HUSN

Here I have assembled some different tips to make things a little easier for you along the way.  Many people will use the things in their eating environment to force them not to eat such a huge amount, or to eat healthier.  In the end it won’t matter so much as how you made the diet work, only that it worked, so be quick to come up with ideas as you progress through your diet to make you not have to work as hard.

One simple solution is to use a smaller plate, sounds pretty easy right?  The way our brain works in this is simple, we see a huge plate in front of us we feel as though if we don’t fill it with food, we won’t get full.  This creates a simple way of tricking ourselves into eating less, just use a smaller plate and fill it that way you feel like you’re eating a lot yet only eating the same smaller amount you wanted to eat.  While eating make sure to chew longer before swallowing, other than doing the obvious, this will also allow more time to pass during your meal and cause you to tire of eating sooner than you usually would.  By making a meal take longer, and sitting for 3-5 minutes after finishing a serving, you will give your brain some time to interact with your stomach and understand that you are full.  This is a proven fact, most people that get up for a second serving were already full, they just didn’t allow themselves the time to let their brain really understand it.

Another thing to help you by stopping you from eating bad foods like chocolate candy, is to find the natural alternatives.  These days you can find them for almost anything, for a long time chocolate has been easily substituted with all natural carob.  When dried, carob will have a taste quite similar to chocolate, but without all the added calories.  You might want to do some quick research online to see if there is a natural alternative to any food you enjoy eating that would still fit in your diet.

Then there is also the easiest thing to add to any diet, negative calorie foods.  If you were to eat a few celery sticks for instance, your body will now end up using more calories to burn off the celery, then the celery actually contains (around 20 calories per cup).

Ok you finally did it, you made it through your first few weeks of being in a serious routine of following your diet.  The next step to make sure you actually can make your goals happen is to slowly add exercise.  The reason you want your transition into exercising to be slow is that the vast majority of people give up on it almost right after starting, because they tried to get themselves to do too much too fast.  There is no way your body will be ready to run 5 miles a day or do 100 pushups a night right when you begin so don’t even bother trying. 

First take a look at the exercises you would actually enjoy doing, if it’s something awkward or hard to do, regardless how great the results could be, you most likely won’t be able to follow through with it for very long.  The best way to get started is to do the most common exercises ever known to man, pushups, sit-ups, and jumping rope.  If you can at least get started with doing this every night, beginning with small amounts of sets (3 sets of 10 pushups), within weeks you will definitely see and feel a difference.  You will most likely be able to add pushups, sit-ups, or crunches to your sets within no time which will also add motivation to your diet and exercising as you feel stronger and healthier.  Girls shouldn’t listen to the misconception that pushups are a guy thing and not necessary for you to do, this is very wrong as a pushup is great for many parts of your body including general overall endurance.  When it comes to sit-ups though, some find crunches are better for the rest of your body especially your back, so girls and guys with back problems both should do those instead.

When you are ready to begin adding jogging to your exercise routine, this is an area that is best taken in small steps as well.  Start off by running 1 mile a day and take it from there.  Once you find yourself finishing your run and still having more fuel left in your tank, push it further.  Even if you only run 1 mile and walk another, keeping your heart rate up is the main factor so at least keep your walking at a brisk pace or jog if you are able to.   Bring an iPod with you when you run and get into your own rhythm to help yourself last longer, if you focus on your fear of not being able to go the distance, chances are you will wear yourself out and not push yourself to keep going.