Many people set weight loss goals with hopes of looking like celebrities or skinny friends. That approach is unrealistic, and it can be harmful to a dieter's health.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you'll need to set weight loss goals tailored to your age, health and lifestyle. An active individual who mountain bikes and jogs daily can consume more calories per day on a diet than someone in a sedentary job who may only have time for an exercise class or occasional walk a few times a week. Ask your doctor or personal trainer for weight loss advice, and nix the trendy advice from celebrity websites.
Examine healthy foods, exercise routines, meditation, weight loss teas (green, oolong, mint) and other options. Choose the ones that are most appealing to you.
Set weight loss goals and once you've achieved them, follow up by maintaining your weight with healthy lifestyle changes. You'll probably have to give up the occasional high-calorie treat during your initial weight loss plan. You can always indulge every so often.
Do Some Research to Set Weight Loss Goals
A 55 year old, sedentary female will need around 1600 calories a day to maintain her weight while an active 35 year old woman needs 2200 to maintain her weight. This Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion chart from the USDA lists recommended calories per day for ages 1 to 76+.
Consult Baylor College of Medicine's BMI and Calorie Calculator to determine the number of calories you need to lose weight or maintain your current weight. To lose one pound a week, you'll need to cut 500 calories a day from your diet.
Don't crash diet! If you restrict yourself to less than 1,000 calories a day, you'll lose weight and fat, but gain it back within six months. Set weight loss goals by committing yourself to a new healthy eating regimen. After all, losing weight to look good and feel better isn't just a temporary thing. We want to keep the weight off and look good indefinitely!
Set Weight Loss Goals with a Master List of Healthy Foods
Losing weight means cutting calories, so we need to be sure the foods we do eat are nutritious and tasty. Low-calorie foods don't have to be bland! Fruits, vegetables, carbohydrates, proteins and healthy fats are necessary to maintain good health while you lose weight. Proteins include almonds, cashews, organic peanut butter, beans, lentils, tuna, shrimp, tofu, yogurt and sunflower seeds. Brown rice, buckwheat, oatmeal, groats, bran cereal, sweet potatoes and 100% whole wheat breads and bagels are just a few of the carbohydrates to choose from when you need to lose weight. Healthy fats include salmon, halibut, herring, peanuts, walnuts, fish oil supplements, flaxseed, extra-virgin olive oil and pumpkin seeds. That's just a partial list of the choices for lunch, dinner and snacks. You can also look into healthy smoothies or herbal teas for a treat any time of day, or learn more about out Best Breakfasts for Weight Loss.
Merely counting calories may help you lose weight in the short-term, but it won't keep you healthy and energetic unless you have nutritious foods on your plate. Here are a few of the best foods for weight loss.
- Eggs are low in calories, (17 in the egg white, 59 in the yolk) and recent studies have shown they don't contribute to heart attacks or raise cholesterol, as commonly believed. A 2008 study published in the International Journal of Obesity showed that study subjects who ate eggs for breakfast had 65% greater weight loss than subjects who are bagels for breakfast. Don't want to substitute smoothies for a “real breakfast” while on your diet? You can still eat eggs and get skinny.
High in protein and healthy fat, eggs contain energy-boosting Vitamin B12, folate, riboflavin and bone-strengthening Vitamin D. Eating one egg a day won't cause heart or cholesterol problems in healthy individuals, and eggs help fill you up faster and reduce your appetite. Choose egg whites over egg yolks, and eat fruit and whole grain toast for breakfast to lose weight and stay healthy.
- Salmon, long-recommended for its heart benefits, contains significant amounts of 13 nutrients, including 236% of the daily recommended value of Vitamin B12, plus Vitamin B6, Vitamin B3, Vitamin D, selenium and iodine. (Iodine is important for dieters because it keeps your thyroid – and your metabolism- operating at full capacity.) It's rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, which protect the cardiovascular system and elevate mood. Four ounces of broiled wild salmon have 158 calories, and it's a filling 158 calories, so you won't feel tempted to sneak in dessert. Broil your salmon and eat it with salad, spinach or another nutritious, low-calorie veggie. Trout, sardines and other oily fish are also low in calories and high in nutrients.
- Don't eliminate lean meat and poultry from your plans when you set weight loss goals. You don't need to be a vegan or vegetarian to lose weight or feel more energetic. Lean red meat and poultry contains lots of metabolism-boosting protein. A study cited in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that a high-protein diet increased energy in study participants. Another study showed that a diet consisting of 25% protein increased satiety and reduced the desire to snack or overeat in overweight men.
Eat small portions of lean, red meat from animals raised organically to lose weight or maintain your current weight. An organic, grass fed, lean ground beef patty contains 200 calories, and is high in zinc, niacin and Vitamin B12. An organic, boneless, skinless chicken breast is 130 calories and contains 25 grams of protein. Add a plain baked potato (no sour cream or fatty butter), leafy greens or a salad for a low-calorie, protein rich dinner.
