How to lose 14 pounds in 14 days, Page 2

  In modern days, we still have stress but from more places than ever before due to job schedules, city lifestyles, overcrowding and financial concerns. On top of that, we are bombarded with information and advertisements. Many of us work around the clock to make ends meet.

  Add to that a cycle of self-imposed famine in the form of dieting, and it’s no wonder people are more stressed out – and fatter – than ever.

  Sleep soothes the mind and body, gives us a chance to slow down and process the events of our day, and tells our bodies to replace cortisol production with endorphin production. Endorphins are feel-good chemicals that relieve stress and provide a general sense of well-being.

  Finally, sleep gives our bodies the opportunity to repair themselves. If you exercise, and especially if you do strength-training, you can wind up with achy muscles. That’s because exercise and weight-lifting cause microscopic tears throughout your muscle tissue.

  When you sleep, your muscles repair these tears, rebuilding to be stronger than before as a way of adapting to the new physical demand placed on your body. This leaves you with more lean muscle mass, which means you burn more calories all day and all night, even when you sleep.

  In spite of its many benefits, adequate sleep is something few of us enjoy. Studies have shown that most people don’t get the 7 to 10 hours of sleep that their bodies require. Insufficient sleep can have a direct impact on how much weight you lose or gain.

  Steps to Getting More Sleep

  Start your 14-day weight loss program by performing a personal sleep inventory. Look at the amount of sleep you get each night. Is it enough? If not, what is keeping you from sleeping more? Sometimes the answer is obvious, like a newborn baby or a demanding work schedule. Other common culprits include too much computer time before bed (computer and video games stimulate the brain, preventing it from winding down in preparation for sleep); alcohol consumption; and insomnia due to stress or anxiety.

  Do what you can to manage your stress level while you’re awake. Get some exercise each day, in the sunlight if possible. Avoid drinking caffeine after noon. Journal about issues in your life which are troubling you, or talk to a trusted friend or advisor. Yoga and meditation can also help. Never use sleep aids unless your doctor gives you the go-ahead because it’s easy to become dependent on them. That won’t really solve the problem.

  Make sure your bedroom is conducive to a good night’s sleep. If noises tend to wake you during the night, invest in a cheap pair of foam earplugs, or drown out background noise with a fan. Make sure the room is dark, and turn off any electronic devices that have flashing lights. Wind down before bed with a warm bath, a cup of chamomile tea and a book. You can also take melatonin supplements to help you get restful sleep throughout the night.

  Chapter 6: Calorie-Burning Activities

  As we learned in Chapter 3, weight loss comes easier when you add physical activity. Many of us have plenty of excuses for our sedentary lifestyles: We work too hard, can’t afford gym memberships, have too many demands on our time, or are still scarred by childhood memories of gym class.

  If you hate exercising, it’s probably because you’re not getting the right kind of exercise. Some people are perfectly happy running on a treadmill day in and day out, but there are many more who dread the monotony.

  Don’t let boredom keep you from getting a healthy amount of cardio; mix up your routine with some fun activities. Group sports like basketball and flag football burn far more calories per hour than a treadmill, and they’re fun and social to boot. Call up some friends, or visit your local community center to sign up for an amateur league. Even bowling is a light activity that gets you up and moving while having fun with friends.

  Swimming is another great way to burn calories. Jump in the pool and paddle around, occasionally going as fast as you can from one end to the other. The water provides enough resistance to kick your metabolism into high gear. If you have a local beach, take advantage of the fact that brisk walking on the sand will burn more calories than walking on pavement.

  Kids also provide opportunities for calorie burning. If you have a baby, contact your local stroller club to go on walks with other new parents. That way you can keep an eye on your little one while you get in shape. If your child is older, they will appreciate some one-on-one time spent tossing a football, shooting hoops, or just swinging and sliding at the playground. These activities help you burn calories while you creating family bonds and memories.

  If you have a garden, you’ve got a calorie-burning goldmine. Lawn work, including mowing the grass and planting shrubs and saplings, is a great way to firm up and lose pounds. Weeding, pruning, picking flowers and vegetables, and laying sod are all calorie-burning activities. Spend a half hour a day working on your landscaping, and you’ll soon see the results in your yard – and on the scale.

  Maybe you’re an animal lover. Try walking your dog in the evening, or taking the neighbors’ dogs for a walk. Take your pet to the park for some Frisbee action. Saddle up a horse and go for a relaxing trail ride. Don’t have a pet of your own? Try volunteering at a ranch or animal shelter. Caring for and cleaning up after the animals is a rewarding act that enriches their lives and helps you stay in shape.

  Of course, there are also plenty of human-based charities and foundations that can use volunteers. You could serve your community by helping build homes, stacking and sorting food donations, or joining walks and runs to raise funds for medical research.

  Chapter 7: Building Muscle to Burn Fat

  Fat is the accumulation of excess energy. When you don’t burn off the calories you consume, they are stored as fat. If you build muscle mass, you will not only feel better and look leaner, you will actually start to burn fat at a much faster rate.

