5 Ways to Lose Weight with Minimum Diet or exercise Part 2
Following on from last week’s part 1 on 5 Ways to Lose Weight with Minimum Diet or exercise. Five more easy to apply ways of losing weight as effortlessly as possible.
6. Get more sleep
It might not be obvious to start with, but getting plenty of sleep will help you lose weight.
When we are short of sleep our bodies produce two hormones both of which make us put on weight. They do this by making us crave sugary foods (ie high carbohydrate foods). Do you ever find yourself eating something you know not to eat? All of a sudden it is in your mouth and gone. Now you know why -maybe you are not getting enough sleep.
A good night’s sleep is essential for good health and maintaining your weight. It also increases your chances of being obese. A minimum of 6 hours is a good minimum to follow.
7 Use Smaller Plates
Yes, I know it sounds odd but research shows that if by using smaller plates you will tend to lose weight. We have all been taught to finish up our food from childhood. It might have been good advice then while we were growing rapidly and doing lots of exercise ubt not so much with our sedentary lives.
When the brain sees a plate of food the urge is to clear it, but it does not discriminate with the size of the plate! By reducing your plate size by a couple of inches you are eating less food. Obviously do not cheat by increasing the high carb foods on the plate and cutting down on the veggies.
Portion size matters, smaller plates mean less calories, less calories means less weight.
8. Don’t Drink Sugary Beverages
I like Ginger tea, 3 or 4 slices of Ginger with Xylitol which has a glycaemic index of 7 whereas sugar is 33.
You could have plain water, mint tea or lemon with sparling water. Nettle tea is another favourite.
Artificial Sweeteners are not a good idea. You cannot con the body into believing that they are sugar, it knows. By consuming artificial sweeteners, it can make you crave sugary things even more. You might have artificial sweeteners in your tea or coffee but ending up eating a sweet Danish instead.
Avoid Fruit Drinks
They are high in sugar – I know that it is fructose and although natural is still sugar. In fact Fructose is 4 times sweeter than sugar. A small glass of Orange juice is 180 calories. If you want to eat fruit eat the real thing, the fibre in it will slow down the absorbtion of the sugar in the Orange juice.
9 Boost your Cooking Skills in the Kitchen
If you know what you are eating will be in control. On the other hand, a microwave dish from the supermarket can be packed full of unwanted fat and ingredients or even worse a takeaway. Takeaway food can contain thousands of calories and you haven’t a clue, when doing it yourself you will.
By being more knowledgeable in the kitchen you aware of what is being consumed. Everyone is pushed for time so why not bulk cook food. Cook several meals at the same time and put them in the freezer, that way when you come in from work starving hungry you can have a nutritious meal on the table in 5 minutes without the need for snacking.
10 Do Tai Chi and Qigong
It is fun to learn it with our super friendly students. Fun means you will keep up the practise.
Tai Chi is good at improving sleep from research. Better sleep less food cravings.
Tai Chi diminishes anxiety so no more anxiety eating.
Tai Chi helps to combat Stress so no more Stress Eating and the weight gain that goes with it.
Tai Chi makes you Feel Better Overall. When you feel good you don’t snack.