- Kale, spinach and other leafy green vegetables are low in calories (33 calories in a cup of chopped kale; 7 calories in a cup of spinach), and they provide many health benefits. Leafy greens are high in fiber, which aids digestion. Kale, spinach, Swiss chard and other dark green veggies contain magnesium, which keeps bones strong and promotes a healthy heart. Like beans and lentils, spinach is a good source of nonheme (plant-based) iron. Broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables are also low in calories and high in nutrients. One cup of chopped broccoli has 31 calories, and a cup of chopped cauliflower clocks in at 27 calories. Leafy green and cruciferous vegetables contain antioxidant-rich Vitamin C to fight inflammation and cell damaging free radicals. Sulforaphane and other phytochemicals found in cruciferous vegetables, offer anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits, and may reduce instances of arthritis and joint pain, improve cardiovascular health, and help detox the body.
Set Weight Loss Goals with a Daily Plan
Confining yourself to a certain numbers of calories a day can be stressful for most people. Instead of adding up numbers all day, get used to choosing from your list of healthy foods. Mix and match the foods you love, and check out recipes and cooking methods on online food sites. Set weight loss goals by choosing the foods, teas, smoothies and exercises you like, and incorporating them into your daily life.
Lose Weight (and Keep it Off) by including Exercise, Restful Sleep and Supplements in Your Daily Plan
Exercise may not pare off pounds like changing your eating habits, but it will firm up jiggly thighs, help eliminate cellulite and flatten your stomach.
A 2015 article in Obesity Reviews showed that high-intensity interval training is more effective for weight loss than other types of exercise. These workouts consist of short, vigorous bouts of exercise followed by less intense exercise or complete rest between activities.
If you aren't up for intense workouts, engage in moderate physical activity a few times a week. Play volleyball or softball, walk, bike or hike. You'll burn calories and get your blood pumping.
There's a bonus to choosing team sports to keep in shape. The camaraderie between teammates improves social skills and may lead to an enduring friendship or two. Research has proven people with close friends are happier, healthier and have more moral support for their endeavors.
Don't Just Count Calories – Make Lifestyle Changes Instead
Diet and exercise are the two main components of weight loss goals, but many other habits that affect your weight and your overall health. Sleep, stress management and meditation are
When you don't get enough sleep, you fill up on dehydrating coffee and energy drinks to stay awake during the day, and that's just one of the after effects of insomnia. You're more likely to break your diet by overeating or indulging in high calorie sweets when you don't get enough shuteye. The National Sleep Foundation recommends between seven and nine hours of sleep each night.
Tips and Tricks for Weight Loss
1. Use a small plate between 9 and 10 inches in diameter, to eat meals. The Smaller Plate Study, found that the bigger the dinner plate, the bigger the portion-and the calories. Eating from larger plates could result in consuming 50 calories or more a day. Reduce the temptation to eat more by reduce the size of your plate or bowl.
2. Drop soda from your diet, and that includes diet drinks. Research conducted on rats at Purdue University and the San Antonio Heart Study, which tracked the dietary habits of 5,000 adults over several years, suggest that drinking diet soda may cause weight gain. Substitute no-calorie water or low-calorie herbal tea, and you'll save up to 540 calories a day. Water and herbal teas are healthier for you. They improve your digestion, keep your skin smooth, and fill you up so you eat less – without harmful chemicals like aspartame and sucralose.
3. Chew your food slowly. Eat mindfully to lose weight. You'll enjoy your food, instead of rushing through meals on the go or snacking in front of the TV. You'll eat less and you'll be better able to keep track of what you eat.
4. Take a wheatgrass supplement to increase metabolism and supply vital nutrients. Wheatgrass contain all the vitamins, minerals and amino acids needed for optimal health, plus hundreds of enzymes not found in other foods. A wheatgrass supplement provides Vitamins C, E,A, K and all the B-complex vitamins, giving you as many nutrients ( and probably more) than many multi-vitamins. Chlorophyll, the green pigment found in plants, is the main “ingredient” in wheatgrass, and it contains potassium, zinc, iron, calcium, selenium and magnesium. Most Americans don't get enough magnesium through the food they eat, and a wheatgrass supplement can help fill this void for many people.
Use Zeal O2, REVV and HappyGirl Wheatgrass Supplements to Help You Meet Your Weight Loss Goals
Zeal O2 Natural Weight Loss Supplement contains high-value wheatgrass and a proprietary blend of a dozen nutrient-dense herbs. One of the herbs, Citrus Aurantium (bitter orange) elevates your energy level and burns fat without causing an uptick in blood pressure. Green tea extract, cayenne pepper, ginger, gingko biloba, damiana and other herbs work with wheatgrass to energize you and provide other health benefits. Set your weight loss goals and use Zeal O2 from Wheatgrass Love for better results.
If you need a quick energy boost any time of day, chocolate mint REVV Natural Energy Supplement peps you up with wheatgrass, L-taurine and brain-boosting periwinkle herb. Read more about REVV.
Happy Girl Natural Mood Enhancement Supplement offers wheatgrass and an herbal blend to relieve non-clinical anxiety and depression without prescription medication. It dissolves mood swings due to premenstrual syndrome, menopause or everyday stress with cayenne pepper, green tea extract, ginkgo biloba, ginseng and other natural mood-elevating herbs. It's called Happy Girl, but seniors and men can use it, too. To read more about Happy Girl.
Want to order over the phone? Call us at 877-303-1717. We'll be happy to answer any questions you have about wheatgrass or our products. Set weight loss goals to look better, feel better and enhance your healthy lifestyle with wheatgrass.
