Top 5 Ways to lose 5 pounds in 7 days

1. Eliminate all bread, pasta,salt  and sugar from your diet. These types of foods will slow down your metabolism and cause you to hold on to your weight.  

 2. Eat a small meal consisting of protein and complex carbohydrates every 2 to 3 hours. These types of foods will speed up your metabolism and eating frequently speeds it up even more.

3. Eliminate fat from your diet. You can’t lose fat if you keep eating fat. Your body will just burn the fat you are eating and never go deep into your fat stores.

4. Exercise 30 minutes a day after eating your small meal. Make sure it’s the right type of fuel…protein and complex carbohydrate. Lots of people think eating before exercise will interfere with digestion but in the proper combination, this is the best way to exercise.  

5. Drink at least 100 ounces of water a day. “I’m gonna flush that fat right out of my gut!”

This is tough but it works…I lost 5 pounds just last week doing this. Commit to doing it for one week and you’ll be hooked on this new way of eating. 

Top 3 Sleep strategies for more energy

Yes, we’ve heard that sleep is supposed to make you lose weight…whatever…not if you fall asleep next to an empty bag of Cooler Ranch Doritos and a can of coke! However, assuming you are eating right and exercising regularly, 7-8 hours of sleep a night does keep you rested and alert. Here are 3 strategies for getting the Zzzz’s you need…

1. Hitting the shower or taking a bath before you go to sleep can help you get a deeper, more restful sleep.

2. Power naps are a great energy booster…as long as you don’t nap longer than an hour. For me, 20 minutes is just right.

3.  Don’t try to make up for lost sleep on the weekends…doesn’t do you any good. You might even be doing yourself more harm by getting your sleep rhythms all out of whack.

Top 5 ways to get a quick work-out

1. Whenever you open into the refrigerator, grab a full jug of milk (or whatever you have in there that’s full) and raise and lower five times with each arm.

 2. Keep a set of weights or an exercise band  around your living room (or wherever you just hang out) and do bicep curls or work your triceps. 

3. When you get out of the shower, do push-ups against the edge of the bathub or counter.

4. Make a commitment to take the stairs whenever you can and then do it.

5. If you’ve got young kids or a pet, play tag with them for 10-15 minutes. It will get your heart rate up.

Hey, I’ve got high cholesterol but I never would have known if I hadn’t had my labs done (thank you, generous company that my husband works for who pays for free exams every year). AS a result, I found out that I had high cholesterol and steps have been taken to bring it down. But here are the Top 5 reasons why you should get it checked:

1. It’s critical to having a healthy heart.

2. You can boost your good cholesterol if you know that it’s low.

3. You can implement easy lifestyle changes that will override your genetic tnedency towards high cholesterol.

4. You can see how what you eat and how you live do make a difference in your health.

5. If you start with diet and lifestyle changes and add cholesterol-lowering medications on top of that, you may not need to take them forever.

Top 10 calorie-burning exercises to do in 30 minutes

If you are 180 pounds these are the top 10 calorie burning exercises that you can accomplish in one 30 minute session: 

10. Low impact aerobics-238 calories

9. Vigorous weight-lifting-259 calories

8. Bicycling (stationary) – 302 calories

7. Rowing (vigorously) – 367 calories

6. Boxing – 389 calories

5. Step Aerobics – 432 calories

4. Bicycling (outdoor) – 454 calories

3. Rock Climbing (going up) – 475 calories

2. Handball – 518 calories

and the number one calorie-burning exercise to do in 30 minutes is. . .

1. Running 7.5 miles (8 min/mile)- 540 calories

Top 10 weight loss strategies

10. Take 10 points off of your food’s glycemic index number and get a 10 pound decrease in your body weight over a period of time. For instance, eat grapes (49) instead of dates (103).

9. Don’t work overtime. Limit your workday to 9 hours per day and that includes lunch!

8. Drink 8 glasses of cold water per day. (64 ounces, at least)

7. Get 7 hours of sleep a night.

6. Keep track of your daily food and exercise in a journal at least 6 days a week.  

5. Take 5,000 extra steps a day.

4. Eat 4 grams of fiber a day in every meal or snack.

3. Call a friend 3 times a week for weight loss support.

2. Watch no more than 2 hours of TV per day.

and the number one strategy for weight loss is…

Weigh yourself once every day. It keeps your weight loss efforts real!

From the August 2006 issue of Prevention Magazine.