Luckily, we are paying special attention to not putting weight on over the Christmas period, and we are trying a lot of the tricks ourself. Why not have a go at some of them and let us know how you got on… We’d love to hear what got you through Christmas without putting on a few extra pounds! For a few more hints and tips, you could check out some of the other articles that we have featured in the prevent weight gain at Christmas series:

• Easy Christmas Food Swaps for a Healthier Christmas
• Prevent Piling on the Pounds at Christmas 

For now, we are going to focus on the important tips that you will help get you through the social events this Christmas without eating and drinking too much. Are you sitting comfortably?

1. Never turn up hungry!

This is a bad idea for so many reasons. If you arrive hungry, you are going to snack throughout the day or night. If they have served dinner up for you and their other guests, you will probably overeat, more out of starvation but possibly out of politeness. If you have a healthy yet small meal before you go around there, you will be eating more healthy foods and less bad foods and this, in turn, can help you to prevent piling on the pounds at Christmas. For example, having a nice low-calorie Caesar salad before you head out to your friend’s for an evening of wine and nibbles, you will eat less of the high-calorie nibbles when you get there. You could have a sandwich before you go, a bowl of soup, whatever it is that you like, but just make sure that it is a low-calorie meal.

2. Never sit by the nibbles!

If you are at a party at a friend’s house and there is a bowl of nuts right next to you, you are probably going to eat them. If you go to a social event where there is food or nibbles, the more attention you pay to the food, the more you are likely to eat. Mingle and walk around the groups of people at the party – talk and have a good time. Isn’t that the point of a party anyway? By diverting your attention away from the food, you are less likely to eat and more likely to have a good time. You never know you might even make some friends!

3. Keep your pace!

If you are going to enjoy the munchies and nibbles, don’t tell yourself that you will only eat for the first hour or so that you are there, and then you will stop. This won’t work. You are more likely to over-eat in that first hour to compensate and chances are; you will continue to eat throughout the evening anyway, especially if you are drinking and you don’t have as much will power as you normally would. Think about it logically – when you tell yourself you can’t have something, you just want it all the time, don’t you? This brings me nicely to my next point…

4. Don’t stop yourself! 

Obviously we are not saying that you can cram as much food into your mouth as possible, we are just saying that you should never debt yourself something that you really want. If you want a piece of Christmas cake, have a piece of Christmas cake. Just don’t have two pieces of Christmas cake. There is nothing wrong with letting yourself have a treat and you might find that denying yourself this pleasure could be detrimental to your determination to not put on any weight at Christmas. If you tell yourself not to have a piece of cake, you are going to be thinking about it all the time and there is a good chance that you will give in and have four pieces of cake. Just let yourself have a naughty five minutes every now and again and you will find that, because you aren’t saying “NO!” to anything, you will find life is much easier.

5. Count your nibbles!

As much as we don’t want you to deny yourself anything, we would suggest that you keep an eye on how much you are putting in your mouth. It’s easy to stick five canapés in your mouth and only remember eating three, especially if you are drinking as well. If they are on cocktail sticks, stick the cocktail sticks in your pocket so you can keep a tally of what you’re heading. Just try to keep on top of things… as best you can!

Keep your eyes peeled for Part B of our healthy eating for Christmas tips, and make sure you check out some of the posts we’ve put up in our Christmas series! Why not have a look at some of the following:

• Prevent Piling on the Pounds over Christmas 
• Easy Christmas Food Swaps for a Healthier Christmas

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From start to finish, we’ll look at how you can make your Christmas dinner one that isn’t calorie-filled and we are about to show you how… Are you ready?

Turkey

We’ll start with the obvious – the turkey. You can’t have a Christmas day dinner without turkey, can you? The good news about turkey is that it is a pretty healthy meat anyway. There’s plenty of protein and if you remember to remove the skin, it’s pretty low in fat as well. There are lots of B vitamins packed in there, and this is great for the production of energy.

