10 Simple Diet Tips for your Soul
My new year’s resolution? To lose weight. The same as hundreds of thousands of other souls out there.
Where to start? A nice simple diet coupled with cardio every day. I know it can be difficult, as I have been tempted to quit nearly every day; tempted to give into that can of coke or that piece of cheesecake.
photo by Liberoliber
The following simple tips will help you keep on track. They worked for me in the toughest of times.
1. Hungry after a meal?
Drink water. This will fill up your stomach and alleviate your hungry pangs. This I have found the most useful. After supper, approximately 2 hours before bedtime I start to get snack-ish. By drinking a glass of water I trick myself into thinking I am not hungry. Then, by the time my body realizes, I am fast asleep.
2. Replace the sodas/pops with water.
This will cut down the calorie intake drastically. Bored of water? I know I am…try sugar-free flavored powder.
3. Stop eating 2 hours before bed.
If you have to eat something, have something light, or a meal supplement. Going to bed after having a huge meal is taxing on your digestive system. By not eating before bed you will get a better sleep and the calories won’t be directly stored instead of burned off immediately.
4. Eat 5 small meals a day.
This will keep your metabolism going and help to curb your hunger. Calorie burning will be easy if your metabolism is always idling.
5. Add protein into your meals.
As many sites state, they are better for you than carbs and fats and are good for helping repair your body after exercises, which you will hopefully coupling with your new diet.
6. Leave food on your plate.
This will short circuit the instinct to eat everything in sight. Stocking up on calories use to be beneficial to our survival since many days may have passed without any food. Since our society is now over flowing with food, this instinct to eat all is mal-adaptive.
7. Get stressed and look for chocolate?
Instead, deal with stress through cardio or through yoga or mediation. You will feel great afterwards.
8. Stock your house with healthy snacks.
I know when I am about to watch a movie I look for the candy, soda and popcorn immediately. Replace this with fruits or vegetables. Try the reduced calories popcorn. Cut out the soda. Trust me, it might be hard at first but it is doable.
9. Limit alcohol.
I freaked out when I saw how many calories were in a glass of wine or a bottle of beer. You may not think it, but alcohol is huge for calorie intake.
10. Hate to say it, exercise.
It takes about three weeks to make a habit. Start slow, about 10 minutes of running on a treadmill a day or something similar. I started in January, doing approximately 5 minutes on an elliptical bike, 2 days a week. I am now doing 30 minutes on weekends and 20 minutes during the week. If you want to lose weight you need to burn the calories.
It is not easy, I know it, you know it, we all know it. The previous tips are ones that I have found to be most effective in helping me keep my New Year’s goal. It has been three years since I have been making a decision to lose weight, this is the first year that has gotten off to such a great start.
If I can do it, so can you, and you have other tips share with all of us.
February 8th, 2008
Ever hear of diet soda? They have it in several stores these days.
February 8th, 2008
@Hizzoner, I agree with you. There are a lot of things in stores these days but they are not very healthy. The first problem I can think of is because of the bubbles that cause stomach problems.
Many say that regular soda drinkers can experience muscle spams, systemic lupus or multiple sclerosis. These of course are extreme cases and may not affect everyone, but would you risk it. The main cause is supposed to be Aspartame.
Here are some info on diet Coke or diet Pepsi : http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1072214
February 9th, 2008
ok soda is bad for you. First diet is bad because it has aspartame which can kill you. http://www.douglassreport.com/reports/aspartame_3.html?gclid=CL7DutyUtpECFQTslgod0wMcCw
Also regular soda has high fructose corn syrup which is bad for you.
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html
just to and the icing on the cake carbonation is bad for your kidneys.
i’m a health nut, just had to say
February 9th, 2008
@Bob it’s true. (by the way, welcome aboard)
You got them right. Aspartame is the one that could cause big problems.
You guys may want to stay away from it.
February 9th, 2008
Nice list, but I think instead of leaving food on your plate, as suggested in number 6, it would be better if you just get smaller portions of food in the first place, right?
