Seven Common Sense Tips To Manage Your Weight

Practical Ways to Manage Your Weight

Being overweight is something that is common among hundreds of thousands of people. It affects men, women, and children of all ages. Being overweight is so common yet many of struggle with keeping it under control.

The diet and weight loss supplement industries make billions every year from selling weight loss pills, diet plans and anything else they can to help you manage your weight.

Let’s not forget all the diet foods we can buy that are supposedly much healthier because they are either fat-free or contain less sugar.

The truth is, there is really no need to go to extremes to keep your weight under control, in fact, maintaining a healthy weight can be straghtforward if you approach things correctly.

I am no doctor but I have had lots of hands-on experience with managing my own weight. I have suggested these tips to friends and it has helped them as well.

In this article, I will tell you some basic things that can help you keep your weight under control and if you do them I believe you will notice that not only will you lose weight, you will feel much better.

I will tell you upfront that in order to successfully manage your weight you will need to give up a few things temporarily.

You will see what I mean once I go more into detail.

Most people think that weight management involves dieting, but it doesn’t, in order to be effective you just have to be practical and use some common sense.

Here are my top Seven weight management tips

1. Eliminate sugar and complex carbs

This is crucial if you want to lose or maintain weight. Your worst enemy is sugar, I am not saying you have to completely eliminate it from your diet but if you can limit both sugar and complex carbs from your diet at least four days a week you will lose weight and it will help prevent you from gaining more.

The biggest culprits are:

• Soft drinks
• Fruit juice
• Sports drinks
• Low-fat yogurt
• Granola
• Flavored coffee
• Protein bars
• Vitamin water

There are others but the above are the most obvious, however other things may sneak into your kitchen that are high in sugar like barbecue sauce, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, and baked beans.

Sometimes you may not think that certain foods do not contain much sugar but oftentimes they do and its high amounts.

I’m not saying you should completely eliminate these foods from your diet, however, you should try to avoid them at least four or five days a week. I try to avoid them during the weekdays and then will enjoy some of them over the weekend.

2. Drink a glass of water right after you wakeup

After a full nights sleep you wake up dehydrated, most people start their day off with a fresh cup of coffee, however, drinking a glass of water can hydrate you and will kick start your body’s metabolism.

The other benefit of drinking water first thing in the morning is that it flushes out all the harmful toxins in your body and organs including your colon, kidneys, and liver. This helps your body function better and help contribute to weight loss.

 

3. Don’t skip breakfast

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say “I don’t eat breakfast” because it makes me feel sluggish or full.

Most of us have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it is. It kicks starts your metabolism and gives you energy.

When it comes to weight management the best part of eating a good breakfast is that you won’t be as hungry mid-day and you will be less inclined to overeat.

One of the biggest mistakes people make with breakfast is to eat mostly carbs, the important thing is to balance carbohydrates with healthy proteins which can help keep you fuller longer.

4. Cut back on the alcohol

There are pros and cons of drinking alcohol,  most health experts say that drinking is just plain bad for your health, others claim that there are certain positive health benefits, regardless, Alcohol contributes to empty calories, if you can cut back on your drinking you will be less likely to gain weight.

I found that just cutting back my alcohol consumption from two glasses of wine every day to two glasses once or twice a week had a significant impact on my personal weight management.

I used to come home just out of habit and have a glass of red wine, now I treat a glass of wine just as I would treat a piece of cake or pie.

The other thing I would recommend to those who like mixed drinks is to avoid mixing them with stuff that contains a lot of sugar such as coke, try using mineral water instead.

5. Get plenty of sleep

Believe it or not, lack of sleep can cause you to gain weight, not enought sleep can contribute to increased cortisol levels and can cause you to gain weight. If you are not rested, the following day you will most likely experience mental fatigue and lack of energy.

A full nights sleep is important for rejuvenating your body plus you will have more energy during the day to exercise or stay more active.

Everyone should try to get a minimum of eight hours of sleep every day.

6. Exercise

This is probably the number one cause for people not being able to maintain a healthy weight. I know it can be hard trying to find the time or the motivation to exercise.

Even a moderate 20-minute workout is better than not exercising at all.

If you don’t already belong to a gym why not join one, if not try to do some sort of activity such as swimming, bike riding, walking or aerobics for at least 2–45 minutes every day 5 days a week.

Exercise will not only help you maintain a healthy weight it will also improve cardiovascular health and improve the way you feel.

7. Focus on nutrients

A lot of people count calories instead of watching what you eat.

One of my favorite all-time quotes is from Jack Lalanne:

If man made it, don’t eat it

Eating healthy and nutritious foods that are not processed is the easiest ways to manage your weight and your health.

When we think about nutrition things are easier when we pay close attention and look for foods that are provided to us by nature and are not processed.

Final Thoughts

Weight management is more about being sensible and using some common sense, eating too much junk food, not getting enough rest and not exercising can make you feel bad. Listen to your body and try to stick with a routine, this will make it easier to maintain a healthy weight so you look and feel better.