As long as you remove the skin, your Christmas dinner will be relatively healthy. Sadly the skin is often considered the best bit so it might take a bit of will power on your side to turn it down. Just by removing the skin, however, you have the option to save around 40 calories on every portion of turkey alone. If you normally have two helpings of this white meat with your Christmas dinner, that’s 80 calories saved straight away.

Swap the skin for just the white meat and that’s a potential saving of 80-100 calories straight away! It’s as easy as that.

Gravy

Gravy is well known to be high in salts and fat so if you want to make it into a healthy alternative, you should drain the fat and juices from the turkey, leave it to one side and wait for the fat to solidify on the top. Scrape this off (although it sounds pretty disgusting) and just use what is left. By doing this, you are removing the highest fat content and you can make the gravy much healthier to eat with your Christmas dinner. You should also try to avoid adding any more salt to the meal to ensure that you don’t consume too much on this festive day.

Roast Potatoes

Most of our team love our Mother’s roast potatoes, especially on Christmas day, and if you feel that you can’t live without them for this Christmas coming, have a couple but swap the rest for a jacket potato instead. 100g of potatoes that have been part boiled and roasted in olive oil will add an extra 150+ calories on your Christmas day dinner, and will also add around 5g of fat into the mix. The average baked potato has around 50-60 calories less, depending on whether you use butter or low-fat margarine. That’s one of the easiest swaps that you can make and most of us make more than one type of potato on Christmas day anyway, don’t we?

Vegetables

You can have a Christmas day dinner without a nice helping of vegetables and the good news is that these are actually very good for you… depending on how you cook and prepare them. We are all guilty of smother our vegetables with butter so try avoiding the butter altogether or swap for a low-fat spread instead. This swap alone could save you around 50-75 calories. If you don’t like the vegetables bland and without butter, why not try adding some spices or herbs to them as you are making them? You add flavour without calories when you do this and you will find that not only does your Christmas day dinner taste lovely, it’ll also be a bit healthier for you as well!

Why not add some Brussel’s sprouts to your meal? They may stink before and after you eat them (let’s not pretend they don’t make you smell…) but they are packed full of good stuff including B vitamins and vitamin C, and have anti-oxidant properties which can help you to protect yourself against things like cancers and other potentially fatal conditions.

Christmas Pudding

You can’t have a Christmas day dinner without the Christmas pudding and this is one of the most calorific parts of the dinner. Well, that’s if you put aside the snacks you are going to be munching down on throughout the day. The pudding itself will be pretty low in fat content whilst still being high in carb content. There are some good things in there though – lots of calcium and iron, potassium and B vitamins.

When it comes to the custard, there are a couple of swaps that you can make to ensure that your Christmas day dinner isn’t too calorie filled. Making it with low fat milk is a good start, or you could even get reduced fat/calorie custard ready-made in cans these days which basically does all the hard work for you. It will be healthier if you make it yourself, of course, but who really has time for that on top of everything else on Christmas day?

So there you have them – the easiest swaps that you can make to your Christmas day dinner to make it much healthier. By doing these simple tricks, you could lose up to 500 calories and even more in some cases!

We will continue to bring you the very best hints and tips on how to prevent yourself from getting fat at Christmas time. Why not keep your eyes peeled for more…?

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So, we are going to dive right on in and bring to you the very best tips to avoid piling on the pounds at Christmas:

Understand the Three Causes

According to researchers, there are three main reasons why people tend to put on weight at Christmas. The first reason is because they get lazy. When was the last time you went to the gym? Your world has been taking over by demanding children and hard to get your hands on Christmas gifts. You need new sneakers but you can’t possibly treat yourself right now because you have even more gifts to buy. You also need to make sure that you have all the right foods in, that the place is getting cleaned because you have the family coming over to yours next year and in short, you have very little time to dedicate to yourself as it is, let alone going to the gym or going for a fun outside. Plus it’s getting cold now, right?

