Posts Tagged ‘losing 10 pounds’

We’ve probably all found ourselves, at one time or another in our lives, wanting to lose some weight. Whether you’re trying to take off some pounds gained during the holiday season, preparing for a summer trip, or simply looking for a way to feel more fit and healthy, trying to lose weight is rarely a bad idea. Here’s some ways you can lose 10 pounds:

Tip #1: Diet

This is the most obvious starting point, yet one that is commonly overlooked. Most people, when they’re trying to lose 10 pounds, think of things like cutting out junk food and avoiding snacks. While this is no doubt important, it is not necessary to starve yourself if you’re looking to lose 10 pounds.

The most important things to consider in terms of your diet are balance and proportion. If you want to lose 10 pounds for good, you’re going to have to think in terms of your overall eating habits. By changing your eating habits permanently for the better, the weight you lose will stay lost.

Your daily intake of food should include a well balanced proportion of protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables. Variety is the key to this. Ask yourself: can you name more than 3 vegetables that you eat regularly and enjoy? Or more generally: how many different “meals” do you make for yourself during an average week? Most people in answering these questions will realize that there’s not as much variety to their diet as they may of thought.

When trying to lose 10 pounds, you also have to try to be in tune with your body as much as possible. You probably don’t realize, unless you think about it, how little you adhere to your body’s needs. Most people eat roughly the same amount at the same time every day. While this is convenient, it doesn’t necessarily sync up with what you need. Ask yourself: are you always hungry when you eat? Do you stop eating when you’re full, or do you eat all of whatever you’ve made?

These simple changes in dietary habits can work wonders, and render you goal of losing 10 pounds less daunting than it probably seems.

Tip #2: Exercise

This is another fundamental step in losing weight. You’re not going to be able to easily lose 10 pounds though dietary habits alone. Exercise must become a part of your lifestyle.

The problem many people face is that they feel they don’t have the time for exercise. Granted, not everyone may have time to get to the gym every day, but there are many things you can do at home: besides sit-ups and other equipment-free exercise, equipment like a treadmill, Stairmaster, or exercise-bike can allow you to lose weight without a gym membership.

In terms of the time involved in trying to lose 10 pounds, many of you may be saying that you barely have enough time in the day as it is, let alone adding exercise to the mix. If you have an exercise-bike, treadmill, or other similar equipment however, your exercise routine can easily be combined with other activities you enjoy and make time for, like watching television or listening to music. In this way you’ll find exercising doesn’t require that you make time as much is it requires you change your way of doing activities you already do.

Tip #3: Lifestyle

Now you not only want to lose 10 pounds, you want those 10 pounds to stay lost, right? A way to ensure success with keeping that weight off is to make some lifestyle changes.

Everyone becomes accustomed to their routines, and it’s difficult to force changes on those routines. One of the reasons many people fail with a task like losing 10 pounds is that it seems to require too much discipline and work. While a certain amount of stick-to-itiveness is no doubt necessary, you’ll find it much easier to lose weight if you incorporate changes into your lifestyle. A diet and exercise routine is almost certain to fail if it conflicts with your daily routines.

For example, if you live a reasonable distance from work, try biking instead of driving. What you’re doing here is incorporating exercise in to your normal routine: work is something you go to every day anyway –all you’re doing is changing the way you get there. Changing the way you do something that you already do is far more convenient than starting something new, and biking to work is much easier to incorporate into your lifestyle then going to the gym every day.

The same principle can be applied to your eating habits. Do you pack a lunch for work or eat out? If you eat out, chances are you’re going to be eating something less healthy than you would make for yourself, and probably a larger portion as well. By getting up a little earlier each morning and preparing your own lunch, you’re not only saving money, but your incorporating a healthy eating choice in your routine. This is much easier to do then having a list in your head and constantly reminding yourself of what you can and can’t eat.

Not only are lifestyle changes easier to enforce than hard and fast diet rules, they’re also more permanent. Simply look at your daily routine for places where you could incorporate a bit of exercise: take the stairs instead of the elevator; walk instead of taking the bus. These changes will not only make you lose weight, but you’ll feel healthier and better without having to constantly chastise yourself for breaking dieting “rules.”

