Hey there!
Since I'm trying to change my eating habit as well as reading a lot of material, I'm compiling a list on ways to lose weight. Have fun!
1. Drink more water, at least 2 L or calculate here. (*1 kg is 2.2 lb, and oh, mine is 1.8 L per day)
2. Drink a glass of water before eating anything, anything at all!
3. Eat your breakfast within 2 hours of waking up, and if depending on your preference:
a. Vegan or carbs lover (High resistance starch such as oatmeal and veggies/fruits(fiber) such as banana or blueberries)
b. Low carbs/protein lover (Protein and veggies - egg and spinach omelette)
4. Drink green tea (No added sugar). I like to have 2 tall glass of green tea for breakfast and lunch. Green tea is said to boost metabolism and curb your appetite.
5. Eat from smaller plate for the illusion of bigger portion, as well use a blue plate to trick your mind to decrease your appetite as blue is a stark contrast with most food color. It is said a certain place change their street lamp with blue lamp and the criminal activity decreased.
6. While we at color theme, the red, yellow and orange increase your appetite. No wonder KFC McDonald use it as their theme color!
7. Use this picture for portion control :
8. Or of you can't remember all that, here's using your hand:
9. Better yet, just use your plate! Make sure 1/2 is filled with veggies, 1/4 of protein and 1/4 of carbs. (Although mine is 1/2 to 2/3 veggies and 1/3 to 1/2 protein, since I'm cutting bad carbs out)
10. I get it, you don't like veggies. What about fruits then? Switch 1/2 of the veggies with fruits. (Side note, the food is on a blue plate, the portion look huge right?)
11. Are you wondering about food portion? It is said our food portion have gone up to twice to thrice it used to be. More food, more calories. Don't believe me?
12. I love snacks! But now I'm limiting myself to nuts as I'm in induction mode of atkins, so when I want them, I usually take half of the day portion and eat it slowly, savoring every bite. Mostly I'm satisfied. If I don't, I eat another half portion. For today, I'm eating baked almonds, and I've eaten 15 of them and I'm okay with it.
13. Find a hobby or try new things. I'm into reading, so I'm absorbing as much as I can from reading books and articles and then blog about it here, when Iremember have time to blog.
14. One girl I read she set up either walk 3 miles/4.8 km or 30 minutes exercises a day. I did neither, but I don't spend my time being chained to the couch/bed either.
15. Couch potato, rejoice. There's a whole hours of exercises can be done while sitting down watching the telly. So while you are watching Empire, Devious Maid or CSI, you can exercise! There's even yoga on bed (Not the NSFW kind). Here's some:
16. Food journal, or apps. I'm too lazy to do this, lol but if you want to lose weight and keep it off, do this.
17. Kick out anything white. White rice, flour, noodles, baked goods. Try to do it for a day in a week, increase to two, and in 2 months, you could make it as a habit.
18. If you can't do full portion control, just cut out 1/8 of what you used to eat. Wasting food? Better waste than bigger waist. Decrease the portion by 1/4 next. My mom fav saying is, there's poor people who would love to eat what you waste. Well the poor nation still will not get their food even if you eat everything, right? Another was the poor rice will cry. Don't be ridiculous, its food. Just cook/buy less thus no waste.
19. Try to have xxx-free nights a day in a week. Example, no carbs night, no meat night, but please don't make it no veggies night.
20. To see what's the culprit for you health issues, try eliminating some food for a while. (And no one is allergic to ALL fruits and veggies, there's some you could tolerate). For me, when I start low carbs, I lose a lot of weight(8kg) especially the waist area. And when I did try to add in carbs back(such as white rice or noodles, our house staples) I gained weight like 2kg for just eating white rice (1/4 of plate, once a day, lunch). *Although carbs are also water retention, it could be they just water weight too. I'm also lactose intolerant, but I still sneak in a few cheese here and there.
21. If you found the culprit, try to eliminate the culprit for 30 days. You will see at first you will feel worst, but you will feel better and have more energy. *I still can't really stick to it. I get distracted. :p
22. Pinterest and google is your best friends. Pinterest for any info and recipes (although result may varies) and google, well, for everything else.
23. If you are pressed for time, you could buy your groceries and pack it according to weekdays. Although sometimes the food spoils much earlier, so be careful. No water, no wet food mixed with dry, no meat/fowl/fish touching other food.
24. There's always a substitution of the food you love. I love burger, but I ate an open face burger (burger patty on salad) instead, or replace the bun with lettuce. There's squash noodle, zucchini lasagna, cauliflower pizza, mashed cauliflower, and list go on.
25. Try steam or baked instead of frying or boil. The key here is herbs, herbs, and herbs.
26. Try to have unprocessed food more or made it yourself. Its fun and you know what goes into your food.
27. Two in one, grow your own food. Especially salads, leafy vegetables or even tomatoes. The taste is out of the world.
28. Don't drink your calories. Cut out sodas, alcohol, and fizzy drinks. If you want to drink fizzy drink, try the diet version or no sugar. Most of them use substitute sugar.
29. READ food's label. Its easier to control once a week (or how frequent you shop your groceries) than watching it in front of you every single day. Also one woman said if she can't pronounce the ingredients, she won't buy it.
30. If you don't have a date set, swap or change your lifestyle slowly. Don't expect to change overnight. You were eating it for the past xxx of your life, it will probably need the rest of your life to change your habit and lose weight too.
31. Our prophet said to chew the food(each bite) 40 times. A, it grinds down the food, easier to absorb. B, it will slow you down, savoring the food, and thus send signal to brain that you are full.
