A Healthy You: Lose 10 LBS

Lose 10 lbs

This is our goal. a steady weight loss plan is good. 1 pound a day is about the max you'd safely want to lose. So lets go after our goal of 10 pounds in 2 weeks.

2 weeks to a lighter you, 10 pounds lighter !!

1. Water, water and water. A recent study proved that dieters who guzzled plenty of H2O lost more weight than those who didn't.
2. Half as much. Divide your normal portion by two and save the rest for later. You are likely to feel full on less food than you think.
3. Short term meat fast. In general, vegetarians have lower body weights than their meat-eating peers. Follow their lead -- at least until you drop a few pounds.
4. Go vegan, for a while. Vegetarianism not helping you lose? Take it to the next level by swearing off eggs and dairy too. Cheese can be a diet killer.
5. Kick the box. Eliminate all packaged foods and eat only fresh ingredients you've prepared. No bags, boxes, cans, or cartons allowed.
6. Diet 2 days a week. If you can't stick to a program all the time, try slashing your calories to 650 a day just 2 days a week and eating normally the other days. A recent study suggests this offers protection from breast cancer as well as assistance with weight loss. This will probably not help you reach your 2 week goal, but some is better than none. Keep at it.
7. Pull your sweet tooth. Everyone knows sugar isn't healthy, but when you start reading labels, you find it in unexpected places, like pasta sauce and frozen entrees. Cutting the sugar out of your diet will mean healthier meals overall.
8. Flour Power. The short-term elimination of floury foods like white bread and pastries can efficiently kick-start your weight loss plan.
9. Crunch - not munch. Every morning, noon and evening do as many crunches and pushups as you can. Alternate them by even and odd days.
10. A flair for the stairs. Find a flight of stairs and walk it 2 steps at a time up, one step at a time down, but fast in both directions, ten times a day.

You can do this!
Adding exercise to a diet plan is wise and helps to ensure success.

Science Daily (Apr. 14, 2011) — Everyone knows that eating a low-fat, low-calorie diet and getting regular exercise helps shed pounds, but a new study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that when it comes to losing weight and body fat, diet and exercise are most effective when done together as compared to either strategy alone.
The results of this randomized trial, led by Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Prevention Center and a member of the Hutchinson Center's Public Health Sciences Division, were published online April 14 in Obesity.
The majority of women in the study who both improved their diet and exercised regularly shed an average of nearly 11 percent of their starting weight, which exceeded the study's goal of a 10 percent or more reduction in body weight.
"We were surprised at how successful the women were," McTiernan said. "Even though this degree of weight loss may not bring an obese individual to a normal weight, losing even this modest amount of weight can bring health benefits such as a reduced risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer."
The intervention involved 439 overweight-to-obese, sedentary, postmenopausal Seattle-area women, ages 50 to 75, who were randomly assigned to one of four groups:

exercise only (goal: 45 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise per day, five days a week, including three days at the Hutchison Center's exercise facility);
diet only (goal: 1,200 to 2,000 calories a day, depending on starting weight, and fewer than 30 percent of daily calories from fat);
exercise and diet (with the same goals as above); and
no intervention.

"Although numerous studies have examined the effect of lifestyle interventions on weight, few have focused on postmenopausal women, a group that experiences particularly high rates of overweight and obesity," McTiernan said. At the end of the intervention, the researchers found that the women in the exercise-only group lost, on average, 2.4 percent of their starting weight (with a mean weight loss of 4.4 pounds) as compared to an average weight loss of 8.5 percent among women in the diet-only group (with a mean weight loss of 15.8 pounds). The greatest weight loss was achieved by women who both changed their diet and exercised regularly; these women shed an average of 10.8 percent of their starting weight (with a mean weight loss of 19.8 pounds). Two-thirds of the women in this group achieved the study goal of losing at least 10 percent of their starting weight. Reference

I included this article to show the importance of both diet and exercise. Being a member of a local gym grants you access to some amazing equipment that makes your workout fun, interesting and many cases enjoyable. However, gym memberships are not a must have. I have had great success at home with push-ups, crunches and stairs. They are 3 exercises that cover most of the body; legs, core, chest and arms. If you're goal is to lose 10 lbs in 2 weeks or a month, follow these simple steps, don't quit and discover a lighter you, a healthy you.