  That’s because muscle tissue is an incredible fat-burner. The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest. With that in mind, it makes sense to add strength training to your weekly routine.

  First, find out how much of your body is made up of fat, and how much is made up of lean muscle - in other words, your body fat percentage. A healthy body fat percentage for women ranges from 14% (for a young, athletic woman) to 35% (for women over 65). Males have more natural muscle mass than females and can be healthy with body fat percentages between 6% and 25%.

  There are online guides and calculators to help you estimate your body fat percentage, but if you’re a first-time measurer, you might get better results by asking your doctor or fitness trainer to measure it for you.

  Some scales can even calculate your body composition by sending a painless signal through your body. The signal returns data that tells you how much of your weight comes from fat, muscle, bone and fluid. However, these are not the most accurate measurements.

  It’s worth noting that a normal body weight does not protect you from the effects of a high body fat percentage. People with low weights and a large amount of body fat (known as “skinny-fat syndrome” or “normal weight obesity”) face the same health risks as other obese individuals.

  So how can you get rid of excess body fat and build lean muscle tissue to take its place? By working your muscles with strength-training exercises.

  Strength training brings to mind images of sweaty guys shouting as they strain, red-faced, to lift a bar with huge weights on each end. But that’s not representative of strength training as a whole. In fact, you don’t need a gym or even weights to make your muscles stronger and leaner.

  You can build strength in the comfort of your own home. No matter where you choose to work out, persistence is the key.

  If you’re not accustomed to exercising, your muscles will be weak at first, and you might not feel like you’re doing yourself much good.

  In fact, the opposite is true! Every strength training session will benefit your muscles tremendously. When you rest the next day, your muscles will reknit themselves to be stronger than before. All you have to do is stick with the program.

  So
me of the best strength-training exercises are traditional workouts used in school gyms and military boot camps: sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, chair dips, wall sits and squats.

  Don’t worry if you can’t do these maneuvers right at first. You can do modified versions of these exercises until you build enough muscle strength to do the traditional versions. For example, if you can’t do a full push-up, you can do them balanced on your knees instead of your toes. If you can’t do a knee push-up, simply push yourself away from the wall. Your arms will grow stronger over time, especially if you slowly angle down to be more horizontal, for example leaning against kitchen counters or a desk.

  Sit-ups are another easily modified strength-training exercise, and a well-developed core will help you perform all of your strength-training exercises. You can lower or increase the difficulty of crunches by changing the way you hold your legs, or by twisting your body as you come up. Full V-ups should be your goal, though, because they give your deep core a good workout, but don’t get discouraged! Those take quite a while to work up to.

  Start slowly by strength training on a few non-consecutive days each week. You might start by doing core exercises on Monday, resting on Tuesday, doing arms on Wednesday, resting on Thursday, working your legs on Friday, and resting on the weekend.

  As you grow stronger, increase your strength-training routine to 4 or 5 times per week. Keep working until your muscles feel weak and wobbly. This is called muscle failure or fatigue, and you won’t get much benefit from working out beyond that point. The more you work out, the longer it will take you to reach failure – the good kind!

  Chapter 8: Vitamins, Herbs & Supplements

  Many herbs and supplements are marketed as fat-burners. Some claim to increase the body’s core temperature, resulting in a higher basal metabolic rate (BMR). Others purport to stimulate the liver, causing it to metabolize fat at a higher rate. Still others are thought to increase your heart rate, leaving you in the fat-burning zone for longer periods of time as you work out.

  So which supplements are for real, and which ones should you avoid?

  Obviously, there is no miracle pill that leads to instant weight loss. If that were the case, obesity would no longer be a problem. But there are a few supplements that have been linked to faster weight loss.

  The very best supplements for fat loss include green tea, guggul and dandelion. Each of these supplements has been found to have measurable results on weight loss. Guggul in particular helped dieters lose 6 times as much weight as others who were given a placebo pill.

  Green tea acts as a mild stimulant and appetite suppressant because of its caffeine content. But its real power lies in the phytonutrients it contains. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that dieters who took 390mg of green tea extract each day lost twice as much weight as dieters who did not consume green tea, even though both groups had identical calorie intake and activity levels.

  Dandelion is a popular fat-burner because it is thought to stimulate the liver’s fat metabolism process. It also has diuretic properties, which can help you get rid of water weight and decrease bloating.

  Note that none of these herbs, by themselves, is enough to help you lose fat. They merely improve the results you get from diet and exercise.

  Also keep in mind that herbs, although natural, can be dangerous if you have certain health conditions or if you use them incorrectly. Always seek your doctor’s advice before adding supplements to your diet.

  Chapter 9: How to Beat Bloating Every Time

  It happens to the best of us: We indulge in some sugary or salty carbs, and suddenly we can’t button our favorite pants. The scale moves up several pounds, and we feel puffy and miserable.

  You would have to eat a truly massive amount of calories to gain 5 pounds of fat in a single day (somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000). But it’s painfully easy to gain 5 pounds of water weight when you’re bloated.

  Bloating is usually caused by three things: over-consumption of sugar, over-consumption of sodium, or dehydration.