32. He also said to not mix land and sea animal together. For example eating chicken with prawn, or fish with meat. It is said it could aggravated certain illness. I haven't found any study about this yet.
33. Another one is about eating before you get hungry and stop before you feel full. I have read about this, and even rating about the feeling of hungry and full,
34. There' a name for it mmkayy, It's called the Hunger & Satiety scale. Here it is:
35. Or if you want to describe it as a feeling:
36. Brushing teeth after a meal is a trick a few people employ to stop eating.
37. Watch out your sugar intake. And remember carbs also turn to sugar. The more you consume, the more you crave it. It probably the worst day when you are cutting it down, but in time you'll feel better. And after burning primarily on sugar, your body will change to burning primarily on fat. Yay!
38. Do it for yourself. Don't do it to fit in, for your lover, your mom, your friends. If you are unhappy with them, it will still stay the same after you lose weight. Solve the main issues, and work on your body slowly.
39. Get enough sleep.
40. Don't do diets that eliminate or only about one item. No carbs diet, no protein diet, grapefruit diet, creamcheese diet. Unless to break plateau or less than 3 days, it will wreck havoc on your body and metabolism.
41. Don't try diets of celebrity either. They have money on disposal as well as time, people. nutritionists, chef, trainer and more, which we don't. Focus on things that we can do.
42. There's no need to go all organic, all pasture feed free roam bla bla bla meat/veggies. Rather than be broke and end up eating fast food again because they are cheap, buy the best you can on your budget. I personally just buy lots of leafy green because it's cheap here, and buy normal chicken or low carb chicken ready to eat. I still lose weight.
43. If you don't like the taste of something, chances are you aren't cooking or preparing it correctly. Brussel sprouts are bitter in soups, but taste amazing sauteed or pan fried or oven fried with a lil butter and salt. There's one leafy veggies that I have no idea what the name is but it has sticky sap and I hate it in soups. But when I just fry it lightly with hot soy sauce, it's out of this world. My best friend hate veggies, so I used to baked potato with lots of veggies in it, and she loved it. Look at pinterest and google on best way to cook the veggies.
44. Sit down when you are eating/drinking, even your snack. I read am article or research (I'm not sure) that our brain doesn't connect it that we are eating when we aren't sit down.
45. And don't eat while distracted too, like watching TV, playing phone or reading book(guilty).
46. A trick to make sure I drink enough is to fill a 2 L water bottle, and make sure its in front of me so I'll drink. I saw someone posted a picture with time of the day too, so at certain time, she/he will drink this much.
47. Try weight lifting. Woman do not get all muscly just by weight lifting, we are not equipped with that. That was a real concern of my family when I said I want to lift weight. Muscle is smaller than fat, just like 1kg iron and feather. Although the mass is the same, the quantity is not.
48. On setting your goal weight, be realistic. Everybody has different body type, and your body change, it will not be the same especially after giving birth, adolescence, traumatic injury and so on.
49. That being said, losing weight and gaining muscle has a different outlook on your body. The girl below is 120-125 pound (50+kg) but left is more toned and smaller due to less fat percentage (more muscle).
50. And although you just lost 1 pound/0.45 kg, here's a picture of 1 pound of fat. (But be realistic, even if the scale go down, the 1 pound is consists of fat, muscle and water.)
51. You don't have to be xx-free if you don't have any illness. For example, gluten free. unless you have celiac disease, you don't actually have to have gluten free. The fact that you are eating less crappy stuff and more healthy stuff is the reason. And also fat free. Fat is not the culprit here. sugar is. Most of the time, to make up the taste, they put tons of sugar in it. Although sugar free is good for you.
52. Fat has been black listed from so many weight lost diet, that when recent study shows that sugar is the culprit people are baffled. True, there's good fat and bad fat. And your body need fat. If they don't get it, they'll kidnapped all fat, hold it as ransom unless they have enough fat.
53. Having said that, a lil bit on biology. Our body will burn sugar first, then moving on to fat. But too much sugar, or if our body sometimes fail to convert to burn fat, so we will crave those carbs stuff, and the cycle get repeated again and again. There's even some theory that our body hasn't evolve to digest grains, thus we get fat. This happen when human discover agriculture, thus a shift in our eating pattern.
54. There's also carb cycling, which are favored by the body builder. The simplest theory is that we are eating carbs at wrong time. The diet usually consists of 3 days eating clean, and one or two day eating carbs. But don't get me wrong, this cheat day is not your answer for all you can eat. No baked goods, cake, potatoes for you. Just good carbs such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, and so on.
55. There's a lot of diet available for the type you want to incorporate. For example for low carbs, there's Atkins(strictest), Paleo, South beach, low carb high fat (LCHF) and so on. But if you try to choose one based on what you want to eat, and change it again if they didn't include the one you want. I used to do this before. So now I just plan my eating based on what I feel good eating, and not just blindly follow the diet.
56. If you hate a food, don't try to force yourself on it. I hate apples, yet I keep on buying it so that I could be 'healthy'. Yet it left rotten in the fruit basket weeks after weeks. So I just stop trying to force myself eating an apple, although an apple a day keeps doctor away.
57. There is no diet that works. There's just eating healthy that works. Kapish? I know because I tried every fad diet possible. Hehe.
58. If you want to eat carbs/sugary thing, accompany it with fat/protein. For example strawberries and cream, rice with egg and veggies. It is said that eating carbs with protein or fat temper the sugar effect on your blood.
59. During weekdays, for lunch, ask for half portion of rice, and double up the veggies or buy cut fruits. I know its not easy, especially when your friends love to eat. Its okay to be the only one eating only the side dish or salad. You'll be rewarded with health!
