Saturday, November 25, 2006

5 Healthy Steps to Losing 5 Pounds - Fast

You may find this hard to believe but you can lose 5 pounds in one week doing 5 simple things. You won’t be endangering your health either because your body can’t help but lose fat when you implement these five very simple principles of fat loss.


First, eliminate all bread, pasta and sugar from your diet. I know I’m going to lose a lot people with this one. That’s why I put this principle first! Most people understand why sugar is bad for your waistline. Excess sugar is stored as fat and can also cause diabetes.


But why bread and pasta? Believe me, I feel your pain but you must understand that bread and pasta are the worst things you can eat if you are trying to lose fat. It doesn’t matter if it’s whole grain, high fiber or low carb pasta, grains in any form will make you fat. Think about what bread and pasta is made from and you will understand why this must go. To make bread and pasta, grains, lots and lots of grains, are processed to make just a few ounces of pasta or a couple slices of bread. It’s like concentrated carbohydrates once you eat it and then your body has to work extra hard to burn it. Unless you are constantly exercising in the right heart rate zone, your body will store those calories and cause your metabolism to slow down. (There are some people who can eat bread and it won’t affect their metabolism but they are all skinny and probably aren’t reading this article, anyway.) If you want to lose 5 pounds fast, lose the bread.
Second, eat a small meal consisting of protein and complex carbohydrates every 2 to 3 hours. By complex carbs, I mean salad, green vegetables, or a dense fruit like apples. Or you could have a small serving (1/2 cup) of rice to make your metabolism burn fat better. Make sure you are combining the right foods to make your metablism work efficiently.


Third, eliminate fat from your diet. I know, I know this is starting to get hard. But it’s not, really. Understand that eating fat will make you fat. And if you continue to eat fat while you are fat, the fat on your body will never burn off. Besides, healthy foods can be made to taste delicious just by adding lemon juice, garlic, other spices and herbs to your cooking.


Fourth, exercise 30 minutes a day after eating your small meal. Popular opinion is that you should exercise on an empty stomach but that is not true. Your body needs the sugar from carbs for energy to exercise, otherwise it will start consuming your muscle. By eating a complex carbohydrate and a small amount of protein, your body will burn what is readily available first (the carbs in your meal), noursih your muscles with the protein then turn to fat stores for more energy.


Fifth, drink at least 100 ounces of water a day to flush out all the fat you are losing. That is 12 eight-ounce glasses, way more than the usually prescribed amount of 8 eight-ounce glasses. Your body won’t retain water and you will also speed up your metabolism.


These 5 principles of weight loss sound hard but if you take it one day at a time and commit to doing it for one week, you will see a difference and be inspired to keep going until you lose all the fat you need to lose.


Eunice Coughlin is the founder of http://www.healthy-living-for-moms.com/, a resource for moms of all ages and stages who seek spiritual and physical health and wellness.

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