The second reason why you are likely to put weight on at Christmas is because it’s getting cold and you have a tendency to comfort eat. Why would you eat a cold, healthy salad on a crisp winter evening when you can have a nice calorie-laden dinner followed by a rich cake and lots of sugar-filled custard. We are all guilty of doing it! Comfort eating out of cold and stress is the worst!

Finally, we come to our third reason – over-indulging. You want that extra slice of cake and custard and it’s fine because “It’s Christmas!”. It’s okay to let yourself go a little overboard at this festive time of year but remember that this things are still only okay in moderation. That’s the first thing you need to learn!

Smart Choices

When it comes to learning how not to get fat over Christmas, you need to understand that you have choices to make and the right choices will be good for you whereas the wrong choices will be bad. This is common sense when you think about it but common sense and reasoning seem to out the window once the Christmas lights are switched on!

The average person will put on between five and ten pounds over the four weeks surrounding Christmas which is pretty staggering when you think about it. This amounts to above 500 extra calories per day. That’s not hard to do – the odd luxury chocolate out of the box; these are probably worth around 100-200 calories. The skin on the turkey on Christmas day – that’s about 50-100 calories. Missing out on the butter on the vegetables can cut you down by around 50-100 calories. You could probably say no to that glass of fizzy soda too – that’ll be around another 50-100 calories depending on which one it is. Read the labels of the foods that you are over-indulging on and take a good, hard look at how many extra calories you are ingesting! Sometimes you SHOULD give up that third glass of wine to have the chocolate cake instead. Do you really need a third glass anyway?

Boozy Boozy!

Speaking of wine, booze is your enemy at this tie of year. Alcoholic drinks are filled with empty calories that will cause to put on weight, bloat out, get gassy and get drunk. Do you really want to be the drunken cousin/sister/friend/aunt at this year’s Christmas gathering? We didn’t think so…

Not only are boozy drinks filled with empty calories, they are also likely to lower your inhibitions and this can cause you to eat more than you usually would, as well as snacking when you probably shouldn’t. You’ll be surprised at how little weight you will put on weight you give up boozing just for one Christmas. One of the members of our team did it and she only put on two pounds over the four week festive period. The rest of our team averaged a weight gain of seven pounds when they carried on drinking throughout Christmas. We’re just saying…

For more information on weight loss, why not check out some of our other weight loss posts? Weight loss tips are weight loss tips all year round and you never know, you might just find whatever it is you’re looking for to avoid getting fat this Christmas!

*Funnies found on Pinterest.com

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And lots of it! Your legs are very prone to retain a lot of water. Drinking water will not only keep you hydrated, but it will also help keep your body, especially your legs, from holding onto to too much water in the first place. It will also help flush toxins thoroughly through your body at a better rate than drinking juice, milk or soda would.

2. Eat Well

Stop taking in super high calorie food, foods high in fat, processed foods and flour, refined sugars, etc. You get the point! Surely, you’ve been taught what is bad for you and what isn’t, right? So, just take everything that you know is bad and throw it right out of your everyday diet. Replace those horrible foods by introducing leafy greens, fresh fruits, yogurt, whole grains and overall lower-calorie foods. It may be hard to quit the junk food at first, but soon you will savor every bite of delicious health food because it really is better in taste and in wellness.

3. Nutrients 

Not only should you be rearranging your diet, but you should also be keeping an eye on what nutrients you need to be consuming, as well. Here is a list of the right stuff to get sculpted legs in not time:

Vitamin D. No, not Sunny D, that’s all sugar. Instead get real citrus fruits like lemons, oranges or limes that are packed full of Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps keep your insulin levels steady and the steadier they are, the more weight you’re bound to lose.

Protein. I cannot stress enough about protein. Protein, protein, protein… say it with me, now! Protein is the best at helping your body build muscle. The more muscles you can build and tone, the more fat you are obviously losing. Protein makes sure you don’t lose any muscle, either, while you’re shedding those pounds.

