Three of the first four tips were about what you needed to do more of - move more, sleep more and eat more often! Now it's time to talk about what you need to do less of to be successful in transforming your body shape.
5. Reduce / Eliminate Alcohol Consumption
Sorry... I know you didn't want to hear it, but it's true! If you are really truly serious about transforming your body and changing your shape the alcohol has to go. I know you are already thinking... "Wait just one minute, alcohol in moderation is good for me! It's all over the news, it's full of antioxidents, heart healthy and brain healthy compounds!" Ok, yes, there has been some research stating that as much as one to two drinks daily can be beneficial for your health. However, none of these studies have been saying that alcohol, even in moderation, is good for you waistline. And truth be told, it's not!
Why? Not only are most alcoholic drinks filled with empty calories and full of sugar but if alcohol is in your system, your body has no choice but to breakdown the alcohol first and foremost for energy and store all the rest. What does that mean exactly? If you drink a Jack and coke, the calories coming from alcohol (7 kcal per 1 g of alcohol), must be converted to useable energy and used before any of the calories coming from carbohydrates also found in that drink can be used. Our body then stores the unused calories until later, and if we don't use them later, you guessed it, they go right into our fat stores!
When you decide that losing weight or reshaping your body is your number one focus, alcohol, for the most part, has to go!
6. Watch Your Portions
Venti, Supersize, Large, Grande... whatever you want to call it, our portions have gotten dramatically larger. Restaurants are giving us larger servings, beverage containers have grown and even cookbook recipies claim to make less servings than the same recipie 20 years ago! Even our plate sizes have increased dramatically (and not wanting to have an empty plate, we fill 'er up). As you can imagine as we increase our potion sizes, we increase our caloric intake. Just that alone can lead to weight gain but combine that with a sedentary lifestyle and the effect can be catastrophic!
Watching your portion size is something that you have to be very conscious of as the new supersized environment is all around us. When going to a restaurant, ask for only a half order or have the waiter only bring half of it out and the remaining packed up in a doggy bag to go. When given a choice of sizes order the smallest, chances are it will satisfy you, if not, you can always order more. Repackage food when you get home from the grocery store. Buy small ziploc bags and place proper portions of snacks in them. This not only makes it easy to grab and go but also limits the overindulging that can occur with the entire package. Buy smaller plates to eat off of. Your plates will look just as full and research shows this will trick your mind into thinking it has eaten enough.
Be aware of not only what is going into your mouth but how much of it is. You would be shocked by how big of an impact watching your portion size will have. Just by making this change alone, you will lose weight guaranteed!
Coming up next, tips on monitoring your progress and the importance of keeping a log.
Questions or comments, we would love to hear them!
In Health,
Jessica & Tristan
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