Tip #4: Planning

If you want to lose 10 pounds, it’s imperative that you have a plan. The chances of you being successful are very unlikely if you collect an odd batch of advice here and there and implement it sporadically. First, think of a realistic timeframe in which you want to lose 10 pounds. When you’re doing this, keep in mind how much time you’re willing to devote it, and how much you’re willing to affect your daily routine: it’s going to take more work to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks than it is to lose 10 pounds in a month, for example.

Although healthy weight loss requires a balanced solution, when planning, pick which aspects of weight loss you’d like to focus on more: do you want to devote more time to exercise, and have more flexibility with your diet, or vice versa? When coming up with a weight loss plan, be realistic and think about how much time and effort you’re willing to commit.

Making a weight loss plan is important because it gives you goals and something to stick to. Make your plan specific: don’t say “I’m going to exercise this week,” say “I’m going to exercise every day for 30 minutes when I get home from work.” Try to come up with goals and expectations for yourself every day, so you can benefit from a regular sense of achievement.

The basic outline of your plan should incorporate both diet and exercise. A good way to start is to research a few healthy meals and plan to make them in your first week. This is more enjoyable than simply making a list of things you can’t eat: you’ll learn how to cook new things, and you’ll have the satisfaction of preparing an enjoyable meal. The same goes for exercise: come up with some activities for the week. These don’t have to be boring, work-type, exercise activities. Think of things like playing a sport, or taking a hike.

Tip #5: Sticking to Your Plan

It is crucial, of course, to keep your goal in mind – losing 10 pounds – and to realize that it’s not going to happen if you don’t stick to your plan. The two vital components to sticking to your plan are to make your plan specific and realistic, and to come up with a reward system.

As much as possible, have your plan include a specific thing each and every day. For example, come up with a specific meal you’re going to cook, and a specific activity for every day of the week. Not only does this give you more direction, but allows for an achievable goal every day.

Once you’ve come up with your specific daily goals towards losing 10 pounds, think of some rewards. Keep in mind of course, that your rewards should not include unhealthy eating or activities. Tell yourself, for example, that if you meet all your goals for a given week you’re going to go a movie or attend an event you’ve been wanting to see.

This sticking to your plan and rewarding yourself element is often overlooked in weight loss attempts, and is why many fail. The reason has to do with the cycle of self-esteem. If you’ve made the decision that you want to lose 10 pounds, it’s likely that you don’t feel as good about yourself as you could. If you fail to meet your goals and to reward yourself, this self-doubt will increase and it will be tempting to scrap the entire weight loss attempt.

Think of your goal of losing ten pounds as a project, and think of how a business approaches a project: with very specific and regular targets that are met. Your feeling of self satisfaction will grow as you continue to meet your targets, and as you begin to feel better about yourself it will become easier to set and reach loftier goals.

Weight Loss Super Tips provides free information about weight loss and diet program. Check out other useful and exciting article — How To Quickly and Easily Lose a Pound in One Week!

Tags: simple changes, eating habits, dietary habits, losing 10 pounds, summer trip

It should come as no surprise that this series of articles will focus on New Year resolutions. After all, many of us look at the start of a New Year as a chance for us to create a new body.

More than 80% of Americans made a New Year’s resolution in 2005:

Health and fitness: 26%
Career: 13%
Organization and time management: 13%
Personal growth: 12%
Personal finance: 12%
Family and relationships: 8%
Education and training: 8%
Home improvement and real estate: 4%
Recreation and leisure: 4%
(Source: myGoals.com)

“10 million-plus Americans will pledge to get fit in 2005″ said Katie Rollauer of the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association.

The dominance of weight loss resolutions led one gym member to suggest that instead of making a New Year resolution, it would be more honest (and funny) to make a New REAR resolution.

So how do we go about making a good New Rear resolution?

In a recent article we discussed how to draft a SMART goal. Remember that a New Rear resolution (or any goal) must be:
a) Specific
b) Measureable
c) Achievable
d) Realistic
e) Time Bound

Now that we’ve all done our homework and we have our resolution in writing, let’s take it one step further and break our goal down by month or even week.

You can make your resolution much more manageable if you break it down into smaller pieces. This will make your resolution much less intimidating.