Nuts. Walnuts, almond, etc… as long as they have their skin still on them, of course! These fiber filled snacks will keep your tummy feeling fuller longer, reduce cravings and build up those desired muscles.

Caffeine. I’m not saying you should start downing cup after cup of coffee, but caffeine actually does help boost your metabolism because it is a stimulant. One or two small cups of black coffee a day or drinking green tea will actually help fight fat effectively.

Omega- 3 Fatty Acids. Soybeans, flax seeds, walnuts, fish like salmon and even olive oil can get Omega-3s in your body to melt away chub.

4. Sleep

Did you know you actually burn quite a few calories while you’re sleeping? You can burn anywhere between 44 calories – 112 calories an hour while you’re sleeping, depending on your weight. Getting a good nights rest will help keep your body refreshed and energized throughout the day, which will keep things like your digestive system and metabolism at their best.

5. Don’t Stress Out

Stress is one thing you need to cut out to properly lose weight. Being overly stressed can cause you to crave and eat sugary, fat filled food. Stress can also cause your metabolism to slow down, increase the rate of fat absorption and cause you to lose sleep. If you find your life stressed filled try taking up an activity like yoga, exercise more or introduce yourself to meditation and breathing exercises.

6. Don’t Overwork Yourself

Overworking your body when it comes to exercise, everyday activities or a job can cause weight gain and stress. And yes there is such a thing as too much exercise! Do not, I repeat, do not workout everyday. It sounds effective, but it’s really not. If you don’t give your body time between strong workouts then your muscles have no time to heal. You know how you get sore when you do a hard workout? That soreness is the muscle fibers that have tiny microscopic tears in them. You have to give your body time to let those small tears heal themselves and that’s what creates muscle. Once they’ve been repaired, you may notice your sore calf muscle is now a little more muscular than before.

7. Speaking Of Exercise 

Although you may not want to exercise excessively, you should still workout quite a lot to lose leg fat really fast.

Incorporate a cardiovascular routine into your daily life and do the routine 30 minutes a day or an hour every other day. Cardio workouts are proven to be the best when it comes to losing fat such as the fat in your thighs and legs. Walk for 15-20 minutes in the mornings and then complete a strong  20 minute run every night. Get into the habit of taking the stairs instead of the elevator or actually using stairs to do step-up exercises.

Ensure you are stretching and warming up before any exercise at all and that you are ‘cooling down’ after every workout. Once you’ve completed your run you can slow to a jog for a few minutes before stopping completely to let your body cool down.

8. Do These More Specific Exercises

Squats- Put your back straight against a flat wall and place your feet a shoulder width apart. Then move your body down, bending your knees and stop when you’ve bent them as much as you can. You should look like you are sitting in an invisible chair.

Lunges- Place your hands on your hips and your feet a foot apart symmetrically. Then put one leg out, bend the knee and move forward. Do with the other leg and repeat.

Step Ups- Use stairs or boxes to complete this exercise. Put one leg up on the platform you’ve decided to use and then quickly put the other leg up there at the same time you bring the first leg down. Do this fast and repeatedly.

9. Watch Your Calorie Intake

I know we’ve gone over food already, but it’s not just about what you’re eating, but also about how much you’re eating, too. Keep in mind that even healthy foods have calories in them. First, shave off 500 calories of your daily intake to begin with. If you consume 2,000 calories a day, make it 1,500 now. Keep track of your calories by starting a journal of all the food you eat and their calories or getting a calorie counter app of some sort. To efficiently lose weight on your legs you will need to burn more calories than you consume in a day.

10. Stay Motivated and Determined

Motivation and determination are the two key factors if you want to lose that leg fat as fast as possible. Stay motivated, create a daily routine, stick with a healthy diet and set goals for yourself.

