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10 Tips to Lose 10 Pounds

  • Susan
  • January 6, 2010

10 easy steps to lose the big 10If you’re starting a program to lose a few pounds this year, then you’re in good company.  More than 60 percent of all Americans have vowed to get their weight down before swimsuit season rolls around.   Here are some tips to help you shed the first 10 pounds.

Drink lots of water.  The rule of thumb is to divide your weight in half and that should tell you how many ounces of water to drink each day.  So if you weigh 150 pounds, you’d aim at drinking 75 ounces of water daily.

Get moving.  Exercise is essential to losing weight.  It doesn’t matter if you take a brisk walk for 30 minutes a day, swim some laps in the pool or opt for some one-on-one with the guys, breaking a sweat for 20-30 minutes, three or four times a week is essential.

Protein to start the dayEat breakfast.  It’s true.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Don’t skip it.  Ever. You can make a dozen hard boiled eggs and keep them in the fridge if you’re going to have a busy week. Keep around some granola and yogurt if you get bored easily but DO NOT SKIP BREAKFAST.

Fine-tune your attitude.  The diet industry thrives on people with low self-esteem.  Make sure your attitude is positive and keep it high.

Cook at home.  Cut out fast food lunches and dinners, which are loaded with fat, carbs and sodium.  Cooking your own food allows you to select healthy and fresh options.

Practice portion control.  Cut down the size of your portions so that no one serving is more than the size of your fist. One serving of meat should be no bigger than a deck of cards, one serving of cheese should be the size of two batteries and one serving of pasta should be about the size of a light bulb.

Make smart substitutions.  For example, switch from whole milk to skim milk.   Eat an orange at breakfast instead of drinking a glass of juice. (You’ll save 100 calories and get lots of added fiber.)

Swap your regular soda for seltzer or tea. One 12 ounce can of soda has about 155 calories.  It is said that the typical American between drinks seven 12.oz cans of soda each day (that is 1085 calories). The average active woman should eat 2,000 daily calories and the average active man 2,600. Those cans can leave you no calories for the good stuff. So give up the soda and drink some seltzer with lemon or herbal iced teas. You’ll see those ten pounds drop in no time.

Skim off the fat to save caloriesChill soups, stews and gravies.  Then skim off the fat before reheating.  This can eliminate 100 calories per serving.

Pump up the protein.  Choose lean meat, chicken, fish and tofu.  Use ground turkey instead of ground beef.

Making small changes (like resorting on restaurant coupons to lessen expenses) will help jump start your diet and keep the numbers on the scale going in the right direction.  Good luck!

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