The New Year is a time for new beginnings, a time for you to make up where you lacked in the last few years. Ultimately, it is a time to hit the gym and work off the extra poundage that your waistline put on over the holidays.
It's important to stay strong and push through the year towards your weight-loss and fitness goals. Here are a few suggestions as how to start the year off in a way that will make keeping your new year's resolutions easier than going cold turkey.
Remember, the most important thing when you are making your diet and nutrition new year's resolutions is to stay realistic. Don't expect to lose 20 pounds in two days. You want to make sure that you are able to set goals that can be attainable and maintainable.
Cut out the Soda
Soda can be greatest enemy when it comes to getting in shape after the holidays. The carbonation and sodium lead to bloating and have actually been proven to make you hungrier. Moreover, the empty calories can build up without you even noticing, and most sodas are pumped full of high fructose corn syrup. Switch to tea, or other low-calorie natural beverages. If you have the will power to cut out soda completely, your diet and weight loss resolutions will be easier to fulfill than you originally thought.
Put in the Hours at the Gym
It's amazing how we talk ourselves out of going to the gym. You really want to create a habit for yourself by forcing yourself to go to the gym for two weeks straight. Yes, every day for two weeks. It only takes two weeks to form the habit of going to the gym and once you meet this goal, your body will crave exercise. You can continue going everyday to get some cardio after a long day at work, or you can go a few times per week. If you start the good habit, you can kick the bad habit.
An Apple a Day...
Aside from apples increasing your dental health, try eating an apple a day to help with weight loss. Pectin, which is predominant in apples, actually absorbs fat and encourages water absorption. Less bloat and less fat means a skinnier you. Plus, apples have a moderate satiety - quenching both thirst and hunger at the same time.
Pump up the Vitamin C
Eating fruits high in vitamin C can do your health a favor in more ways than one. Vitamin C strengthens your immunity, fighting colds and viruses, making you healthy to go to the gym. Vitamin C also helps the body process fats faster and stimulates carnitine amino acids which speeds up your fat burning capacity.
Try a Full-Body Cleanse (not for the faint of heart...)
Fasting cleanses or juice cleanses can kick start your healthy new years resolutions by helping you flush out unwanted water weight and fat. There are a handful of juice cleanses, soup cleanses, or even the master cleanse where you fast for 10 days drinking nothing but a lemonade-maple syrup concoction. Regardless, if you can push through the first few days of a cleanse, the rest will be smooth sailing. Your colon will be healthy and you will now be able to predict when you are actually hungry as opposed to just when you want to eat.