60. Identify your craving. Is it salty, sweet, sour or crunchy? Then made decision on what to eat. For example I'll have cunchy salted almonds for crunch and salty. Fruits for sweetness and citrus or mangoes for sourness.
61. Park your car further.
62. Make priority to shop at the fresh section first. Then load up the others.
63. Plan your meal for the week. Easier said than done, but less waste and you'll focus on things you have rather than just buy things that you'll crave for.
64. Set limit when eating out. If you spaghetti, don't order creamy soup or bread as side. Drink plain water sometimes doesn't hurt.
65. Detox water is good, but be careful with the ingredients. Since most fruits are sprayed with pest repellent, make sure to wash or peel the skin before infusing it in water.
66. You still can have fast food, but it lies in the choice. For example, make it bunless, or grilled instead of deep fried, or just discard the breaded part.
67. Take a picture. I have one picture that shows me soooo huge, and it remind me if I got off the wagon. And, take or find some old picture that you look absolutely ravishing beauty. I got one of those too. I was slimmer, and even my husband is surprised. In his mind I was forever fat. Sadddd.
68. If you have one, wear smaller jeans/shirt, but not to the point of bursting seams. The point is to be aware when you are eating that fatty food, so if you are bloated, you'll feel uncomfortable to eat more
69. If you hate plain water, add some lemon or lime juice in it for taste.
70. If you cooked too much, serve one serving for you, then pack up the leftover in fridge.
71. And if you want to control eating. put the leftover food in fridge. The action needed to heat up the food for us lazy babes will distract us from eating the food. Unless it's supposed to eat cold.
72. Drink cold water before eating and warm water after eating. Drinking cold water after eating will solify the fat we just eaten, and warm water will bring it straight to stomach. But it's not on any research mmkayyy.
73. Since I'm not good with eating only with fork, my husband told me to eat only with fork. It reduces the food I'm going to eat in a bite and I'll eat more slowly. For him, it's chopstick.
74. Check portion on snacks. Often the big bag is for 5-6 portion but come onnn, how many times we eat a single bag of chips in an hour or less? Measure it out and stick with it.
75. Buy smaller packet. Yes it probably cost much more, as the bigger probably cost less with more mass, but its easy to keep track then measuring.
76. Serve directly on plate. No need to put in 5 different plate for each dish, just put all 5 in one plate. You can have another portion if it doesn't satisfy you.
77. Make sure your kitchen and your dining table is far away. If you need a second portion, walk to the kitchen!
78. Add some sweetness on your breakfast. Those that add some sweetness such as honey or fruits lost more weight than those who not.
79. Buy a healthy size or your goal size dress and hang it as a reminder to lose weight.
80. Turn off the TV. My TV alwayssss show me fatty stuff, and I end up salivating thinking of them. Less TV, less advertisement, less craving.
81. Bunch up those muscle! Not only its one way to make a boner go away, flexing your hand or clenching your fist for 30 second could make the craving go away.
82. Make your goal measurable. Like if you want to lose 20 pound, just said I want to lose 1 pound, 20 times. Each after the goal is met. I feel daunted to lose 40 kg at a time. But by making it 1 to 1.5 kg per week, I feel okay with it. So far for 2 months I've lost 8kg, which means 1 kg per week, so I'm happy with my progress.
83. Make a table with your current weight/early weight to goal weight. Cross the number and write victory on it, each time you lose a pound/kg. I even put the date on it.
84. Ride out the plateau. Our body is smart, they don't want to lose too much as they think they are going to starve. Just eat as usual or even increase a little.
85. Don't eat the same food everyday. You'll get bored and you'll stop.
86. And if you do eat the thing you banned, chill. It's not the end of the world, just eat less the next time, like if you eaten cake at lunch, eat less during dinner, or add more veggies. Simple.
87. Although variety is the key, don't do it with snacks/unhealthy food. Buy more variety of fruits and veggies, but stick to no more than 3 type of snacks.
88. During the first few days of eating healthy, you'll probably feel lethargic and dizzy. This is due to the electrolyte being washed away from your body, so add salty broth or add more salt on the the food you cook.
89. Have a bowl of clear veggies soup before lunch or dinner, you'll eat less.
90. Don't over it 'healthy' food. Except for certain veggies which have zero calories, don't overdo healthy food such as almond butter, low carbs baked goods, whole grain breads. Even if its healthy, it's no use if you ate whole loaf.
91. Visualize. I love this technique and use mostly about everything. Just visualize yourself slimmer, prettier, and more importantly, healthier.
92. And when you want to eat fatty food, visualize your healthy self. Mmmm will this food jeopardize my chance on that slim healthy me? Yes? Moving on..
93. I found that if I exercise early in the morning, I feel better on the day. So make sure to include your exercises in the morning. I'll eat less too, knowing that I've work my ass of in the morning, why should I eat fatty stuff.
94. Although, make sure to clean your eating habit first before attempting to exercise. Sometimes it's easier to justify that fatty food cause I exercise this morning. Double edge sword.
95. Remember 80% food, 20% exercise.
96. The 80% rule also apply to your diet. Eat clean 80% and unclean 20%.. Soon decrease it slowly to eating healthy 100%.
97. Follow healthy people instagram and news feed to decrease your chance of craving food. Since most my friends are crazy about posting food online (I'm too guilty of this hehe) My insta is @fortytreesfarm if you want to follow me. I just started posting out healthy motivation, and I try to post it daily, as our motivation wanes daily too. *Warning, if you hate babies don't follow me, cause I usually will post about my son too. =.=
98. Out of sight, out of mouth. So hide your snacks and fatty food so you won't be tempted.
99. It is said that food craving will usually pass after 10 minutes, so distract yourself when you are having one.
100. Identify the cause of you eating. Are you bored? Sad? Happy? Grieving? Work on that emotion rather than emotional eating. The last 7 years have been roller coaster for me, and I did my time on emotional eating. I can't change it overnight, but rather than turning myself to food, I usually ask why I want to eat at certain times.
