per day, a reduction of only 10% would result in a daily caloric
savings of 240 calories. That’s about 24 pounds in one
short year. One caution: never decrease your fruit or vegetable
servings.
Become
a daytime eater:
Try eating half as much food as you usually do after 6:00 p.m.
Most Americans would be much leaner if we simply ate less food
in the evenings! Think about it…we burn most of our calories
in the early part of our day and eat most of our calories just
before going to bed. Go figure…no wonder we’re getting
fatter.
Go
to “Calorie College”:
Buy a good quality “nutritional counts” book and
take one month to determine exactly what you are eating most
days (not just when you are dieting). Simply knowing what you
eat is essential to making wise choices. Once you find out that
your favorite scone at Starbuck’s is 680 calories and
that mocha is 560, you might choose to have them less often.
We wouldn’t think of neglecting to balance our checkbooks,
but most of us don’t have a clue how much we are eating
or burning.
Practice
substitution:
Find lower calorie versions (not just lower fat) of your favorite
foods whenever possible. There are so many tasty ice cream products
that have a lot less calories than Ben & Jerry’s.
Read labels and try new things. And remember, lower fat does
not always mean fewer calories.
Avoid
extremes of hunger and fullness: Make
a commitment that you will never allow yourself to get too hungry
or eat until you are overfull. Get tuned into the fact that
anytime you have overstuffed your stomach, you will most likely
be overstuffing a few fat cells and anytime you get extremely
hungry, you are setting yourself up for a binge.
Practice
the ten-minute delay strategy:
Whenever you have a craving for something and you’re not
the least bit hungry, don’t tell yourself you can’t
have it. Simply drink a tall glass of water and wait ten minutes.
If you still want it, then have half the amount you usually
would. This technique works most of the time…try it!
These tips are taken from Danna's bestselling book, Scale
Down.
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