1. Eat Often
Eating 5 small meals a day keeps your blood sugar stable and your appetite in check, so you'll have more energy and less cravings throughout the day. Each meal should have a carb, a protein, and a fat source. For example, lunch can be a mixed green salad with chicken (or beans if you're vegetarian) and veggies (complex carbs, protein), with a vinaigrette dressing (oil = fat), and a small apple on the side (more complex carbs).
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| Work that shake weight! |
2. Weight Training
Muscle tissue is very metabolically active, which is a big reason why athletes have a greater caloric allowance than the average Joe. Build more muscle, burn more calories. And some six pack abs wouldn't be too shabby, eh?
A study from the University of Tennessee found that eating yogurt helped participants lose abdominal fat and maintain muscle mass. The research showed that calcium was the key player, so if you're lactose intolerant (like me! Woohoo!), get more calcium from fortified non-dairy milk, low-lactose dairy (like yogurt with live active cultures), calcium supplements, green veggies like kale and broccoli, and salmon.
4.Use The Glycemic Index
The glycemic index measures foods by how quickly and how much they raise blood sugar levels (which makes it a fantastic diet plan for people with diabetes or blood sugar instability). Carbohydrates, especially simple carbs and starchy foods, will have a higher GI, meaning they will be broken down more quickly than a low GI food, such as greek yogurt.
If you mix one higher GI food with other low GI foods, or simply stick to low GI foods, your blood sugar and insulin will be at more stable levels for longer. When these two are well balanced, you'll have optimal metabolism.
You can also essentially lower a food's glycemic index by combining it with a fat and/or a protein, which slows the breakdown of the high GI food. I like drizzling potatoes with olive oil and eating some chicken on the side. There's plenty of room to play around with meal choices!
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| Just a picture of the package makes my mouth water. |
I stay on the right track when I allow myself to have one little treat to look forward to every day. My favorites are of the chocolate variety, so I'll always have some dark chocolate squares or low-fat frozen fudge bars on hand. Last weekend I even made dark chocolate-covered strawberries! The key is to keep the treat small and intense. Splurge on rich sweets; you'll be satisfied with small portions.
6. Listen to your body
If you're hungry, then eat. If you're not, then don't. Not sure if it's hunger or emotional cravings? Drink a glass of water or chew some strong gum. If you're still feeling stomach pangs, grab a healthy snack.
7. Zzzzz
As I mentioned in my post about staying healthy in college, sleep is when your body repairs itself. When you're relaxed and unconscious, your body releases more growth hormone, which can utilize fat to build new tissue, like muscle, which will burn even more fat!
8. Up the Cardio Intensity
You usually want to aim for 45 to 60 minutes of cardio at least three days a week, on top of at least two days a week of weight training; but life is busy, and who has time to go to the gym for 5 hours a week? Not this girl! I still want to look like a foxy gym rat, though.
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| HIIT before and after pic from http://www.healthhabits.ca/ |
If you want to burn MAJOR calories in a very short amount of time, HIIT may be for you. It's mind-numbing, exhausting, stress-relieving, and makes you feel like a champ afterward. However, you need to already be fit to safely do HIIT. Get a physical from a health professional (which you should be doing regularly anyway!) and learn how to monitor your heart rate before you jump on this sweaty saddle. And don't forget to give yourself time to adapt. My first time doing HIIT, I pushed too hard too soon and got tunnel vision. Not safe!
My two favorite types of HIIT are Tabata and Max HIIT (like the Insanity workouts). Tabata is basically a four-minute circuit involving 20 seconds of pushing yourself followed by 10 seconds of rest. The 4 minute circuits can be repeated as much as you like, or even used as a weight training warmup. I do 20 to 30 minutes as a warmup for pilates.
The Max HIIT I do is about 3 minutes of pushing as hard as you can, followed by 30 seconds of rest, repeating each circuit three times, with about 3 to 5 circuits per session. It lasts from 40 minutes to an hour, and is a total body workout.
I know that losing the last bit of weight, especially on your trouble zones, can be frustrating, but I hope these tips can help you melt fat and keep it off, like they have for me! Just don't forget that you're a human being, and your body will be as human as you are. If you embrace the progress you've made, you can confidently wear your tiny flaws (that really only you see) as beauty marks instead of shortcomings. Stop aiming to be perfect, and start aiming to be as healthy as you can be, and I promise you'll like what you see in the mirror. ^_^
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