  Carbohydrates attract water molecules, which leads to water retention and a puffy appearance. This is why professional bodybuilders eat carbs to make their muscles appear larger, but cut carbs when they want to look as lean as possible. If you go overboard on the carbs, especially on refined carbs like desserts and bread, your waistline could quickly expand.

  Sodium is another common cause of bloating. The typical adult eats far more sodium than they need. That’s because so many of the processed foods we eat, even those labeled diet foods, are packed with sodium as a flavor enhancer and preservative. Too much sodium causes inflammation inside the body, and the body attempts to hold on to fluids to dilute the irritating sodium. And, of course, retained fluids leads to bloating.

  The same thing happens when we don’t drink enough fluids. Insufficient water intake causes dehydration, which also causes fluid retention. Deprived of water, the body tries to hold onto every drop. The result is a decrease in sweating and urination and an increase in water weight.

  Fortunately, bloating is easy to beat. You can get rid of it by drinking plenty of water (1 ounce for every 2 pounds of body weight) and limiting your food intake to lean protein, low-fat dairy products, and fibrous fruits and vegetables. You could also drink a cup of coffee or a few cups of green tea to “push” the fluids from your body faster. Avoid sugary sweets, carbonated drinks and refined white flour products when you’re trying to beat bloating.

  Chapter 10: Laxatives & Colon Cleansers

  Laxatives and colon cleansers deserve special mention in this quick weight-loss guide. While they can be useful for the loss of water weight, their potentially harmful effects make them a bad choice for a long-term weight loss solution.

  The contents of your stomach and bowels can add a couple of pounds. If you don’t get enough fiber or water in your diet, you could become painfully constipated and bloated. It’s healthier to address the root cause of these conditions (in this case, dehydration and insufficient fiber) than to routinely use laxatives to force a bowel movement.

  Colon cleansers are just laxatives with a fancy name. The makers of these products would have you believe that the human colon is incapable of keeping itself clean. In reality, the human body is remarkably efficient at ridding itself of waste as long as you eat right and drink enough water.

  Laxatives and colon cleansers can actually make you gain weight by causing your body to retain fluids due to dehydration. You can also become physically dependent on these substances. Our digestive system keeps itself in good working order by contracting and passing solid waste. If you use laxatives too frequently, the digestive system won’t work as hard, leading to a loss of muscle tone.

  In addition, many colon cleansing products are quite expensive. You would be better off saving your money and increasing your intake of water and fiber. Laxatives should only be used on rare occasions when you’re in pain and need fast relief.

  Chapter 11: Put a Stop to Emotional Eating

  Emotional eating is more common than you might think, but it makes sense. Think back to your memories of childhood, times when you felt happy, secure and cared for. Chances are those memories involve food.

  As children, we did much of our bonding with family members during mealtimes and holidays. Those fond memories stay with us as adults. When we feel lonely, bored or sad, instead of reaching out to another person, we often reach out for food.

  It makes sense on a scientific basis as well. The foods we typically think of as comfort foods are high in fat and carbohydrates. Fat satisfies our hunger, and carbohydrates cause our bodies to produce the feel-good chemicals known as endorphins. The result is a sense of relaxation and well-being.

  While there are more dangerous coping mechanisms in the world, using food to soothe your emotional pain can have many negative consequences: guilt, shame, low self-esteem, as well as obesity and all related health concerns.

  Emotional eating also prevents you
from getting to the root of the problem. While the food picks you up temporarily, the underlying problems still exist, causing you to go back to the food when your emotions flare.

  If you are one of the millions of people who engage in emotional eating, there is good news: You can stop the cycle and learn to identify your true needs. All it takes is a desire to change and a little persistence.

  The key to beating emotional eating is to identify the triggers that send you off in search of food. Think back to the last time you ate food for comfort. What was your emotional state? Were you sad or stressed out about something that happened that day? Were you lonely or bored? Or maybe you were angry and didn’t have an outlet for that anger so it quickly turned into despair?

  Now imagine the next time you’ll feel the urge to binge on comfort foods. What will you do differently? Instead of eating to cheer yourself up, maybe you can talk to a trusted friend, write out your feelings in a personal journal, or simply take a walk in your neighborhood or local park.

  If you typically eat out of boredom, find something else to do to occupy yourself. This could mean taking up a new craft or hobby, starting a home improvement project, volunteering to help people or animals in your community, or exercising. Try to avoid activities that you associate with mindless eating, such as watching television or surfing online. Find something else that engages your mind and body more fully.

  If depression is the underlying cause of your emotional eating, try speaking with a doctor to discuss treatment options. Depression is common and can be seasonal, situational or chronic. A doctor or therapist could help you get to the bottom of your depression and develop practical methods for combating food cravings.

  Once you understand why you feel the urge to eat for comfort, you can take steps to change your behavior. Then, you can eliminate unnecessary calories and start to slim down – permanently.

  Chapter 12: Tips for Staying Motivated

  It’s easy to feel gung-ho about your diet when you’re first starting out. It’s something new, you’re hopeful and enthusiastic, and you might even be looking forward to your new way of eating and exercising.