Say NO to sodas

You need to stop drinking regular & diet sodas.

Quick fact: If you replaced a 20oz bottle of soda with water daily... You would easily lose up to 35 pounds in one year

THERMOGENIC FOODS

Thermogenic foods burn more calories to digest than the calorie content of the food itself, resulting in an increased metabolism for a short amount of time.

Here’s a list of the ten best ones:

· Cruciferous Vegetables (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage)

· Celery

· Asparagus

· Leafy Greens (lettuce, spinach, kale, etc)

· Mushrooms – Most mushrooms have no calories at all, so all the calories burned processing them

· Chili peppers – In addition to being thermogenic, hot peppers give an extra boost to the metabolism. The capsaicin in them, which is what makes them hot, speeds the metabolic rate.

· Berries

· Apples

· Apricots / Peaches

· Pears

These foods can be eaten cooked or raw, and can be eaten in combination with other foods or on their own.

Adding them to dishes you already make, like putting some celery and brocoli in a stew, ups the thermogenic capacity of that dish quickly and easily.

Choosing thermogenic foods really is a great way to speed up your metabolism, burn more calories and make weight loss happen more easily. This is just one of the ways you can use little tricks in your diet to make it work for you.

Look out for hidden carbohydrates.

.If your weight loss progress seems slow, look out for carbohydrates that might be sneaking their way unnoticed into your diet. Sugar can lurk in the most unexpected places such as ketchup, salad dressings, teriyaki and barbecue sauces. Watch out too for cornstarch, sugar or milk solids in many processed foods such as gravies, or sauces on frozen vegetables. Be careful of "low-fat" foods where flavor is enhanced by sugar and other carbohydrates.

EMOTIONAL HUNGER

Many times, our desire for food is not due to real hunger, but due to other several psychological factors. Hunger is the message of our organism to tell us that we need fuel, so if the desire for food is not due to hunger, the food will not make us feel better. On the contrary we will feel worse because of the extra unnecessary calories we will consume. It is also a not healthy habit because it does not offer anything and will help you destroy your weight loss efforts.
What Is Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of to satisfy hunger
The first step to taking control of your emotional eating is to figure out what triggers it for you. Do you eat more at work because of stress or boredom? Do you eat more at parties or other social situations because you're nervous or anxious? Do you eat when you're bored or lonely?
For many of us, reaching for our favorite foods is an automatic response when we don't feel good about ourselves. Changing that automatic response isn't easy but, if you want to learn how to control your calories to lose weight or get healthy, you need to learn to break the cycle.

BUILD MORE MUSCLES

Exercise can help you build more muscle mass. By adding more muscle
mass you are adding the most important fat burning tool to your body.
Muscle tissue is the most metabolically active tissue of the body, so
make sure to build as much muscle as possible. Studies have shown that
for each pound of muscle you add to your body, you can burn about 35
to 50 calories more per day. So, if you manage to add an extra 10
pounds of muscle you will be in position to burn approximately 350 to
500 calories more per day. This is without making any other changes to
your diet. In some other research, researchers found that regular
weight lifting training can improve the basal metabolic rate by about
15%.

WATER

Drinking lots of water is one of the most important factors for losing weight. Our bodies are over 70% water and they need a large amount of this liquid to maintain their daily functions. Water helps to clean our systems and get rid of harmful toxins. When you water intake is not enough, your body actually turns to the water reserves it has which in turn, leaves you bloated. In order to release the extra water, you need to drink enough of it during the day.
Water is also the best no-calorie source to fill up your stomach which makes you feel that you are not hungry.
Try consuming ice cold water to actually burn more calories. Your body needs to warm up the ice cold water and it uses calories to do so. This is the so called the “thermogenic effect”. You can burn about 100 calories a day by drinking one gallon of ice cold water. Over a period of a month, this comes to almost 1 pound (for a month) and 12 pounds of easy weight loss per year!

Lose weight slowly with small changes

Try to remember that "losing 15 pounds in two weeks" is nothing to celebrate. It is important to realize that the more quickly weight is lost, the more likely the loss is coming from water and muscle, not fat. Since muscle tissue is critical in keeping our metabolism elevated, losing it actually leads to a decrease in the amount of calories we can each day without gaining weight. Fat loss is best achieved when weight is lost slowly. Strive for a weight loss of no more than 1-2 pounds per week. One pound of weight is equivalent to 3500 calories. By making small changes like eliminating 250 calories a day from food and expending 250 calories a day from exercise, you can lose one pound (of mostly fat) per week.