Here's The Report!
Top Ten Habits for Successful Weight Loss
Hi! Welcome to Maverick Fitness and congratulations on choosing this free download!
If you're looking to lose weight to look your best for New Years and beyond, Maverick is the right choice. As Maverick's Nutrition & Lifestyle Counselor, I help our clients find ways to fit fitness into their lives and reach their goals. Weight loss and fitness starts in your head and your heart, and I'm the one who helps our clients get started on the right path and stick to it. Other fitness companies run you around and tell you to "eat right" but here at Maverick, we actually show you HOW. Menu planning, time-saving ways to shop and prepare healthy snacks and meals- we support you through it all!
Welcome and Here's to your Health!
Susan J. Hale
Maverick Fitness Nutrition & Lifestyle Counselor
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And now- Here are your Top Ten Habits for Successful Weight Loss:
I tell my Maverick clients that weight loss is a game of mental strategy and numbers.
If we can find the mental reasons why you eat, and work together to develop strategies to reduce bring down the number of calories you’re eating, you’re on your way to lasting weight loss.
Here are some of the basic strategies for easy lasting weight loss
1. Forget elevators or inter-office email.
I had one client with a stubborn ten pounds to lose that worked in a company with offices on two floors in the same building. She started with our personal trainers, but wanted to lose weight as soon as possible for a special upcoming event. To keep her metabolism burning as high as possible, I suggested that she “forget” that she had an elevator OR email between her office and those of her colleagues, and walk to deliver all documents or consult with her colleagues.
Sure enough, the constant activity triggered an extra 1/3 pound loss per week, and she lost the weight!
2. Don’t drink your calories.
This is the first thing I look at with my clients. A packet of sugar in your coffee here, juice or a soda there, and you’re wondering why your working so hard but can’t lose the weight.
With the exception of non-fat milk as part of your protein intake, cutting calories from the liquids you drink is the best step you can take towards weight loss.
And yes, I mean so called “healthy” fruit smoothies too! The amount of sugar in the giant smoothies at Jamba juice and other stores make them more a double-portion dessert than healthy a breakfast.
3. Early to bed THEN early to rise!
A lot of my female clients are running on empty when it comes to sleep- and wondering why they can’t lose the weight. During sleep your body produces growth hormone for muscle and tissue regeneration, vaso-dialators for relaxing your blood vessels and getting oxygen to your body and brain, and lowers stress so your body isn’t pumping out the diet-scuttling hormone cortisol that can cause sugar cravings and weight gain.
Creating a bedtime routine for yourself and getting to bed at a decent time is imperative for successful weight loss. Many holistic doctors tell us that every one hour of sleep you get before midnight equals TWO hours of sleep after midnight. It’s an instant way to actually add hours to the day (or night)!
Pick your bedtime and layout everyone’s clothes, make lunches, check your calendar right after dinner. This will help you avoid staying up late to take care of last minute details and allow you to relax the rest of the evening. Then get to bed on time!!
4. Smaller, taller.
Ever compare your diner dished with a set from the 1950s? Modern dinner dishes have been “super sized” along with restaurant portions so we automatically serve ourselves bigger portions because more food “looks” right on those huge dishes.
Help yourself eat less by ditching the platter-sized plates for salad or luncheon-sized plates and thinner, taller drinking glasses. This will help your dinner look bigger and your waist get smaller.
5. Water.
Take your weight in pounds. Cut it in half. Add ten. THAT’s how many OUNCES of water you want to drink daily for optimum weight loss! Everyone says it all the time- but they never tell you why. It’s because as you lose weight, your body is breaking down fat to use for energy because you’re using more calories than you’re eating. And that means two things:
I. Your body needs a molecule of water for each molecule of fat it breaks down. Did you know that to MAKE a molecule of fat, your body takes AWAY a molecule of water? This means that to unlock and use the fat up, your body needs water!
II. Toxins. Your body stores a lot of “stuff” in your fat. Kind of like a teenager cleaning their room by stuffing junk under the bed. When the fat gets used up, the toxins are free to roam your body…unless you drink enough water to wash it out!
6. Healthy oils. A healthy diet needs good fats!
Just as your car needs water in the radiator and oil in the engine, so your body needs healthy mono-unsaturated fats to help build muscle, lubricate tissues and make hormones like testosterone and estrogen (the sexy stuff!). And since some of the toxins your body is throwing out are oil soluble, these healthy oils help usher these nasties out. Flaxseed oil, or purified fish oils (cheap at Trader Joes!) are perfect for this role.
7. Keep it real.
If you want to lose weight, keep your food as real and unprocessed as possible, and even keep your occasional treats as real as possible.
Unprocessed lean meats and veggies along with low-glycemic brown rice or sweet potatoes are healthy staples that will keep you feeling full while helping you keep your blood sugar levels steady so you can burn fat faster.
No matter what the food manufacturers say, “low fat” foods and artificial sweeteners can actually make you fat. While fats are calorie dense and you need to watch the calories you get from fat sources, low-fat foods are actually even worse for you. Not only have studies shown that people ended up eating MORE calories of a “low fat” cookie or cracker because they figured it was “healthier’, but those treats often have more sugars and salts to make up for the flavor of the fats the manufacturer took out.
8. One treat at a time.
If you simply have got to have that cookie, go to Starbucks and buy ONE and enjoy it instead of taking an entire package of cookies home with you. Take a stroll with a friend to the ice cream store for a small cone as your weekly treat. Treats you buy in a package often end up being eaten up entirely in a day or so, and rarely taste as good the next day. Ice cream in a single-serving cup is creamier and the flavor is better than a frost-crusted gallon that’s been absorbing the flavors of all the other food in the freezer for a week.
Buy that single-pack of Oreos if you can’t stand it, and enjoy them slowly and completely. The trick to keeping weight off is often more about making treats harder to get to so you can prevent mindless snacking than denying yourself treats entirely.
9. Make healthy snacking easy.
One of my biggest jobs is helping my clients slowly substitute healthier choices for high calorie ones. One great step is to invest in a deli platter of pre-cut veggies and hummus each week. Put it on the top or second shelf of your fridge and place a bowl of baby carrots and a scoop of hummus out for your family to nosh on before dinner. This will make the healthy option the first thing you see when you open the fridge and prevent the listless rummage for a bag of chips after work because you’re too tired to cut up a piece of fruit.
10. Cook less per meal.
Do you actually EAT all your leftovers? How many times have you eaten those last few bite in the serving bowl because there wasn’t quiiiiite enough to save for the next day, but you “didn’t want to waste it”?
Take a look at the recipes you are cooking, and cut the amounts you cook according to how many people you are serving. I started doing that, and my husband lost five pounds! (he loves to finish up the leftovers!)
OR with the hectic holidays coming up, double the recipe and pack up half in single-serving freezer bags immediately after cooking. This keeps the extra portions from sneaking into your mouth and can be defrosted later for a fast healthy meal before you go to a holiday party.
These may seem like simple common sense steps, but trust me, like a lot of “common sense” steps in other areas, once you start applying them to your daily life, you will see “Uncommon” results!
For more great information, tips, and free reports like this, go to the Maverick Fitness Website located in Santa Monica, California (we are new here and want to help, but can't place links and don't want to be accused of spamming) and sign up for our exciting fitness classes and personal training!