101. Citrus or sour flavor could curb your appetite, so add vinegar or lemon on your salad.
102. I heard great news about apple cider vinegar. You could work it up to taste by drinking 1 tsp of ACV to 1 warm cup of water. You could also add in 1 tsp honey to improve the taste.
103. Cinnamon also said to aid weight loss. Boil or pour boiling water with/on cinnamon, when the water cool down, add in 1tsp of honey. Honey will lose their benefit when cooked so make sure to fully cool the drink.
104. Water with cucumber slices are also said to aid weight loss.
105. Shout it from the rooftop. Share your story. Blog your goal. They will remind you when you fall of the wagon. But don't be an ass about it. No one like to hear about people bragging about losing weight when others are gaining.
106. Eat small meal before going out/eating out. I know it sounds like cleaning your house before the cleaning people come, but hey it works.
107. Have a diet buddy. Call/text her/him when you are feeling low or you want to eat something unhealthy.
108. There's always why you want to lose weight. Post it every where.
109. If you want to eat something, ask yourself, are you hungry enough to eat an apple. If no, drink water instead.
110. Okay it's 110 and I feel stuck trying to remember what else to put in here. Hehe.Okay, got it. Air fryer! My sister bought a cheap air fryer the other day, and she fried most of her stuff in there, with no to little oil. It taste mostly the same or better, so switch it up!
111. Add yoga or breathing technique in the morning or evening to relax. Stressed out people pile on the food as well fat, so unwind before the day is over.
112. Move more. Talk on the phone while walking. Walk to nearest shop. Walk to the account guy not email/call him.
113. Order salad dressing on the side. I once bought a go to salad with the dressing in a packet. When I read the label, although the salads was like 80 calories, the dressing in the packet is 400! Gullp..
114. Have dinner/lunch with less than 7 people. The more, the merrier, the more you are distracted from how much have you been eating.
115. Bring your own healthy version of food for potluck.
116. Add some spiciness to your diet to increase metabolism.
117. Eat outside of the box. If it's in packaging, skip it!
118. God has made natural packaging/food. Small snacks? Grapes and berries. Family size snacks? Watermelon.
119. Frozen grapes for sweet treats.
120. Full fat Greek yogurt has the lowest carbs, add in fresh berries for a little sweetness.
121. Aim to eat 1 cup of raw veggies everyday, or if you can't stomach it, juice it!
122. Weight yourself everyday. So you'll know if the scales go up, smaller meal the next meal.
123. Try the same vegetable cook differently at least 7 times. If you still don't like the taste, move on.
124. Don't be tempted to lose 40 pounds in 1 month. Its not healthy, nor safe. After one month and you'll get back to eating as usual, most will come piling back. Not to mention, saggy skin.
125. Fasting once a week could also help to detox your body. For Muslim, it is recommended to fast on Monday and Thursday. *Ironic, I'm a muSLIM but I'm not slim. LOL.
126. Don't shop when you're hungry. You'll buy anything in sight.
127. Similar to don't try to find a restaurant when you are extremely hungry.
128. Fruit juices sound healthy, but usually loaded with sugar.
129. Swimming are excellent choice for first time exerciser. The water hold up your weight, so you could walk or run in the water. I try swimming over the weekend and it was good! *although I'm water phobic...
130. Conquer your fear. I'm afraid of water for my whole life, but when I try it, it wasn't so bad...
131. Plank! I started off with barely holding up 10 sec, now I'm moving to 20 sec. But as long as you are doing it, it doesn't matter!
132. Add in egg everyday. It's good for you.
133. Supersize food, supersize you. Get the S or M fries, or better still, get the children meal.
134. Share the dessert or eat only half of it.
135. Start with low cal to high cal. For example eat all the veggies first, then move on to meat and starches. You'll feel full earlier.
136. Baked sweet potatoes instead of baked potatoes. Or mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes. If you can't do it, mix half and half. Same goes with veggies soup. Fill it with pumpkin and other good veggies and only a quarter of bad veggies.
137. During walking, spend 3 mins walking and 30 sec sprinting. Do it in 5 times.
138. Don't skip meals. You tend to overeat if you skip one.
139. If you want to cook unhealthy stuff, make sure to send some to your neighbors or friends and only leave it for 1 serving or 2 for you.
140. Post a slim picture on your fridge, mirror or everywhere you look.
141. Make a list. And do not buy anything not on list, except non food.
142. Reward yourself! Every kilo I drop, I'm going to buy a tree for my farm. Every 5 kg I drop, I'll buy something big. Last 5 kg hubby bought me a spectacle and I bought myself 3 new easy to wear scarfs. And when I reach my goal weight, we will go to a vacation! Yippee!
143. Focus on how far you come. Sure I've been 87-88 for 2 weeks, but I have lost 8 kg. It's worth celebrating!
144. Last but not least, have fun. That one scoop of ice cream won't make you fat, a whole tub is. Pasta doesn't make you fat if you just eat 1 cup of it (200 cal) but normal portion, up to 5x is (1000 cal).
There you have it. 144 tips! If you incorporate 3 new habit per week, you could lose up to 10 pounds a month, or 120 pounds a year with 144 new habit by the same time, next year. Good luck!
Anymore tips to add? Add in the comment below!
