To get rid of that extra weight, all you have to do is give up certain habits and replace them with alternatives.
We put together a few recommendations to help you look better in just 4 weeks. All of them require little effort but can really make a difference to the way you look and feel.
Swap canned vegetables for frozen ones
The extra sugar and other preservatives that are added to canned vegetables remove much of their vitamin content. Frozen vegetables, by contrast, retain all their healthy elements and don’t contain any additives.
Candied fruits and nuts instead of sweets
Replace cakes and candy with fresh fruit, dried fruit, and nuts. This way you can get rid of the excess sugar and fat in your diet without giving up on the sweet stuff. Of course, you don’t have to eat a ton of fruit — there’s room for everything in moderation.
Eat fruits with stones instead of seeds
Peaches, nectarines, and plums can all help you to reduce your cholesterol levels, so make them your first choice if you’re trying to lose weight. Remember, though, that dietologists suggest consuming fruit only during the first half of the day.
Don’t use the elevator
If you stop using the elevator and start taking the stairs instead, within a month you’ll notice the consequences — that arrow on the scales will fall, and your legs and behind will look more toned.
A Hula-Hoop instead of potato chips
If you give up the habit of lounging around in front of the TV eating chips at the weekends, then your waistline will be noticeably smaller in just a few months. And this is especially true if you replace eating with exercising when you’re watching a movie.
Replacing high-calorie desserts
You can get rid of those excess pounds in just a few months if you stop buying those desserts that have terrifyingly high numbers of calories. They’re easy enough to replace — go for a fruit salad or a frozen yogurt-based dessert instead.
Say ’no’ to fatty sour cream
It’s not too difficult to replace high-fat mayonnaise and sour cream with natural or Greek yogurt. This will help those extra pounds to disappear in no time at all.
Selecting the right coffee
By doing something as simple as replacing your daily cappuccino with black coffee, you can avoid hundreds of extra calories.
Socialize at the gym
Can you never find the time to work out? There’s a clever way around this: organize meetings with friends and colleagues at the cafe in your local gym. That way you’ll more easily find 30 minutes to work out in your schedule. You could even suggest working out and having your meet-up at the same time.
Snacking before a meal
You consume around 1,000 calories every time you go to a restaurant. But if you have some non-fatty broth or a salad with a light dressing before going out, then you can easily reduce the amount you eat at the restaurant by 20-30%. You’ll find yourself eating, for instance, only a few slices of pizza rather than a whole one. This can help you avoid gaining around 5-7 kg (11-15 lbs) over the course of a year.
Aromatherapy
It’s long been known that different smells can have an effect on your appetite. The smell of bananas, pears, and apples, for instance, is capable of reducing your appetite and getting rid of your desire for something sweet. So if you want to eat that extra cookie, swap it for a pear, or breathe in its aroma.
A light soup instead of a main course
A few pounds will rapidly disappear if you start to regularly decide in favor of a non-fatty meat or vegetable-based soup instead of a heavy main course. These will fill you up, but they contain fewer calories.
