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lose weight quickly

5 Tips to Lose Weight Quickly

You’ve got a hot date this weekend,lose weight quickly

Your high school reunion is next month,

Maybe your sister is getting married and you want to look your best for the family photo.

Whatever the reason, we often find ourselves regretting our failure to stick to a healthy diet 1-3 weeks out from a big event.  We need to lose weight quickly!!

While a week or two might not be enough time to transform you into a Calvin Klein model, it is enough time to at least take away the bloat and perhaps drop 5-10lbs.

Here are my Top 5 Rules to Lose Weight Quickly!

1.  Nix the Sodium!:

  • There is so much sodium in the average American diet.
  • If it’s processed, you can guarantee that there is sodium in it!  
  • Check your labels, work to cut out as much sodium as possible.
  • What’s wrong with sodium you ask? Your body needs to have a certain level of sodium to allow the body to function properly.  When your sodium increases you must retain water to keep your sodium levels within normal saturation levels; unless until you have flushed the sodium out.  If you always eat high sodium foods, you are ALWAYS retaining water.  Nix the sodium and you might drop 3-5lbs in water weight right away!

2.  Stick to your Ratios:

  • If you want to lose weight eat 1g Protein for 1g of Carbohydrate you eat.  
  • Think about it, we call it low carb, but all you are actually doing is balancing your protein to carbohydrate ratio.  
  • This is why most diets seem to be “low carb.”  
  • Diets aren’t actually “low carb.”  Americans just eat too many carbs to begin with which is why you want to lose weight in the first place.

3.  Eat Veggies:

  •  If you eat enough veggies to balance out the protein you eat I promise you won’t be hungry.  
  • Veggies take up space filling your stomach.  
  • We often cheat on diets because we feel hungry: Fill up on veggies and you will have less reason to cheat.  
  • Veggies also contain lots of fiber to help you “push” some of the old crap you previously ate through the system.–You’ll feel less bloated when you have less sticking to your intestine walls.  
  • Season them with low sodium seasonings such as any of the Mrs. Dash line to add more flavor to your meals.  

4.  Drink Water:  

  • Your sodium levels do not balance out with one glass of water and the amount you drink can affect your eyesight, if your dehydrated and your eyesight is going away then try googling Eye doctors near me or visit your local clinician for treatment.  
  • Take eating sushi for example:  When you go out for sushi and have soy sauce with your roll it’s like you just consumed 1 tsp of salt.  Imagine instead of putting that tsp in your body you put it in a 8oz glass of water.  Now add 8 oz of water and pour half the glass out.  You are left with 1/2 a tsp of sodium.  After the next glass you’ll have 1/4 and so on and so forth.  
  • The more water you drink, the less water your body needs to retain to bring it back to it’s normally sodium saturation.  
  • Oddly enough, the more water you drink the less water you will retain.  
  • DRINK WATER!

5.  Don’t Restrict Calories Too Much:

  • The mistake most of us make is we restrict calories too much.  
  • This causes your body to go into “starvation mode,” meaning your body will shut down bodily functions to conserve calories.
  • If you cheat one day before you event you will stop losing weight and your body will for sure hold onto the calories during and after the function, making you rebound to a higher weight than you started at.
  • Eat at least 1200-1400 calories if you are female or 1400-1600 calories if you are male to avoid going into starvation mode!

 

If you look at any diet you will see it typically follows these rules.  The only difference is instead of telling you the science, they simple tell you the foods to eat.  Here are some “Safe” foods to consume and still drop weight quickly.  Stick to these foods, we’ll call it the What Courtney Eats Based on all the Diets she’s read about Diet.

Safe Foods:

Get creative!  Make something new!  I bet you won’t be bored.  Here are some recipes that might help you stay on track!

blueberry protein muffins

Blueberry Protein Muffins

Healthy Recipes

Chicken Tacos

chicken curry

Chicken Curry

green smoothie

Green Smoothie PB&J

And a couple recipes that will keep you on track.  Beware the following recipes do have cheese so make sure that you drink extra water to flush out that sodium!

Spicy Stuffed Pepper Burgers

Spicy Stuff Pepper Burgers

Spinach crust pizza

Spinach Crust Pizzas

gluten free lasagna

Gluten Free Lasagna

 

 

 

If you eat healthy you NEED a cheat meal

Alright, we’re in a good routine.  We’ve been eating healthy all week!  Great job!  The good news, if you stick to a clean diet with a good protein to carb ratio and taking your gw501517 supplement every now and then to maintain a good diet then, (ei, maybe on the weekend!) you should have a cheat meal.  A cheat meal is a meal in which you allow yourself to eat whatever you want for one meal.  Since the majority of us are carboholics, a cheat meal typically has more carbs than we should be eating for our normal meals.  (Think pastas, pizza, cookies, cake)

Why should I allow myself a cheat meal if I’m trying to lose weight you might ask?  Here is a short list of reasons to allow yourself a cheat meal.

  • None of you should be on a diet.  We are eating to live a healthy lifestyle.  Healthy lifestyles have balance and therefore eating indulgences should be allowed in moderation.
  • If you always stick to a low calorie diet, your body’s metabolic functions will “shut down.”  Meaning, if you never give your body higher calories, it will adjust your daily caloric burn to live off fewer calories.
  • After eating a low carb diet we deplete our glycogen stores.  When you eat your cheat meal the carbs will go straight to replenishing these stores rather than being stored as fat.  (This is what happens when we allow ourselves to eat carbs all the time.)  Replenished glycogen stores will give you a boost of energy.  (FYI it’s smart to plan a long run or killer workout for the day following your cheat meal!–Now that’s fueling for life!)
This process of eating a low carb diet full of veggies and protein, with a cheat meal to replenish glycogen stores is called a cyclic ketogenic diet.  User be warned, just because we get a cheat meal doesn’t mean that we can justify eating unhealthy all the time.  Cheat meals can only happen if you really have eaten clean all week.  I have found, when I eat clean and stick to my workouts, my body will tell me when I need a cheat meal.  If you are just getting started I would recommend talking with a dietitian to help you find the right times to hit your cheat meal.
If you keep your diet in check during the week, you can head out with friends on Saturday night without having to worry as much about your diet!  Eating unhealthy food is much more fun without the guilt!  In fact, if you stick to this cycle, you’ll find want to get back on the healthy eating train the next day–trust me your digestive system will thank you!
This during the week
 = this:
on the weekend!