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Step 1: Start Cutting Back

Start on the path to skinny thighs by first cutting out all of the things that are going to prevent you from losing that weight. Cut back on or cut out these : Sugar, trans fat, excess salt, white enriched foods, processed foods and carbohydrates. Especially cut out salt! Salt is one of the worst consumables when it comes to water retention. Excessive amounts cause a lot of water retention in places you’d rather not have them(Like your thighs!!) One of the main reason for bigger thighs is that they are known for hanging to unwanted water weight. After you’ve cut out or reduced the bad calories and foods that cause your thighs trouble, start incorporating healthy foods. I’m sure you hear this from every weight-loss blog, but eat more veggies! Well, vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean protein. Protein is a great source to help you build up muscles. That’s exactly what you need when slimming your thighs down!

Step 2: Exercise

I bet you saw that one coming, huh? Of course! You do not want to starve yourself to get result. If you want long-lasting, healthy results, you need to exercise. The question is: What kind of exercise works best for losing thigh fat? Full body exercise is good for losing weight anywhere and if you plan on trying to slim your inner thighs, plan on slimming everything. Also, focus on lower body exercise.

Use these more specific exercises you can do to tone thighs:  Lunges, scissor kicks, leg kicks, leg lifts and squats. Try doing exercises involving a medicine ball, too.

Cardiovascular exercise is one of the most effective ways you can burn off those unwanted calories! Try kickboxing, dancing,(Zumba!), bicycling, swimming, running or stairs. Get your heart pumping to get the calories off. You are going to need to burn off more calories than you burn if you want to lose weight.

Step 3: Stay Hydrated 

No, not with soda or juice, with water. Water, water, water! Drink lots of it. Water is the healthiest drink choice, especially if you’re going to be exercising. It will help you lose weight faster, too. Drink a full glass of water before each meal. Doing this will help keep you from over-eating!

Also, drink green tea. Green tea has all the right stuff in it to help keep fat from being absorbed by your body. It slows down the process and is a fat fighting wonder!

Step 4: Count Your Calories

Like I mentioned earlier, you need to burn more calories than you take in. You should aim to burn off at least 500 calories a day. Once you’re used to that you can shed anywhere from 500-900.  Cut back on the calories your letting in everyday and alter your diet. You can use an actual calorie counter to figure out how much you should be consuming to lose the amount of weight you’re aiming for. It’s recommended to only start off trying to lose 1/2 lb. a week and if necessary, you can go up more once your body has adjusted to the new routine.

Step 5: Build Muscle

Remember how protein helps you build muscle? Good, keep that in mind as you tone your thighs. Losing weight is good, but toning while doing so is even better! Not only will you get thinner thighs, but you’ll get definition and firmness, too!

Step 6: Plan Your Meals

Keep almonds or any kind of nuts around as a snack instead of chips. Nuts have a lot of fiber in them and they will keep you fuller for much longer. Anything with fiber will, including veggies and fruits. Don’t eat so much that you get full. You want to stop eating just before that point to keep your stomach from over-extending. Don’t skip any meals, either. Actually, you should eat 5 or 6 small meals a day. Your biggest meal should be breakfast! That’s the meal that keeps your body running for the day and it gives you the right kind of calories to burn off until your next meal.

 Step 7: Stay Confident and Determined

Don’t let yourself get down if you don’t lose weight as quickly as you’d like. Some lose it faster than others. It takes work and time. Try to stay focused by setting a goal of how much fat you want to see come off of your thighs. Don’t stop eating to do this, either and keep in mind, no matter how big or small your thighs are, you are beautiful!

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Burn Mega Calories

In order to burn mega calories, you need to burn off more than you are putting into your body. This means that you need to eat less and workout more. By eating less, we don’t mean starving yourself; we mean eating the RIGHT foods.

We will start with the really good news though – to burn mega calories, you don’t have to work out for hours on end until you physically can’t stand anymore. In actual fact, to burn the most calories you will need to look for a workout plan that will increase and then decrease your heart rate and one of the best workouts for this is on the treadmill. You will need to use this gym machine for 20 minutes and you will start with 2 minutes of slow walking, followed by 2 minutes of very fast walking with an incline. You will continue these 2 minute bursts until you have reached 20 minutes. It really is as simple as that.