Since I'm trying to change my eating habit as well as reading a lot of material, I'm compiling a list on ways to lose weight. Have fun!
1. Drink more water, at least 2 L or calculate here. (*1 kg is 2.2 lb, and oh, mine is 1.8 L per day)
2. Drink a glass of water before eating anything, anything at all!
3. Eat your breakfast within 2 hours of waking up, and if depending on your preference:
a. Vegan or carbs lover (High resistance starch such as oatmeal and veggies/fruits(fiber) such as banana or blueberries)
b. Low carbs/protein lover (Protein and veggies - egg and spinach omelette)
4. Drink green tea (No added sugar). I like to have 2 tall glass of green tea for breakfast and lunch. Green tea is said to boost metabolism and curb your appetite.
5. Eat from smaller plate for the illusion of bigger portion, as well use a blue plate to trick your mind to decrease your appetite as blue is a stark contrast with most food color. It is said a certain place change their street lamp with blue lamp and the criminal activity decreased.
6. While we at color theme, the red, yellow and orange increase your appetite. No wonder KFC McDonald use it as their theme color!
7. Use this picture for portion control :
8. Or of you can't remember all that, here's using your hand:
9. Better yet, just use your plate! Make sure 1/2 is filled with veggies, 1/4 of protein and 1/4 of carbs. (Although mine is 1/2 to 2/3 veggies and 1/3 to 1/2 protein, since I'm cutting bad carbs out)
10. I get it, you don't like veggies. What about fruits then? Switch 1/2 of the veggies with fruits. (Side note, the food is on a blue plate, the portion look huge right?)
11. Are you wondering about food portion? It is said our food portion have gone up to twice to thrice it used to be. More food, more calories. Don't believe me?
12. I love snacks! But now I'm limiting myself to nuts as I'm in induction mode of atkins, so when I want them, I usually take half of the day portion and eat it slowly, savoring every bite. Mostly I'm satisfied. If I don't, I eat another half portion. For today, I'm eating baked almonds, and I've eaten 15 of them and I'm okay with it.
13. Find a hobby or try new things. I'm into reading, so I'm absorbing as much as I can from reading books and articles and then blog about it here, when I
14. One girl I read she set up either walk 3 miles/4.8 km or 30 minutes exercises a day. I did neither, but I don't spend my time being chained to the couch/bed either.
15. Couch potato, rejoice. There's a whole hours of exercises can be done while sitting down watching the telly. So while you are watching Empire, Devious Maid or CSI, you can exercise! There's even yoga on bed (Not the NSFW kind). Here's some:
16. Food journal, or apps. I'm too lazy to do this, lol but if you want to lose weight and keep it off, do this.
17. Kick out anything white. White rice, flour, noodles, baked goods. Try to do it for a day in a week, increase to two, and in 2 months, you could make it as a habit.
18. If you can't do full portion control, just cut out 1/8 of what you used to eat. Wasting food? Better waste than bigger waist. Decrease the portion by 1/4 next. My mom fav saying is, there's poor people who would love to eat what you waste. Well the poor nation still will not get their food even if you eat everything, right? Another was the poor rice will cry. Don't be ridiculous, its food. Just cook/buy less thus no waste.
19. Try to have xxx-free nights a day in a week. Example, no carbs night, no meat night, but please don't make it no veggies night.
20. To see what's the culprit for you health issues, try eliminating some food for a while. (And no one is allergic to ALL fruits and veggies, there's some you could tolerate). For me, when I start low carbs, I lose a lot of weight(8kg) especially the waist area. And when I did try to add in carbs back(such as white rice or noodles, our house staples) I gained weight like 2kg for just eating white rice (1/4 of plate, once a day, lunch). *Although carbs are also water retention, it could be they just water weight too. I'm also lactose intolerant, but I still sneak in a few cheese here and there.
21. If you found the culprit, try to eliminate the culprit for 30 days. You will see at first you will feel worst, but you will feel better and have more energy. *I still can't really stick to it. I get distracted. :p
22. Pinterest and google is your best friends. Pinterest for any info and recipes (although result may varies) and google, well, for everything else.
23. If you are pressed for time, you could buy your groceries and pack it according to weekdays. Although sometimes the food spoils much earlier, so be careful. No water, no wet food mixed with dry, no meat/fowl/fish touching other food.
24. There's always a substitution of the food you love. I love burger, but I ate an open face burger (burger patty on salad) instead, or replace the bun with lettuce. There's squash noodle, zucchini lasagna, cauliflower pizza, mashed cauliflower, and list go on.
25. Try steam or baked instead of frying or boil. The key here is herbs, herbs, and herbs.
26. Try to have unprocessed food more or made it yourself. Its fun and you know what goes into your food.
27. Two in one, grow your own food. Especially salads, leafy vegetables or even tomatoes. The taste is out of the world.
28. Don't drink your calories. Cut out sodas, alcohol, and fizzy drinks. If you want to drink fizzy drink, try the diet version or no sugar. Most of them use substitute sugar.
29. READ food's label. Its easier to control once a week (or how frequent you shop your groceries) than watching it in front of you every single day. Also one woman said if she can't pronounce the ingredients, she won't buy it.
30. If you don't have a date set, swap or change your lifestyle slowly. Don't expect to change overnight. You were eating it for the past xxx of your life, it will probably need the rest of your life to change your habit and lose weight too.
31. Our prophet said to chew the food(each bite) 40 times. A, it grinds down the food, easier to absorb. B, it will slow you down, savoring the food, and thus send signal to brain that you are full.
