This is an article from health blogger, Tony Schober from CoachCalorie.com in which he shares some simple, yet effective diet tips and tricks that you can use to lose weight. If you’re wondering how to get started on the path to being fit, the following 10 tips should prove useful.
1. Set a Goal
What are you trying to accomplish? Be specific. Saying that you want to Lose 10 pounds isn’t good enough. 10 pounds of what? Do you just want to look better? Look better how? You can’t make a plan if you don’t know what you’re planning for. Don’t just wing it. Do some self-reflection, and ask yourself:
- Why are you trying to lose weight?
- How long will it take you to lose x number of pounds?
- Who are you trying to get in shape for? (yourself, friends, family, etc)
- What are you going to do to get from point A to point B?
My Note: I recommend actually writing your goals down. Keep the printed paper where you can see it to keep your goal in mind.
2. Cut Out Sugar and Flour
The two biggest killers of any weight loss plan – sugar and flour. Unfortunately, they are two of the hardest things to eliminate. You could make the biggest difference in your weight and your health by just eliminating these two evils.
3. Switch to Water
Simple, yet many people insist on drinking something with flavor. Save your calories for nutrient dense food. If you need flavor, try adding some lemon, lime, or orange slices to your glass.
My Note: Plain tea and coffee are also low calorie beverages and green tea in particular is very healthy due to its richness in antioxidants. However, Tony is right that you simply can’t go wrong with water.
4. Cook in Advance
One of the easiest ways to fall off your diet is to not have anything cooked and ready to eat. What happens is meal time approaches, and you don’t feel like cooking. Instead, you reach for convenience food. This starts a chain reaction of bad eating that’s hard to stop. Cook a week’s worth of meals (or at least a few days), and put them in plastic containers in the fridge. Just reheat and eat when it’s meal time.
My Note: Simply don’t buy any pre-made foods. No TV dinners or anything like that. This will force you to cook your food and eat better.
5. Know Your Personality
What kind of person are you? Do you have an addictive personality? If so, cheat meals are probably difficult for you. I personally have a hard time with cheat meals. Just a taste of the bad stuff makes me crave it that much more. Understand what influences you to make certain choices and plan accordingly.
My Note: This is also true for workouts. If you’re the sort of person who tends to skip workouts then you should train with a body or actually schedule a session with a personal trainer.
6. Don’t Diet Without Exercise
Can you lose weight without exercise? You absolutely can, but it will make your fat loss process much more difficult. Exercise boosts your metabolism and helps to ensure that the weight you are losing is fat – not muscle.
7. Make Small Changes
Many times people get frustrated when they don’t see immediate results and end up making drastic changes to their diet. It might work, or it might not, but if it does, you will never know what diet change made the positive impact. If you’re stuck, try lowering your carb intake, cutting calories, or adding protein. Just make sure you change one thing at a time.
8. Plan Your Meals
The secret to losing weight and keeping it off will always be to change your lifestyle. Most people don’t want to diet – they just want to eat healthy. This is a great goal to strive for. However, don’t put the cart before the horse. Healthy eating and dieting take planning. Write down what you plan to eat for each of your meals for an entire week (or even a month). Look at your macronutrient allotment and plan your meals accordingly.
My Note: If you know that you have an event or party in which you will eat a lot, you need to take this into consideration and lower your calories from your other meals to keep the total at a suitable level.
9. Diet Together
Dieting with another person, whether it be a friend or family member, raises your chances of success. Having a dieting partner helps keep you motivated. It’s also a great way to share ideas and learn from one another. You can both be a source of inspiration for each other.
10. Remove Temptation
Get rid of bad food in your house. If it’s in the house, it will make it 10 times harder to fight cravings. Don’t temp fate. Before you ever start dieting, go through your pantry and refrigerator, and remove all processed foods. Out of site, out of mind.
Bonus Tip From Me: Eat Your Carbs At The Right Time
The best time to eat carbs is either in the morning or after a strength workout, as long as it’s an intense one. At these times your body will process the carbs in the optimal way.
I hope that you found these diet tips and tricks useful. Thank you, Tony, for taking the time to share them with us.
Great tips, thank you. Could you forward the body weight workouts please.
Hi Will, which bodyweight workouts are you referring to?