You will need to make changes to your diet too, but this doesn’t mean cutting out a whole bunch of foods. Sometimes swapping the full fat varieties for lower-fat/low-calorie ones will do the trick. For example, swapping white bread for whole-meal will increase fiber and decrease calories. Low fat cheese instead of full-fat options can save up to 100 calories in one sitting, and choosing turkey burgers instead of their beef counterparts. It is simple as knowing what to swap and when, and you will be on your way to a calorie deficit, which is what you need to burn mega calories.

Build Lean Muscles

You may think that building lean muscles will require hour after hour or strenuous exercise in the gym with weights, but it could be your diet that is stopping you from achieving rock hard abs this year. Brown rice, for example, will help you to have more energy during the day so you should swap white rice for this brown, healthier option. It has also been shown to help increase the growth hormone in the body and these are essential for building lean muscles.

Cottage cheese is great for adding much-needed protein into your diet and this protein will help to avoid your muscles being used as an energy source by your body when you sleep at night. This means that you won’t have to work as hard to achieve the muscle because the body won’t be wearing it down at night.

When it comes to working out, you want to be hitting the lighter weights for longer, rather than the heavier weights for shorter periods of time. The bigger weights will cause beefier muscles to grow, whereas the smaller weights will allow smaller, stronger muscles to grow at a better speed.

Sculpt Sexy Curves

If it’s curves you’re after, you could try your hand at pole dancing or even hula-hooping. Weights are also a good idea after your aerobic exercises – moderate weight lifting will help you to slim down while still embracing your feminine curves and you will also find that your leg appearance will be better, alongside your arms too!

Sexy photos sourced from Weheartit.com!

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People are so consumed with the foods that they ARE eating when they are trying to get slimmer, they often forget to focus on the foods that they AREN’T eating, and foods that are rich in Vitamin D are often the ones left out of the shopping list.

Vitamin D is responsible for so much in the human body – it can help to fight against cancer and various heart conditions, diabetes, depression and much more. The link isn’t clear as yet; it is not well known if a lack of Vitamin D causes obesity, or the other way around, but one thing definitely has been proven and that is the fact that more Vitamin D = a slimmer and happier you!

When vitamin D is nicely mixed together with a dollop of calcium and just a pinch of sunlight, the body works properly – the food is broken down as it should be and the right nutrients are grabbed from it. A lack of this means that the body will turn more calories in the body into fat – something you most definitely don’t want if you are trying to lose weight! Not only that but the vitamin also helps to regulate the blood sugar levels, leaving you less inclined to snack on bad foods in the middle of the afternoon.

So we know that Vitamin D is good for our brains and our bodies, but how do we increase the levels of it in your bodies? The easiest way is sunlight but with the all the SPF sun lotions we are slapping on, and the fact that we rarely see daylight sunshine because of our mental schedules at work, it would seem that another way for the vitamin to get into our systems is necessary.

*Mushrooms – dried Shitake mushrooms contain plenty of Vitamin D as this is believed to be because the funghi is adept at grabbing and storing sunshine. There are other vitamins in these mushrooms too, which overall will cause your body to be in better physical condition.

*Mackeral – it might stink a bit, but this fish is great if you need a Vitamin D boost. According to statistics, just a 3 and a half ounce portion of this fish will give you almost ninety percent of your daily dose of Vitamin D. You can’t forget about the healthy Omega-3 stuff either!

*Tuna – sticking with the fish theme, it would appear that fish such as salmon, tuna, herring and even sardines are very good for you if you need a Vitamin D injection. Wild tuna, around three ounces, will contain half of what you need in the form of Vitamin D for the day.