32. He also said to not mix land and sea animal together. For example eating chicken with prawn, or fish with meat. It is said it could aggravated certain illness. I haven't found any study about this yet.
33. Another one is about eating before you get hungry and stop before you feel full. I have read about this, and even rating about the feeling of hungry and full,
34. There' a name for it mmkayy, It's called the Hunger & Satiety scale. Here it is:
35. Or if you want to describe it as a feeling:
36. Brushing teeth after a meal is a trick a few people employ to stop eating.
37. Watch out your sugar intake. And remember carbs also turn to sugar. The more you consume, the more you crave it. It probably the worst day when you are cutting it down, but in time you'll feel better. And after burning primarily on sugar, your body will change to burning primarily on fat. Yay!
38. Do it for yourself. Don't do it to fit in, for your lover, your mom, your friends. If you are unhappy with them, it will still stay the same after you lose weight. Solve the main issues, and work on your body slowly.
39. Get enough sleep.
40. Don't do diets that eliminate or only about one item. No carbs diet, no protein diet, grapefruit diet, creamcheese diet. Unless to break plateau or less than 3 days, it will wreck havoc on your body and metabolism.
41. Don't try diets of celebrity either. They have money on disposal as well as time, people. nutritionists, chef, trainer and more, which we don't. Focus on things that we can do.
42. There's no need to go all organic, all pasture feed free roam bla bla bla meat/veggies. Rather than be broke and end up eating fast food again because they are cheap, buy the best you can on your budget. I personally just buy lots of leafy green because it's cheap here, and buy normal chicken or low carb chicken ready to eat. I still lose weight.
43. If you don't like the taste of something, chances are you aren't cooking or preparing it correctly. Brussel sprouts are bitter in soups, but taste amazing sauteed or pan fried or oven fried with a lil butter and salt. There's one leafy veggies that I have no idea what the name is but it has sticky sap and I hate it in soups. But when I just fry it lightly with hot soy sauce, it's out of this world. My best friend hate veggies, so I used to baked potato with lots of veggies in it, and she loved it. Look at pinterest and google on best way to cook the veggies.
44. Sit down when you are eating/drinking, even your snack. I read am article or research (I'm not sure) that our brain doesn't connect it that we are eating when we aren't sit down.
45. And don't eat while distracted too, like watching TV, playing phone or reading book(guilty).
46. A trick to make sure I drink enough is to fill a 2 L water bottle, and make sure its in front of me so I'll drink. I saw someone posted a picture with time of the day too, so at certain time, she/he will drink this much.
47. Try weight lifting. Woman do not get all muscly just by weight lifting, we are not equipped with that. That was a real concern of my family when I said I want to lift weight. Muscle is smaller than fat, just like 1kg iron and feather. Although the mass is the same, the quantity is not.
48. On setting your goal weight, be realistic. Everybody has different body type, and your body change, it will not be the same especially after giving birth, adolescence, traumatic injury and so on.
49. That being said, losing weight and gaining muscle has a different outlook on your body. The girl below is 120-125 pound (50+kg) but left is more toned and smaller due to less fat percentage (more muscle).
50. And although you just lost 1 pound/0.45 kg, here's a picture of 1 pound of fat. (But be realistic, even if the scale go down, the 1 pound is consists of fat, muscle and water.)
51. You don't have to be xx-free if you don't have any illness. For example, gluten free. unless you have celiac disease, you don't actually have to have gluten free. The fact that you are eating less crappy stuff and more healthy stuff is the reason. And also fat free. Fat is not the culprit here. sugar is. Most of the time, to make up the taste, they put tons of sugar in it. Although sugar free is good for you.
52. Fat has been black listed from so many weight lost diet, that when recent study shows that sugar is the culprit people are baffled. True, there's good fat and bad fat. And your body need fat. If they don't get it, they'll kidnapped all fat, hold it as ransom unless they have enough fat.
53. Having said that, a lil bit on biology. Our body will burn sugar first, then moving on to fat. But too much sugar, or if our body sometimes fail to convert to burn fat, so we will crave those carbs stuff, and the cycle get repeated again and again. There's even some theory that our body hasn't evolve to digest grains, thus we get fat. This happen when human discover agriculture, thus a shift in our eating pattern.
54. There's also carb cycling, which are favored by the body builder. The simplest theory is that we are eating carbs at wrong time. The diet usually consists of 3 days eating clean, and one or two day eating carbs. But don't get me wrong, this cheat day is not your answer for all you can eat. No baked goods, cake, potatoes for you. Just good carbs such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, and so on.
55. There's a lot of diet available for the type you want to incorporate. For example for low carbs, there's Atkins(strictest), Paleo, South beach, low carb high fat (LCHF) and so on. But if you try to choose one based on what you want to eat, and change it again if they didn't include the one you want. I used to do this before. So now I just plan my eating based on what I feel good eating, and not just blindly follow the diet.
56. If you hate a food, don't try to force yourself on it. I hate apples, yet I keep on buying it so that I could be 'healthy'. Yet it left rotten in the fruit basket weeks after weeks. So I just stop trying to force myself eating an apple, although an apple a day keeps doctor away.
57. There is no diet that works. There's just eating healthy that works. Kapish? I know because I tried every fad diet possible. Hehe.
58. If you want to eat carbs/sugary thing, accompany it with fat/protein. For example strawberries and cream, rice with egg and veggies. It is said that eating carbs with protein or fat temper the sugar effect on your blood.
59. During weekdays, for lunch, ask for half portion of rice, and double up the veggies or buy cut fruits. I know its not easy, especially when your friends love to eat. Its okay to be the only one eating only the side dish or salad. You'll be rewarded with health!
