Ten tips for real, lasting weight loss.

1. Add rather than subtract. Add more fruit and vegetables to your meals and start your snacks with fruit: - You will have less room for higher calorie, low nutrient foods and the extra fiber will make you feel full and keep you fuller for longer. Your body will benefit from the extra vitamins and minerals from all the fruits and vegetables. Sugar will be slowly released into your blood stream preventing sugar lows and highs. Keeping your sugar levels steady keeps your brain alert and your mood high. You will not feel like you are having to cut anything out which will help your moral.
2. Eat breakfast - Study after study shows that people who consume breakfast loose more weight and weight less on average than non breakfast eaters. Make sure your breakfast includes carbohydrate and protein to give your body the fuel and building blocks it needs to function effectively. Eating causes the metabolic rate to rise after the nights slow down and your bodyswitches to day time operating mode. No breakfast? - then your metabolism will remain low and you will be operating at below par all morning until you eat lunch.
3. Watch your portion sizes - When I get my food models out, which are correctly sized to reflect the portion sizes on the Canada food guide, many clients say “so is that the right size? I have been eating much larger portions than that”. Weigh and measure your food for a few days to give yourself an idea of how much you are really eating and then start using the correct measures. Manufacturers have increased the sizes of common foods we buy so it is easy to eat just a little more than we should eat meals and snacks without even thinking about it. Just an extra 100 calories a day adds up to 1 lb a month and 12 lb a year. Scary when you think you get 100 calories from a large slice of bread or ¼ of a Tim Horton’s muffin.
4. Eat moderate sized meals: - Unfortunately a nonexistent breakfast and a large lunch, even if it contains the same calories, is not used the same in the body as a medium breakfast and small lunch. At any one point in time, if your body has more calories than it needs, it will convert them to fat. This will happen in the first scenario after lunch. Your body likes just enough carbohydrate, protein and fat to perform at 100% efficiency, to repair and build cells as required and keep carbohydrate stores full. Your body will tell you when it needs food – you will FEEL hunger physically, not emotionally.
5. Watch the calories from alcohol they add up! - A glass of wine has around 90 calories and a small beer about 125. Doesn’t seem much, but these are usually extra calories over what your body needs for the day. 3-4 glasses of wine and you have nearly 400 calories, so unless you skimped during the day that is all extra calories and they are going straight to your waist line as fat.
6. Practice mindful eating - Don’t know what that is? Well it is the opposite of cramming down a muffin in the car on the way to work because that was all you have time for. Sit down when you eat. Eat slowly. Relax. Chew your food well. Put down your knife and fork between bites. Savour and really enjoy your food. You will eat less as this way as your body has a chance to notice it has eaten and feesl satisfied. The trouble with smoothes and protein shakes is that you drink them with a straw and do not get to savour them. Your body does not register how much it has eaten in the same way it does when you chew food. Relaxing when you eat you will end up eating far less, as your body has time to stop before your have over eaten.

7. Increase your fiber intake As mentioned in my first comment, fiber makes you feel full and so you eat less. It also keeps you fuller longer. Increase not only your fruit and vegetable consumption, but also whole grains and cereals. For instance: - whole wheat rather than white bread and brown rather than white rice. Adding oats is a great way to increase fiber in muffins and breakfast cereals. One of the greatest sources of fiber, but one which is often over looked, is beans and legumes. Try having legumes, lentils or beans as your protein source several times a week for a big impact on your health. Bean soup and bean salads are great at lunch in place of the white bread sandwich. Increasing fiber will also have a beneficial effect on your cholesterol level.

8. Don’t mention the word diet! It seems to have a demoralising effect. Suddenly you feel restricted, deprived and not able to have all the foods you enjoy. Instead, start saying you are making dietary changes to improve your health. That has a much more positive effect and makes us feel happier. Guess what? We eat less when we feel happier.

9. Drink plenty of water. When your body metabolises your fat stores it need oxygen and water. Your body will be more efficient at using up your fat stores when you are properly hydrated. Aim for 8-10 glasses of fluid a day, at least half of which should be water.

10. Exercise! Sorry, but no article on weight loss is worth paying attention to unless it is honest about the role of exercise in weight loss. Exercise burns calories, increases your metabolic rate, during and after exercise, which in turn increases the rate you burn calories. It also builds muscle and the more muscle you have the more calories you burn. So if you are looking to lose weight, burning some of those calories you have just eaten by exercising will stop you from them potentially being stored as fat. During exercise the body may also start to metabolise fat from your fat stores to fuel the exercise, thereby decreasing your fat stores – exactly what you are aiming for.
Exercise is a key part of successful weight loss. Start of slowly if you have been sedentary, walk to start, then after week or so add in few minutes of trotting, then start adding a few minutes jogging every ten minutes during your walk. Aim to get to 45 minutes of exercise daily at least 5 times a week and even better eventually 7 days a week.
A note on strength training under exercise: - Strength training builds muscle, which as I have just told you increases your calorie burning rate. It will also sculpt your body. Go to see a personal trainer to get a program put together - YMCA is good for a low cost start or Leaps and Bounds if you are in South Surrey. You can also just start with a few hand weights at home, go to wwwShape.com for some ideas on how to put together a home program.
Good Luck.