There are plenty of foods that are high in Vitamin D – eggs, cod liver oil capsules, and even fortified foods can bump up your D-volumes. The benefits that these foods are going to give you include:

*The prevention of many serious diseases

*Good bones, hair and teeth

*Healthy cell activity is promoted within the body

*The links between Vitamin D and weight loss are screaming out!

Images tastily grabbed from Weheartit.com!

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In order to lose weight and get the perfect body, you need to change the old you. By this we mean that you need to let go of your old eating and dieting habits. The changes could be smaller than you first thought…

The old you would sit in front of the TV as she ate her dinner, cramming food into her mouth in between laughing at that comedy show that you always love to watch.

The new you will set the table, and eat like a sophisticated adult.

Why? Number one, you have a table and you might as well use it. Number two, because you will lose weight by eating at the table rather than in front of the TV. In studies it has been shown that you will consume around three hundred more calories by eating while watching a TV show. Maybe it’s time to get that old table cloth out after all….

The old you will join up to the gym and go for a whole three weeks before you give up and leave that seven hundred dollar gym membership to go to waste. We all have money to waste like that, right?

The new you will try her hand at a spot of roller blading. Maybe she will have a bash at swimming. Basically, the new you will go and head out to try a bunch of different weight loss methods to finally find one that she enjoys.

Why? Be realistic about this – you are not going to use that gym membership because you hate going to the gym. If you like swimming, go swimming rather than going to the gym. You are probably going to get bored of your newfound hobby in a while so it’s always good to have a back up. Let’s say you had planned to go to the gym for an hour a day, four days a week for now. You go for one week and then you give up. Go swimming a couple of times per week and hit the local basketball courts with your girlfriends. Any exercise will do as long as you are getting the blood pumping – netball, hockey, playing a Frisbee with the dog and kids in the local park.

The thing about weight loss is that you need to find the things that you are doing wrong and find a decent fix for them. So for example, if you have a habit of having a calorie filled hot chocolate before bed and don’t particularly want to break out of that habit, just mix it up and change to green tea or low calorie hot chocolate. There are plenty of quick fixes – it’s just a matter of finding the ones that work for you!

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If, for once, you want to have a winter that doesn’t involve the pre-spring purge, you need to take a peek at the 10 really easy expert tips for a no weight gain winter.

Quit the comfort eating – Did you know that the 2 bar Kit Kat you eat every afternoon for a sugar rush contains over a hundred calories? If you cut that out, you would be losing 700 calories per week. When you consider that you only need to have a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose a pound, you are well on your way!

Get your fix with healthy foods – If you are craving a little something sweet, opt for a sweet piece of fruit rather than a candy bar. You will also be on your way to getting your five a day that you need! That Big Mac that you have for lunch contains almost 500 calories. 1oz of strawberries contains 7 calories. Remember that 3,500 you need to lose? By missing out the Kit Kat and swapping the Big Mac for a cup full of strawberries, you have already made a deficit of 1,150 calories. (One cup of strawberries, cut in half, contains around 50 calories)

Do your own housework – Cleaning your own windows, rather than paying the window cleaner, will burn 180 calories (approximately) in one hour. This means that if you followed the above tips with an extra hour of window cleaning per week, you will now be at a deficit of 1,330 calories. If you put on some pumping music and dance as you work, you will burn even more calories still!

Swap full fat foods for low calorie/low fat options – A bottle of full fat mayo will contain 660 calories per 100 grams. Clearly you are not going to eat 100g of mayo in one go, but this is just to give you a rough idea. The light mayonnaise contains just 278 calories per 100g. Let’s say you get through a 100g of mayo in a week – your deficit of calories will have just bumped up to 1,712. You are halfway there to your 3,500 calorie loss, and well on your way to losing that pound this week.

Start using shakes – By swapping your rushed sandwich at lunchtime that you buy from the local store with a weight loss shake that you can grab from the fridge, you will have jumped down from around 450 calories to just 200 calories. If you do this every day for your 5 day working week, you will have lost 1,250. This bumps your calorie deficit for the week to 2,962 calories.