60. Identify your craving. Is it salty, sweet, sour or crunchy? Then made decision on what to eat. For example I'll have cunchy salted almonds for crunch and salty. Fruits for sweetness and citrus or mangoes for sourness.
61. Park your car further.
62. Make priority to shop at the fresh section first. Then load up the others.
63. Plan your meal for the week. Easier said than done, but less waste and you'll focus on things you have rather than just buy things that you'll crave for.
64. Set limit when eating out. If you spaghetti, don't order creamy soup or bread as side. Drink plain water sometimes doesn't hurt.
65. Detox water is good, but be careful with the ingredients. Since most fruits are sprayed with pest repellent, make sure to wash or peel the skin before infusing it in water.
66. You still can have fast food, but it lies in the choice. For example, make it bunless, or grilled instead of deep fried, or just discard the breaded part.
67. Take a picture. I have one picture that shows me soooo huge, and it remind me if I got off the wagon. And, take or find some old picture that you look absolutely ravishing beauty. I got one of those too. I was slimmer, and even my husband is surprised. In his mind I was forever fat. Sadddd.
68. If you have one, wear smaller jeans/shirt, but not to the point of bursting seams. The point is to be aware when you are eating that fatty food, so if you are bloated, you'll feel uncomfortable to eat more
69. If you hate plain water, add some lemon or lime juice in it for taste.
70. If you cooked too much, serve one serving for you, then pack up the leftover in fridge.
71. And if you want to control eating. put the leftover food in fridge. The action needed to heat up the food for us lazy babes will distract us from eating the food. Unless it's supposed to eat cold.
72. Drink cold water before eating and warm water after eating. Drinking cold water after eating will solify the fat we just eaten, and warm water will bring it straight to stomach. But it's not on any research mmkayyy.
73. Since I'm not good with eating only with fork, my husband told me to eat only with fork. It reduces the food I'm going to eat in a bite and I'll eat more slowly. For him, it's chopstick.
74. Check portion on snacks. Often the big bag is for 5-6 portion but come onnn, how many times we eat a single bag of chips in an hour or less? Measure it out and stick with it.
75. Buy smaller packet. Yes it probably cost much more, as the bigger probably cost less with more mass, but its easy to keep track then measuring.
76. Serve directly on plate. No need to put in 5 different plate for each dish, just put all 5 in one plate. You can have another portion if it doesn't satisfy you.
77. Make sure your kitchen and your dining table is far away. If you need a second portion, walk to the kitchen!
78. Add some sweetness on your breakfast. Those that add some sweetness such as honey or fruits lost more weight than those who not.
79. Buy a healthy size or your goal size dress and hang it as a reminder to lose weight.
80. Turn off the TV. My TV alwayssss show me fatty stuff, and I end up salivating thinking of them. Less TV, less advertisement, less craving.
81. Bunch up those muscle! Not only its one way to make a boner go away, flexing your hand or clenching your fist for 30 second could make the craving go away.
82. Make your goal measurable. Like if you want to lose 20 pound, just said I want to lose 1 pound, 20 times. Each after the goal is met. I feel daunted to lose 40 kg at a time. But by making it 1 to 1.5 kg per week, I feel okay with it. So far for 2 months I've lost 8kg, which means 1 kg per week, so I'm happy with my progress.
83. Make a table with your current weight/early weight to goal weight. Cross the number and write victory on it, each time you lose a pound/kg. I even put the date on it.
84. Ride out the plateau. Our body is smart, they don't want to lose too much as they think they are going to starve. Just eat as usual or even increase a little.
85. Don't eat the same food everyday. You'll get bored and you'll stop.
86. And if you do eat the thing you banned, chill. It's not the end of the world, just eat less the next time, like if you eaten cake at lunch, eat less during dinner, or add more veggies. Simple.
87. Although variety is the key, don't do it with snacks/unhealthy food. Buy more variety of fruits and veggies, but stick to no more than 3 type of snacks.
88. During the first few days of eating healthy, you'll probably feel lethargic and dizzy. This is due to the electrolyte being washed away from your body, so add salty broth or add more salt on the the food you cook.
89. Have a bowl of clear veggies soup before lunch or dinner, you'll eat less.
90. Don't over it 'healthy' food. Except for certain veggies which have zero calories, don't overdo healthy food such as almond butter, low carbs baked goods, whole grain breads. Even if its healthy, it's no use if you ate whole loaf.
91. Visualize. I love this technique and use mostly about everything. Just visualize yourself slimmer, prettier, and more importantly, healthier.
92. And when you want to eat fatty food, visualize your healthy self. Mmmm will this food jeopardize my chance on that slim healthy me? Yes? Moving on..
93. I found that if I exercise early in the morning, I feel better on the day. So make sure to include your exercises in the morning. I'll eat less too, knowing that I've work my ass of in the morning, why should I eat fatty stuff.
94. Although, make sure to clean your eating habit first before attempting to exercise. Sometimes it's easier to justify that fatty food cause I exercise this morning. Double edge sword.
95. Remember 80% food, 20% exercise.
96. The 80% rule also apply to your diet. Eat clean 80% and unclean 20%.. Soon decrease it slowly to eating healthy 100%.
97. Follow healthy people instagram and news feed to decrease your chance of craving food. Since most my friends are crazy about posting food online (I'm too guilty of this hehe) My insta is @fortytreesfarm if you want to follow me. I just started posting out healthy motivation, and I try to post it daily, as our motivation wanes daily too. *Warning, if you hate babies don't follow me, cause I usually will post about my son too. =.=
98. Out of sight, out of mouth. So hide your snacks and fatty food so you won't be tempted.
99. It is said that food craving will usually pass after 10 minutes, so distract yourself when you are having one.
100. Identify the cause of you eating. Are you bored? Sad? Happy? Grieving? Work on that emotion rather than emotional eating. The last 7 years have been roller coaster for me, and I did my time on emotional eating. I can't change it overnight, but rather than turning myself to food, I usually ask why I want to eat at certain times.
