How To Lose Weight:The Natural way

I want to start this article by letting you know that I am not a health guru, this is from my own personal experience. I’m currently training to become a personal Trainer to help you guys as nobody was around to help me shed my weight. I hope this helps you as this method certainly helped me.

After being a couch potato for well over a year, eating junk food and sleeping I decided to make a change. I’m now training to be personal trainer as well as going to the gym and working out 5-6 days a week. Disclamer: results don’t happen over night nor week. These steps are how I made that change. As frustrating as it sounds, you have to have patience.

 

Losing weight and keeping the pounds off isn’t a quick or easy process, but a few simple diet tricks can be a big help along the way. My favorites? Eating lots of fiber, protein and healthy carbs… ** yes, there is such thing as healthy carbs ** which boosts your metabolism and keeps you feeling full all through the day.

I don’t like to ramble as I always find articles boring while trying to get a few simple answers so, Let’s get started…

 

Step 1. Planning your meals for the week                                      

Plan your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, making sure you stick to your calorie allowance. Try to plan for four to seven days’ worth of meals and snacks. Make a shopping list, but don’t shop when you’re hungry as that can lead to high-calorie impulse buys, I know all about that. Going into Asda after a long day at work to find the whole shop in your trolley as everything seems more appealing. Which leads us to step 2.

 

Step 2. Food temptations

Don’t go cold turkey and ditch all the foods you eat because if you ban any foods from your weight loss plan, especially the ones you like. Banning foods will only make you crave them more. There’s no reason you can’t enjoy the occasional treat as long as you stay within your daily calorie allowance.

To avoid temptation, dump junk food, such as chocolate, biscuits, crisps and sweet fizzy drinks, at home. Instead, stock up on healthy snacks, like fruit, unsalted rice cakes, oat cakes, unsalted or unsweetened popcorn, and fruit juice.

 

Step 3. Water

Drink water throughout the day as there’s nothing worse than being dehydrated! Drinking water during the day can help keep you feeling full without consuming high-calorie drinks such as milk, tea with milk, fizzy pop and snacks that will make you gain more weight. I know I was a sucker for this. I always had about a pint of milk a day and about 5-6 cups of tea! Not including the crisps, biscuits and my personal favorite lemon slices!at that moment it was worth it. But looking at my body after it wasn’t. I needed a change as well as occasionally having those treats!

If you do not enjoy drinking water which I didn’t, try flavored water instead. Buy calorie-free flavor packets for a more tasty water experience. Or if I had to go out and do some errands I would put my bottle of water in the fridge over night or for a few hours so the water was freezing cold. There’s nothing worse than warm water.

 

Step 4. Smaller portions

 

I have found from research studies that people who use smaller plates tend to eat smaller portions and are still satisfied. By using smaller plates you may be able to gradually get used to eating smaller healthier portions without going hungry. It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to tell the brain it’s full, so eat slowly and stop eating before you feel full.

 

Step 5. Don’t miss meals                                                                 

Eating breakfast helps you control your weight. Some people skip breakfast because they think it will help them lose weight, but missing meals doesn’t help us lose weight and isn’t good for us as we can miss out on essential nutrients.

Missing meals and just having one big meal a day will actually make you put on the pounds. Sounds far fetched right? But it’s not, When you don’t eat enough, your body goes into starvation mode, in which it slows your metabolism, as well as all your other body functions. In order to conserve energy. So, while you may be thinking that it makes perfect sense that the less you eat the more fat you’ll lose, you’re actually doing more harm than good.

 

Step 6. Alcohol                                                                               

 Whether it’s cocktails on ladies’ night out, a beer at the bar, or a glass of wine with dinner, most of us enjoy a drink (or two!) every now and again or every other weekend * Sighs * . If you’re really serious about dropping weight then it’s got to go, just for a little while. Think about how often we have a few drinks at dinner time. On top of that, we want our liver to be in tip top shape to be losing weight as it’s a key player in fat emulsification. So if your liver is out of whack then it’s going to be harder for your body to break down fats.

 

 

The key to losing weight is to burn more calories than you eat. Replacing the alcoholic beverages you would typically drink with beverages that have few or no calories, such as water with or without lemon, unsweetened tea or black coffee can help you create the necessary calorie deficit. Eliminating about 500 calories each day will help you lose about a pound a week, as each pound contains about 3,500 calories.
If you are a heavy drinker or usually drink higher-calorie alcoholic beverages most weekends, you’ll lose weight faster by cutting out alcohol . Regular beer has about 150 calories per 12-ounce serving; white wine has about 100 calories per 5-ounce serving; and a bloody Mary has about 120 calories per 4.6-ounce serving. Mixed drinks are particularly high in calories, with a mudslide having as much as 820 calories, a margarita providing 327 calories and a rum and Coke about 361!!

 

I can hold my hands up and say I used to drink most weekends but finding out how many calories are in alcohol it certainly concerned me for sure. I drink once every few months now. I don’t miss it. It’s always good to go out every now and again as you’ll enjoy yourself more as its not something you do often. I certainly don’t miss waking up in the middle of the night feeling zombified, craving greasy food for days! I don’t know if it’s just me but every time I go out and I drink I’m always busting for a pee every 10 minutes it’s a nightmare!