Have a Green tea mid-afternoon rather than a Latte – The average Latte contains 250-300 calories. Let’s say 300 for arguments sake. The average Green tea contains just nothing. Zilch. Zero. Of course, this will depend on brand and whether or not you add sugar, sweeteners, honey, etc. Let’s say you have gone for a no-calorie option and you do this three times in your working week, you will have lost 900 calories. Your calorie deficit this week is now 3,862. This means that this week you have successfully cut your calories by more than 3,500 so you will lose one pound.

The healthiest way to lose weight is to aim for around a pound per week and with these six simple steps, you will be well on your way to losing AT LEAST a pound in 7 days. Just think – just by replacing full fat mayo with low fat and exchanging three cups of latte in a week with green tea, you could be on your way to losing weight without having to do an awful lot of anything else. Smart thinking, right?

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If you have left everything to the last minute, don’t fear – there are ways that you can trim down to fit into your beautiful new bikini and all it takes is a little bit of determination. Now ladies; it’s time to sit up and start listening.

We should share a few tips before we get down to the hard stuff!

• Don’t starve yourself – you’ll actually put on weight. When you starve your body of food, it doesn’t know when it will get its next “fix” so it will store anything that is already on your body, and anything else that you put in to it, meaning that you will find it very difficult to lose weight.
• Start drinking lots of water – this will help to flush out all the bad stuff, and will add a bit of lubrication (when combined with plenty of fiber) to get all the waste stuff out. You might even want to consider a spot of colonic irrigation.

Day One

The first day of your 7 day bikini ready diet is here and it’s time to give up the bad foods. This means takeout meals are off the menu for just now, as well as any food that you can’t pronounce. It might be worth sticking to fresh meat and vegetables, with a side order of fresh fruit. This may seem like hard work, but for now it’s only seven days and in the long run, it could be a good lifestyle choice.

Day Two

Start thinking of laying off the sauce. A nice glass of wine might make you feel good when you first get home from work, but it is causing you to put unnecessary calories into your body. It has also been shown that you will consume more calories by nibbling when you’ve had a drink too, so it’s well worth being drink-free for the seven days.

Day Three

As we have mentioned before, fiber is important to get all the waste stuff out of your body. On day three, you will want to look at increasing the levels of fiber in your diet. Try adding a sprinkling into your yoghurt for a fiber-rich breakfast fix or you could even munch on a few almonds for your mid-afternoon snack. These are just two very easy ways to encourage the waste products to leave your body.

Day Four

On day four, you should change the way that you eat. Rather than having a big breakfast, reasonably sized lunch and a hearty dinner, you should opt o have smaller meals but more often throughout the day. This means that your daily calorie intake should be spread out with the nighttime meal being a few hours before you go to bed, containing more calories than the rest of your meals. Try five meals per day that are around 300 calories each, and add a few extra calories on for supper time.

Day Five

Stop eating the foods that are going to cause you to bloat out. We all have that one food that makes you feel fat and “stodgy”. My personal bloating food is bread – this always makes me bloat out for a few hours. You are going to want to avoid a few proven “bloaters” too – peppers, onions, broccoli are three prime examples. You should opt for foods that are high in water content such as asparagus, cucumbers and spinach.

Day Six

It’s the penultimate day of your 7 day bikini ready diet and today you should massively increase your water intake. The more water you drink, the more you will pee it out and the faster you will get rid of toxins and waste products. At this point, you should be looking at drinking around three liters per day.

Day Seven

It’s the final day and by this point, you should have flushed out more than your fair share of toxins and waste products, and also be on your way to losing a few pounds. The final thing that you should do is cut down on carbohydrates and increase your protein intake.

If you continue these healthy eating habits long after your bikini vacation, you will find that losing the pounds that you have always wanted to get rid of will be a much easier task. Why not give it a go today to see how much of a difference you can make?

Photos sourced from Weheartit.com

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