101. Citrus or sour flavor could curb your appetite, so add vinegar or lemon on your salad.
102. I heard great news about apple cider vinegar. You could work it up to taste by drinking 1 tsp of ACV to 1 warm cup of water. You could also add in 1 tsp honey to improve the taste.
103. Cinnamon also said to aid weight loss. Boil or pour boiling water with/on cinnamon, when the water cool down, add in 1tsp of honey. Honey will lose their benefit when cooked so make sure to fully cool the drink.
104. Water with cucumber slices are also said to aid weight loss.
105. Shout it from the rooftop. Share your story. Blog your goal. They will remind you when you fall of the wagon. But don't be an ass about it. No one like to hear about people bragging about losing weight when others are gaining.
106. Eat small meal before going out/eating out. I know it sounds like cleaning your house before the cleaning people come, but hey it works.
107. Have a diet buddy. Call/text her/him when you are feeling low or you want to eat something unhealthy.
108. There's always why you want to lose weight. Post it every where.
109. If you want to eat something, ask yourself, are you hungry enough to eat an apple. If no, drink water instead.
110. Okay it's 110 and I feel stuck trying to remember what else to put in here. Hehe.Okay, got it. Air fryer! My sister bought a cheap air fryer the other day, and she fried most of her stuff in there, with no to little oil. It taste mostly the same or better, so switch it up!
111. Add yoga or breathing technique in the morning or evening to relax. Stressed out people pile on the food as well fat, so unwind before the day is over.
112. Move more. Talk on the phone while walking. Walk to nearest shop. Walk to the account guy not email/call him.
113. Order salad dressing on the side. I once bought a go to salad with the dressing in a packet. When I read the label, although the salads was like 80 calories, the dressing in the packet is 400! Gullp..
114. Have dinner/lunch with less than 7 people. The more, the merrier, the more you are distracted from how much have you been eating.
115. Bring your own healthy version of food for potluck.
116. Add some spiciness to your diet to increase metabolism.
117. Eat outside of the box. If it's in packaging, skip it!
118. God has made natural packaging/food. Small snacks? Grapes and berries. Family size snacks? Watermelon.
119. Frozen grapes for sweet treats.
120. Full fat Greek yogurt has the lowest carbs, add in fresh berries for a little sweetness.
121. Aim to eat 1 cup of raw veggies everyday, or if you can't stomach it, juice it!
122. Weight yourself everyday. So you'll know if the scales go up, smaller meal the next meal.
123. Try the same vegetable cook differently at least 7 times. If you still don't like the taste, move on.
124. Don't be tempted to lose 40 pounds in 1 month. Its not healthy, nor safe. After one month and you'll get back to eating as usual, most will come piling back. Not to mention, saggy skin.
125. Fasting once a week could also help to detox your body. For Muslim, it is recommended to fast on Monday and Thursday. *Ironic, I'm a muSLIM but I'm not slim. LOL.
126. Don't shop when you're hungry. You'll buy anything in sight.
127. Similar to don't try to find a restaurant when you are extremely hungry.
128. Fruit juices sound healthy, but usually loaded with sugar.
129. Swimming are excellent choice for first time exerciser. The water hold up your weight, so you could walk or run in the water. I try swimming over the weekend and it was good! *although I'm water phobic...
130. Conquer your fear. I'm afraid of water for my whole life, but when I try it, it wasn't so bad...
131. Plank! I started off with barely holding up 10 sec, now I'm moving to 20 sec. But as long as you are doing it, it doesn't matter!
132. Add in egg everyday. It's good for you.
133. Supersize food, supersize you. Get the S or M fries, or better still, get the children meal.
134. Share the dessert or eat only half of it.
135. Start with low cal to high cal. For example eat all the veggies first, then move on to meat and starches. You'll feel full earlier.
136. Baked sweet potatoes instead of baked potatoes. Or mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes. If you can't do it, mix half and half. Same goes with veggies soup. Fill it with pumpkin and other good veggies and only a quarter of bad veggies.
137. During walking, spend 3 mins walking and 30 sec sprinting. Do it in 5 times.
138. Don't skip meals. You tend to overeat if you skip one.
139. If you want to cook unhealthy stuff, make sure to send some to your neighbors or friends and only leave it for 1 serving or 2 for you.
140. Post a slim picture on your fridge, mirror or everywhere you look.
141. Make a list. And do not buy anything not on list, except non food.
142. Reward yourself! Every kilo I drop, I'm going to buy a tree for my farm. Every 5 kg I drop, I'll buy something big. Last 5 kg hubby bought me a spectacle and I bought myself 3 new easy to wear scarfs. And when I reach my goal weight, we will go to a vacation! Yippee!
143. Focus on how far you come. Sure I've been 87-88 for 2 weeks, but I have lost 8 kg. It's worth celebrating!
144. Last but not least, have fun. That one scoop of ice cream won't make you fat, a whole tub is. Pasta doesn't make you fat if you just eat 1 cup of it (200 cal) but normal portion, up to 5x is (1000 cal).
There you have it. 144 tips! If you incorporate 3 new habit per week, you could lose up to 10 pounds a month, or 120 pounds a year with 144 new habit by the same time, next year. Good luck!
Anymore tips to add? Add in the comment below!
