If you have hit a plateau or are "stuck" in some way, below are some ideas to consider. You can really give your body a kick start by doing all of them or you can look them over and pick and choose. Of course some of them should always be done.
1. Eat often. If you are hungry only eating four meals a day with proper portions, go to five meals a day so you feel satisfied. Try to eat every three hours. This keeps your blood sugar at a stable level and keeps you from feeling deprived. Getting to the "deprived" point leads to binges and snacking penalties!
2. Eat proper portions. If you need to use a measuring cup, do it. Read labels for portion sizes if the fist, palm thing gets confusing.
3. Cut out these things if your weight is stuck. This includes: Bread, peanut butter, peas, corn, pasta. And remember that a brown rice serving is only 1/2 cup - as is any pasta.
5. Try eating as natural as you can. If it wasn't grown that way it isn't natural. You will drop weight fast if you go a day or two eating this way. Examples - Processed: cheese, cottage cheese, bread, yogurt Natural: Fruits, vegetables, beans, rice, nuts, turkey.
6. Make sure you are getting your sleep. This rule bothered me, but as I've studied more, I learn that lack of sleep can stress us out and make us hang on to weight.
7. Only snack on watery vegetables in between meals. This would include: lettuce, celery, cucumber, radishes, cabbage, sprouts, peppers, onion
8. Don't eat protein bars
9. Don't drink your food (fruit or vegetable juice) The fiber will aid digestion which will keep that food moving through.
10. Exercise 60 minutes a day. This may be hard, but it will give your metabolism a boost! Change your exercise routine. Do something different each day and even from week to week. For example, don't treadmill every M,W,F and bike T,TH. Your body gets used to the same thing and adapts (becomes much more efficient, burning less calories).
11. Don't abuse the day/meal off. There is no way any diet program is good enough to keep you losing if you eat everything on the day off. (I have been guilty of this) This is the fastest way to slow weight loss there is! The best way to use these to your advantage is to eat healthy but don't worry as much about portion sizes. Yes, you can enjoy one whole dessert (Not a week's worth of missed desserts) This is where this program can fail.
You know, we think we really need that sugar rush on the meal/day off, but in reality, it just makes us crave more. If you can work the sugar out of your system, it really will get easier and you won't want to even eat it. I'm not there right now, but I've been there! I'm working on that as my new personal goal. To get to that point again. It's really not that hard to get there.
Remember that your body is an efficient machine. It is programmed to take care of you. It starts to sense that there has been a calorie deficit for quite a while and it starts to slow down the metabolism to adjust. This is where changes in exercise and diet can come in handy. Sometimes you will hit a plateau and stay there for a week or two, then the weight will just drop off suddenly. IF you stay on program. :-)
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