Most everyone has ideas about how to lose weight, but few follow through with a plan. If you’re serious about slimming down, these 5 tips for losing weight small changes can help.
These changes aren’t the “end all, be all” to lose weight. In fact, you will probably think they’re too insignificant to do any thing. However, they are the rock solid place to start the process. They are more like small lifestyle changes that can really make a difference when it comes to losing weight.
5 Tips for Losing Weight
Tip #1 – Eat at the Table
As I said earlier, these methods are really not extreme in any way. But, they will still help you. If you are one of those people or families who usually eat in front of the TV, it will really help your weight-loss goals if you turn that TV off, set the table, and engage in some meaningful conversation.
The reasoning behind this is that, if you eat while watching TV at home, your brain is distracted, so you will generally wind up eating way more than you should eat – the numbers show an approximate 40% increase in food consumption while watching TV.
So, it does seem insignificant, but if you can eat your meals without the distraction of TV, you can focus more on what exactly you are eating, which means you’ll eat less.
Tip #2 – Don’t Use Red/Yellow Plates
YWhen it comes to tips for weight loss, you’ll think I’m crazy with this one. Trust me, this is just simple psychology. Psychologically, certain colors stimulate specific parts of your brain, causing an increase (or a decrease) in hunger.
This is why, if you look at pretty much every fast food joint, the dominant colors are red and yellow. The McDonald’s arches, the Burger King signs, the Wendy’s Logo, the list goes on and on.
Every one of those places incorporates yellow and red into their massive signs, ads, menus, and billboards because red and yellow stimulate hunger.
It’s a genius businesses plan that gets customers to order more food, but if you are trying to lose weight, you should avoid using plates of those hunger-stimulating colors.
Tip #3 – Take the Coffee, Make It Black
This really goes for any drink, but a consistent area of unnecessary calories and sugars comes in your morning coffee. If you put coffee creamer, sugar, cream, etc. into your coffee, this is an easy way to cut out a huge amount of fat-building molecules.
If you really can’t drink your coffee or tea straight and black, try a small spoonful of honey. This is a good way to sweeten your drink naturally, avoiding any processed sugars, and improving the taste of straight black coffee.
Personally, coffee with honey is my constant go-to. Honey’s good for you, so is coffee; it’s all that other junk that makes the drink potentially fattening. And definitely stay away from Starbucks lattes and the like.
Tip #4 – Fruits and Veggies
This is one of the tips that you have to be careful with. That’s because while fruit is good for weight loss, too much of a good thing, will backfire your results.
Fruit is good because it’s full of healthy fiber. On the other hand, it’s bad because you can get fat from the natural sugars and calories. Just keep that in mind.
At the same time as you are making an effort to eat less processed and refined foods, you should be making every effort to incorporate greater levels of fruits and vegetables into every meal.
They will keep you feeling full longer, and they are natural whole foods; this means you’re getting all the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals you need to be healthy. Reach for that apple instead of the Kit Kat.
Tip #5 – Ween Yourself Off of Processed Stuff
This goes together with the 4th tip. It will be much more difficult for you to try and quit ‘junk’ food cold turkey. Instead, try to simply let your supply of junk food dwindle, and instead of replacing it, simply purchase more healthy alternatives.
By the time your final package of Ritz crackers is sitting in the garbage, you might not even be tempted to buy another.
Losing Weight is Hard
Losing weight is one of the hardest things you can try to accomplish. However, these tips for losing weight help you make a shift in attitude, mentality, and lifestyle.
The best way to do it is in bits and pieces. Shift minimal parts of your lifestyle, one at a time and gradually adjust yourself to a healthier environment.
Maintaining A Healthy Weight is Easier
Now, the problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that, more often than not, they are swept to some dark, cobwebbed recess of your mind by (or before) the first of February.
With weight loss, if you truly want to experience some success, you have to stay devoted and you have to stay consistent. But, often, that might seem really hard to manage.
Eating Healthy is the Key
If you add in all those hundred-and-one things you need to accomplish, between work and kids and other commitments, finding the time to eat healthily and exercise at home might seem completely unattainable.
And, I can’t fault you for that view – weight-loss diets and programs involve entire lifestyle shifts, which are never easy to enter into. They take a lot of time, they consume your life, and few people really have time for their lives to be consumed by an effort to lose weight.
Summary
That doesn’t mean losing weight is unimportant, however, which is why I’ve compiled this list of some truly minor ways to start losing weight. These tips for losing weight are easy to implement, not the end-all, be-all but powerful, nonetheless.
And, along the way, implement some of these tips to help you cut down.
The biggest thing to remember: be patient. This won’t come right away, you’ll have to work for it. But you can do it. All you need is a little faith.