 

Step 7. Staying motivated                                                                       

I know I’ve struggled with this one. No matter how many diets, shakes or pills I’ve been on, they’ve never seemed to of worked for me. Until I found the natural way to get skinny! So, don’t dwell on your experiences with dieting in the past.

Start by reminding yourself how much better you already feel by taking the appropriate steps to losing the weight for good, instead of just being a couch potato watching Netflix or last nights Eastenders!

YOU cannot succeed in your goal without surrounding yourself with a good support network as it can really help to spur you on so enlist the help and support of friends and family. Because if you don’t, you’ll have days where you don’t see the point in continuing your weight loss journey or you’ll have more cheat days than good days!. So, is there a friend you could exercise with? could your partner also do with eating a more healthy diet?

Better yet could you encourage your work colleagues to do a fruit run rather than a chocolate run every afternoon? There’s always options, don’t make excuses. You’ll feel better for it, nobody deserves to be unhappy with theirselves.

Another great way for staying motivated is to download food diary apps to keep track. The app I used was called calorie counter & Diet tracker by My Fitness Pal. Picture will be down below.

 

Let’s not make excuses, like “I’ll do it later” let’s make that step!

8. Exercise                                                                                     

Combining exercise with a healthy diet is a more effective way to lose weight than depending on calorie restriction alone. Exercise can prevent or even reverse the effects of certain diseases. Exercise lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, which may prevent a heart attack.
If you exercise, you can lower your risk of developing certain types of cancers such as colon and breast cancer. Exercise is also known to help contribute to a sense of confidence and well-being, thus possibly lowering rates of anxiety and depression. I have anxiety, since exercising regularly and keeping a balanced diet I’ve manage to keep it in check. I Now RARLEY have anxiety attacks! it’s so worth it.

what exercises did I do?

• Running 2-3 times a week for 45 minutes.
• squats, lunges, kick backs
• press ups x50 a day
• sit-ups x89 a day
• burpees x55 a day
• treadmil 20 minutes a day

Of course you cannot go straight into 80-90 sit ups a day if you’re not used to it. It’s something that you build up to. So, set yourselves to a low number at first then go from there. While exercising sip water throughout to avoid dehydration.

 

 

can you make this happen?

                                 

                                     most common asked questions

 

Does exercise boost metabolism?

Yes, you’ll lose fat when you diet without exercising, but you’ll also lose muscle, which means you’ll burn fewer calories. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism and the more calories you’ll torch.

Does exercising make you less hungry?

Yes, people who exercise and diet are actually less hungry than those who only diet, according to a study in the journal Obesity. Bonus: Your self-restraint is higher, too. Exercise ups energy too. Regular physical activity increases stamina by boosting the body’s production of energy-promoting neurotransmitters, That pep gives you even more motivation to get moving and shed pounds.

 

What triggers happiness in our brain when we exercise?

Most of us are aware of what happens to the body when we exercise. We build more muscle or more stamina. We feel how daily activities like climbing stairs becomes easier if we exercise regularly. When it comes to our brain and mood, the connection isn’t so clear.

The line around our “endorphins are released” is more something I throw around to sound smart, without really knowing what it means. Here is what actually happens:

If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it. To protect yourself and your brain from stress, you release a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). This BDNF has a protective and also reparative element to your memory neurons and acts as a reset switch. That’s why we often feel so at ease and things are clear after exercising and eventually happy.

With battling anxiety and depression myself I have gained from exercising a great deal!so even if you’re having a day down in the dumps, exercise. You’ll look better, feel better, train better. You’ll be happy to get those running trainers on in the morning and bring on the day as it comes.

 

9. Vitamin D supplements                                                                   

This isn’t essential but I had a lot of vitamin D supplements. They’re natural not full of chemicals like all of these weight loss pills around. Vitamin D won’t shed the weight but it’s a good recourse to use while in the process or just for everyday.

I first got the need to start taking vitamin D,when I was at home one day watching a health documentary, On the programme their was a young girl who was classed extremely obese. With diet programmes and training she managed to shed all of her weight down with the help of vitamin D. I really didn’t understand how until I researched it for myself.

Researchers have said, Many people should have their vitamin D tested as a majority are vitamin D deficient especially people that are overweight. vitamin D supplementation AIDS weight loss and enhances the beneficial effects of a reduced- calorie diet.

                                         

10. Foods to eat 

When someone turns around to you and says about eating healthy, your first thought is a small plate of salad in front of you, that wouldn’t even fill you up the slightest. Who would want to live the rabbit life? I certainly wouldn’t. But the meals I managed to find online when going healthy was brilliant. There’s so much to choose from. The meals and snacks filled me up so much, I didn’t even finish my plate.

Im going to put down below a full days worth of foods I have tried and enjoyed. They’re easy, cheap and very tasty!

 

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinners 

Snack

 

Now I have explained through the things I have done to shed the pounds I’m now feeling great about my body! I have gone down three dress sizes. It’s a great feeling to put on a bikini and feel comfortable without being judged. Thankyou for reading. I wish you the best of luck with your journey.

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