Do You Want to Lose Some Weight for The Holidays?
You’ve only got a couple of weeks until your holiday, and you just want to look your best, especially when it comes to your legs, bums, and tums. Well, according to dietitian Juliette Kellow, you need to pay attention to your diet right before the holidays if you want to have the best and healthiest version of your body and lose some weight.
Naturally, it’s easier said than done; after all, now is the time when we’re bombarded with delicious offers and recipes. And it’s also too cold to jog outside, so what is there to do? Well, you’ll find out in this article:
Concentrate on shifting fat.
As burning off extra calories through exercise will definitely help, you could easily triple the effect by eating meals with fewer calories. Try to stick to a daily calorie allowance, which will easily help you shift between 1/2 lb and 2 lb a week.
Also, the most important part is to ditch the junk from your diet. Believe it or not, it’s also the easiest way to reduce calories, so make sure you cut out as many fatty, sugary, salty, and processed foods as you can to lose weight.
Instead, you want to replace them with fresh and natural products. I know they might not be as tasty, but they’re better. Trust me. Swap the burger for a chicken salad, biscuits for fruits, chips for jacket spuds, and sugary cereals for healthy porridge. It will definitely slim down your waistline!
Get rid of the orange peel by filling up on foods rich in cellulite-busting vitamin C.
This vitamin will help you strengthen the skin’s connective tissue. The stronger it is, the less likely you will see cellulite on your skin. As ironic as it might sound, the key to getting rid of orange peel skin might be, in fact, oranges!
However, women might suffer from a disadvantage, mainly due to their main feminine hormone, estrogen. Scientists discovered that, unlike men, who have smooth and continuous connective tissue, women have irregular and patchy tissue.
Ultimately, this could result in fat cells that poke through weaker areas of connective tissue into the layer of skin, right beneath the surface. This is what causes dimples.
Proper sources of vitamin C like citrus fruits and their juices, berries, kiwi fruit, blackcurrants, tomatoes, peppers, and new potatoes might help. These foods are also very low in calories, so there are many choices out there.
Swap white food for the brown stuff.
We all know these couples: white rice with brown rice, regular pasta with wholewheat pasta, cornflakes with muesli, and white bread with the granary one. One of them is tasty and sinful, and the other one is just healthy.
Well, even if they’re all packed with fiber, the healthier ones are better. They fill you up, and they scare away hunger for longer. If you choose the healthy over the tasty, you are less likely to want to snack on high-calorie, sugary, and fatty foods in between meals.
Besides, a diet rich in fiber will also keep you away from constipation, which also creates a bloated tum. The best sources of fiber include brown rice, wholemeal bread and pasta, cereals, peas, beans, lentils, jacked potatoes, and also fruits and vegetables.
Don’t add salt to meals, and eat less salt altogether.
Trust me, way too much salt will make your body hold on to water. This is how you might end up retaining too much fluid and looking puffier than you really are. To cut down on that salt, make sure you eat fewer sauces, pickles, canned foods, fast foods, sausages, meat products, pizzas, and crisps.
You know, all the “good” stuff. But I also have good news: as these tasty foods also pack a ton of calories, you might lose more weight if you avoid them.
Filling up on antioxidant-rich foods could help you beat cellulite.
As you might know already, antioxidants “mop up” all the excess free radicals and harmful molecules that wander around the body, damaging cells. However, free radicals could damage and reduce the flexibility of collagen, which is a form of connective tissue.
This could mean that skin becomes less smooth and supple and more prone to cellulite. But if you fight free radicals, antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E, as well as selenium, might come to your rescue and keep your skin soft and smooth.
Try to start your day with yogurt or a probiotic drink.
Whether we’re talking about Yakult, Actimel, Danone Activia, or even Muller Vitality, you should make a habit of starting with a yogurt every day. These products have “friendly” bacteria that help you top up levels of beneficial bacteria in the gut.
In return, this could help you regulate your entire digestive system and reduce bloating and discomfort. Also, make sure you remember to count the calories, and maybe opt for a fat-free or even lower-free variety, if available!
Drink 8 glasses of water every single day.
After all, water is completely calorie-free and will help fill you up and keep you hydrated. But drinking more water might also help make your thighs and bum look less dimply. How come?
Well, it’s quite simple: dehydrated and dry skin will make your cellulite look much worse. Some beauty experts also think that drinking water could help flush out toxins.
Sometimes, they accumulate in and around the fat cells, which makes cellulite worse. Whether this is true or not is still uncertain, but nevertheless, drinking more water can’t do any harm.
Don’t eat too many sugar-free products.
We’re talking about gums and mints that are packed with sorbitol, mannitol, and maltitol instead of sugar. Yes, the ones we’re nervously chewing without even noticing.
Sometimes they could be beneficial for your teeth and lower in calories, but some of them work like laxatives, which will make your tummy extremely bloated. This is not something you want, so just go for the classical brush three times a day. It’s better this way.
Don’t eat while you’re out and about.
You might swallow loads of air, which could ultimately leave you feeling gassy and with a bloated tum. If you also add fizzy drinks like sparkling water, the gas will end up in your tum.
Slash your portion sizes.
Ultimately, don’t eat until you feel stuffed. Here’s what will happen if you do that: Your poor digestive system will end up producing tons of air and gas because it will have to work overtime to process all that food.
Also, cutting your serving sizes is probably the easiest way to cut calories without trying too hard. You can serve meals in a small bowl rather than on a full-sized dinner plate.
Make a habit of buying treats like biscuits, cakes, and pies that always come in individual packs. And make sure you always take into account the serving sizes written on the packs, especially for noodles, rice, and cereals.
If you’re eager to start dieting, then you will definitely need a kitchen scale, at least in the beginning. Here’s one that we deeply recommend; it’s from Nicewell, and it’s not only extremely effective, but it also looks good!
If you’re eager to read other similar articles, here’s what we recommend reading: 5 Best & Quick Side Dishes You Can Eat With Any Meal