For example, if you want to lose 60 pounds this year, that may seem overwhelming to you.

But how about setting smaller resolutions. Like losing 10 pounds by the end of February? How about promising to do strength training for the next 2 months every Monday, Wednesday and Friday?

Doesn’t that resolution sound much more manageable?

If you keep setting smaller resolutions for yourself throughout the year, before you know it, you will have succeeded in your big resolution.

So, if we haven’t done so already, let’s get our New Rear resolution in writing. Let’s post it on the mirror, on the ‘fridge, or in the car…..anywhere we’ll see it every day. At the bottom of the page let’s write down our short-term resolution. Here’s an example:

NEW REAR RESOLUTION: “I will lose 50 pounds of fat by the end of 2005.”
SHORT-TERM RESOLUTION: “I will exercise 4 times per week until Easter with the goal of losing 1 pound per week (on average). My exercise will be at the gym each Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a 25 minute walk over the weekend.”

See how much SMARTer it is to create a short-term resolution? The typical New Rear resolution is overwhelming…..lose 50 pounds of fat? Are you kidding? But the short-term resolution is manageable. We can do that! Not only can we do it, but if we do it it’ll work. Losing 1 pound of fat each week x 52 weeks in a year means that we achieved our goal!

At the end of the short-term resolution (Easter in this example) all we have to do is measure our progress and write up a new short-term goal. It’s that easy.

Goals and resolutions are a wonderful thing. They help us stay motivated, and they show us the light at the end of the tunnel. So let’s make sure we have our own New Rear resolution in place. We can do it!

Tracie Johanson is the founder of Pick Up The Pace, a 30-minute exercise studio for women focusing on fitness, health and nutrition for maximum weight loss. Please visit http://www.letspickupthepace.com/ for more information.

Tags: new year resolution, personal finance, sportsclub association, losing 10 pounds, new year resolutions

Today, we all want to look good and have bodies that are in shape and fit. If you are looking to lose weight, say 10 pounds fairly quickly, there are many ways to do so. With this simple five step method, you are sure to lose weight in no more than a week.

Step 1 – The first step of losing 10 pounds quick is to do a body cleanse. If you’ve ever searched the Internet or looked in health magazines, you have probably noticed that there are many different types of cleanses available today. One of the most popular is called the Master Cleanse. This cleanse has been used by your everyday people as well as celebrities. A cleanse basically detoxifies your body and helps get rid of all of the bad products that have built up. The Master Cleanse involves a lot of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper.

Step 2 – The second step in this process is a colonic series. Colon therapy is basically the process of flushing and cleaning out the colon as well as the large intestine in some cases. This process of colon therapy is much like an enema, but the treatment is much more extensive and effective. An enema can be self-administered and only cleanses the lower part of the colon. Colon therapy is able to clean the entire colon and can only be done by a trained practitioner. Going through with a colonic series will allow your colon to work more effectively. It will help you with digestion as well as getting rid of waste products much faster.

Step 3 – After completing the first two steps, there are slight guidelines that you have to follow. For the first 5 days you must drink a gallon of water a day.. This will help flush out your body and cleanse it of any toxins or waste products. It is also important to eat a lot of foods that are high in sodium during these first five days. Once the sixth day comes, eat foods that have low or no sodium and drink only 16 ounces of water each day. You should do this until the end of the seventh day. This helps you lose weight because your body will become very used to the salt and water by day six. When you cut out the water and sodium, you will lose a lot of water weight.

Step 4 – The fourth step is to eat psyllium husks. Psyllium husks are rich in fiber and will help you to have healthy bowel movements that are regular. These are sometimes used as laxatives, but will also help with your colon cleansing.

Step 5 – The last step of the process to losing ten pounds quick is to use a lot of natural diuretics. Diuretics are used to increase urination. There also help the body detoxify itself. Natural diuretics include green tea, cranberry juice, asparagus, fennel, beets, carrots, oats, and many other foods.

After doing this five step process for a week, you are sure to lose ten pounds, if not more. If you want a fit lean body for summer, this is the way to go. In five quick steps you’ll be your way to losing weight.

Tags: cayenne pepper, colon therapy, losing 10 pounds, large intestine, health magazines