February 9th, 2008
For the first question, I will have to agree that this is another good solution. But the fact that you leave food on your plate is a psychological issue. Your stomach understands that you finished eating. That you had enough.
If you have smaller portions and finish everything, then the brain may understand, there’s more to come.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on that issue.
February 10th, 2008
@Alex
Your first point is well taken. The psychological impact could be what you said. However, If we try to analyze it further, if the brain, in the first place, is trained into thinking that it should only get small portions. and no more than that, it would logically rationalize, subconsciously, that it can only eat that much. It won’t be expecting any more than what was consciously taken.
Thanks for the reply.
February 14th, 2008
all these diet websites miss one point, your diet should be determined by a dietician. what if you have hypoglycemia and thats the reason for not being able to lose weight? (which was my case) i started to use those pills and lost 15 kgs from the abdomen with no extra dieting or effort. see a physician
February 14th, 2008
@cagri: you’re right. Those tips were mostly for people with no health problems. No one said these are the only ways of losing weight, but they do help.
If you have problems, then do what cagri said, see a physician.
February 16th, 2008
Sorry that I am entering this discussion so late. I do totally agree though that you should be careful with weight loss and seeing if you might have a health condition. However, @cagri, I do like “these diet websites” because they give people an understanding on how healthy living and dieting looks like. What they tell you is that you shouldn’t overeat, you should exercise and you do need to drink your water. This is what it really does boil down to and the websites are doing a great job motivating people to take a look at their health and lifestyle.
March 1st, 2008
don’t drink alcohol
March 2nd, 2008
I started drinking more water by putting a splash (literally) of OJ in my water.
Also I had to drink a litre of water in 15 minutes, one hour before an ultrasound. That made me realise how easy it is to drink the right amount of water in a day.
So, I scheduled glasses of water into my outlook calendar and now I habitually drink enough water.
the O.J. is for if I’m bored and it ensures that I don’t go for the iced coffee, coffee or soft drinks and that I don’t drink too much juice (almost as bad for you as too much coke)
March 5th, 2008
WOW! Your tips are amazing, which will be very much useful to the people who are suffering with heavy weight. By drinking plenty of water, avoiding alcohol and following good diet will give a good impact on losing weight.
March 6th, 2008
“By not eating before bed…the calories won’t be directly stored instead of burned off immediately.”
This is an old wives tale that has been debunked. It’s the amount you eat, not when you eat it.
Which isn’t to say it makes sense to eat a large meal right before going to bed, but a light meal won’t hurt you any more at bedtime than two hours before.
Otherwise your points are pretty good — and exceptionally obvious.
March 6th, 2008
@bobh: food is being processed in the stomach for 5-7 hours and then goes into the colon. the thing is if you put your body/stomach at work while you sleep when both of “you” should relax.
This is why they say don’t eat before bed, so that you allow food to be processed.
March 7th, 2008
I’m not sure if this is true or not but somewhere I heard that a lot of people confuse hunger with thirst, and if you just drank a bottle or a glass of water the urge to eat something will subside for a while. If you truly are hungry the urge will come back sooner.
I drink mostly water and green tea with an herbal tea at night before bed. I even have my own take on the whole processed powdered flavoring for water – take a piece of fresh fruit (any thing you want, though i prefer strawberries or apples) and put it in a glass – add water – viola instant flavoring with none of the extra toxins.
And about adding protein to your diet – my personal trainer gave me a really awesome idea (well at least I think so). Hard boil some eggs. The egg whites are complete protein with very little calorie content – the fat and calories come from the yolk. All you have to do is peel and remove the yolk and eat – you can even use the egg white to top off a spinach salad. Its a really quick grab and go kind of thing, especially in the fast paced world we live in.
Cheers
March 7th, 2008
Great advice Karen, and I would like to add it has less cholesterol and it has a good dose of Calcium.
June 1st, 2008
We switched from boring water to making herbal decaff. teas. It tastes great and it is so refreshing:-)
February 19th, 2009
I appreciate your honesty in this blog these 10 tips are really very useful.
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