I constantly get asked, “How did you do it?” “What did you do?”, but there is so many components to weight loss, so I narrowed it down to the most important ones. It has been a journey of six months, so far, to achieve this goal. Losing twenty pounds was not easy—it takes a lot of dedication and time. It is a slow process where patience is key and motivation is virtue. Without these two, the journey will be very tough and irritating. So how did I do it? Well, I will be telling you all my top five tips that allowed me to shed twenty pounds in the time frame of six months.
Tip #1: NUTRITION. NUTRITION. NUTRITION
I cannot emphasize the importance of nutrition. Weight loss begins in the kitchen, and without eating the proper nutrients and meals one will not be able to loose weight—the healthy way of course. It is important to eat properly and correctly. Avoid processed foods (chips, cookies, fried foods, etc.) because these snacks are synthetically made and your body cannot digest them as quickly and adequately as it can with natural food. Instead of eating a bag of chips or a cookie as a snack, eat an apple with peanut butter (my favorite snack!) or any fruit. Here, you will be getting your sugar intake from natural sugar not high fructose corn syrup, which is evil to your body! Trust me, without eating properly the hours spent exercising will be pointless.
Tip #2: Water
Drinking solely water is very important. Soda and juices are ridiculously high in sugar (synthetic sugar); therefore, they are the first things one must get rid of. Our body is designed to process simply natural materials and when putting such high amounts of synthetic sugar in your body, it will have to work twice as hard. I cannot emphasize how important water is to the body. Aside from helping with weight loss, drinking sufficient water helps with your skin, hair, and health stability. Drinking plenty of water is needed to maintain you hydrated. Without having enough water your body stores it away because it knows it wont be getting enough later, and this is the result of what is known as water weight. Thus, it is essential to drink up to 1.5 liters of water a day, which is an equivalent of 8 water bottles, to keep your body hydrated and most importantly healthy.
Tip #3: Green Tea
If people only knew the wonders that Green Tea does! It is amazing. Green Tea is a natural option to energy drinks with a hand full of benefits that roll along with it. Drinking Green Tea 2-5 times a day is very helpful. Aside from helping you stay awake, it has great antioxidants, which help you cleanse your body and burn fat. One tip I recommend, however, is that rather than sweetening your tea with sugar or “Splenda” use Organic Aloe Vera juice (which is sold at Whole Foods for $8). The Aloe Vera, along with the tea, helps you cleanse your body of all the toxins stored in there. If having issues with your digestive system, Aloe Vera with Green Tea is the solution for you.
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Tip #4: Weight Lifting & Stretching
Many people have the misconception that simply doing cardio will help you. Yes, cardio does benefit you, but i will not give you such positive results as weight lifting does. When doing cardio you are burning calories, and the goal is to burn off the fat and have those muscles under the fat come out! This I learned the hard way. I would spend an hour or so doing cardio and just about 30 minutes doing weights on just my abdominals. Until I learned from a professional that this was not what I wanted to do, as in the long run lifting weights was more beneficial. However, it is important you do not work out the same muscle every day. It is very, very, very important to allow your body to rest. Therefore, workout one muscle one day and allow it to rest up to three days before adding more strength to it. For example, Tuesday I work out my back, Thursday my legs, Friday my arms, Saturday my abdominals, and Sunday my legs again. This routine allows me to rest my muscles for various days, but I still add strength to them. Lastly, stretching before and after your workouts is very important. Without stretching or doing some sort of warm up you are risking an injury, and that would not be fun.
Tip #5: Motivation and Dedication
Loosing twenty pounds was not an easy task. It took a lot of motivation and dedication to reach the weight I am at now. Without dedicating at least one hour of your day to yourself it will be a very difficult journey. That is all it takes—one hour a day—to make a difference. However, you have to dedicate some time on other aspects such as watching what you eat and making sure what you put in your body will fuel it, not destroy it. Motivation and dedication—that is all that is needed to keep going and reach the weight loss or fitness goals you set yourself to!
With these simple five tips I have lost a total of 20 lbs. with the time span of six months. I have now gone from calling my habits a diet to a lifestyle, as it is no longer mandatory, it is my choice to live this way. When learning the wonders that natural foods do to your body—trust me—you will no longer want to put synthetic materials in it. You are what you put in your body and why not make it good, healthy sources, right All it takes is a little boost of motivation and dedication and you will be there in no time!