Another New Year has just begun. Its time to look back at how the past year went and plan your goals for next year! Is weight loss or fitness one of those goals? Did you make a weight loss resolution at the beginning of the past year? Did you achieve it? Most people don’t, so don’t fret.
Here, we tell you how you can lose weight & get fit this coming year with the right goals. Don’t get on any crazy diets. Stick to a realistic diet plan. Add good foods to your diet (eg: green tea, almonds) and get some exercise. Before you know, the pounds will be melting away!
Here are top 10 Weight Loss & Fitness goals to get the year started:
1) Lose 2 kgs
We know you want to lose 10 kgs, and get that celebrity body, but let's start with small steps. Let’s first target a weight loss of 2 kg. It may take you just a month if you’re good. Then in the following month, target to maintain this new weight. In the following month, target to lose the next 2 kg. This is the healthy rate for weight loss. If you keep it up, by the end of the year, you would be 12 kg down, and you would know how to maintain your weight. That’s a massive achievement!
2) Eat 1-2 fruits per day
Fruits are one of the best sources of carbohydrates for the body, along with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. They taste great, and have a low glycemic index. Then, what’s stopping you from eating more. Most people don’t even eat one fruit per day. Start the year by targeting to eat 2 fruits per day. One with breakfast, one in the evening. That’s not too hard, is it.
3) Eat breakfast
Eat a healthy breakfast. Have eggs, milk, fruits, multigrain bread. We don’t recommend corn flakes, but eating them is better than skipping breakfast. Studies have shown that eating breakfast helps you avoid weight gain, than skipping it.
4) Drink less alcohol
Yes, sure drinking alcohol makes you feel like a rockstar, but you’ll be far from looking like one, if you keep drinking it. Besides, having a crap load of empty calories, it also promote fat storage in the body. Excessive consumption of alcohol leads to hormonal imbalance and side effects. Eliminating alcohol completely is hard, so stick to only 2-3 drinks per week.
5) Get protein
Indian diets are very high on starchy carbohydrates. Wheat, rice, potatoes and other starchy foods dominate the Indian diet. Replace some of those carbs with protein, to help you build muscle and increase your metabolic rate. Here are some great sources of protein: whey protein, chicken, fish, eggs & vegetarian protein sources. Don’t eat too much protein. Based on your body requirement of protein, it should be anywhere between 0.8 gm to 1.5 gm per kg of body weight.
6) Start your Workouts
Yes, the dreaded one- exercise! Join the gym or if you’re too busy, get a fitness plan- they’re available on your mobiles too. Paying for it, is one of the best ways to ensure that you stick to it. Don’t target to workout 6 times a week. For the first month, target to workout just 2 times a week. First make working out a part of your routine, then increase the frequency. If you hate working out, then join a class- power yoga, spinning, aerobics, kickboxing … Or play a sport to burn calories.
7) Go for a walk
If you are not doing any exercise currently, start with a walk. It’s easy to count steps. Just get an app that counts steps. Start with targeting 5000 steps, and work your way up to 10,000 or more. Jogging is better than walking, but it's important to start with some exercise.
8) Control Sugar
Sugar is one of the worst foods for your health. Most of us know, but we’re so addicted to it, that it's hard to avoid. Skip it, or share if you can’t skip it. Desserts like chocolate cake, are loaded with calories from sugar and saturated fat. Besides the calories, read how sugar makes you store fat. Instead of going cold turkey on your sugar habit, target to eat a sweet treat only once a week. That way, you can eat one each week, and still be eating healthy the rest of the time.
9) Reduce processed foods
You’ve heard it before. Eat less processed foods. Avoid white bread, biscuits, juices, chips, etc … the list can go on. Easy to say, hard to do. So, to start, pick one processed food in your diet and eliminate that. Let’s show you how the numbers work: One slice of white bread is about 80-100 calories. Reducing those 2 slices of white bread a day over a year, equals a calorie reduction equivalent to a weight loss of almost 9-10 kgs!
10) 10 minute workouts
Too busy to join the gym or go for a walk? If nothing else, do some light exercises at home, or in the park. Skipping is one of the best calorie burning exercises. Got some stairs around you? Climbing stairs as exercise to build muscle tone and incinerate fat. Try some pushups, squats to increase your metabolic rate. Both men and women can perform them easily.
Now that you know how you can lose weight the right way, it's time to start acting on it! Happy Weight Loss! Happy New Year!