10 easy ways to lose (some) FAT!

1. Increase your daily activity even if you can’t/aren’t going to a gym

It’s never too difficult to get yourself into some physical activity.

• While sitting in the office instead of emailing the person who is sitting on a floor away    just walk to him and give him the required information.
• Use the stairs instead of elevator.
• Park your car away from your office or anywhere else you are heading to, so you can     walk a bit more.
• Try to do some of your work in standing position instead of rolling your office chair from one side to the other J I’ve worked in an office too , I know how it works!
• Get off your butt and walk to the trash bin.
• There are a lot of exercises you can do while sitting

I wonder how your gluteus is feeling after sticking to that chair for 9 hours every day! That’s how you see FLAT butts everywhere. You want a C shaped butt you gotta pump it up!

2. Do the jobs you usually pay others to do it

This is especially for people in Pakistan – Islamabad. I know you have the money to pay but put the money in your pocket and do the job yourself. You will be more energized and happier with what you have done!

• Washing your car – Even if you take the car to the car wash you have to wait there anyways! I promise it’s fun doing it yourself Laughing
• Mowing your lawn – The old lady next door has the most beautiful garden. She has few men working for her, but I usually find them watching her do the job unless it’s moving the heavy pots. She is active the whole day and even though she doesn’t go to a gym she is keeping fit. I am talking about my neighbor.
• Walking your dog – If you don’t want to walk your dog, don’t keep one!
• Do the shopping – Shopping is fun and the best thing is you can choose when you are at the mall yourself. But if somebody else is doing it for you, he/she might just end up buying the wrong stuff. Let’s be honest, how long will it take you to walk from F-7 markaz to F-6 markaz. We have tried it when Moez was on crutches. It took HIM 25  minutes. Now it takes him 8 minutes. You can do it in 12 minutes J I don’t worry much about this one though because I know in 3 years it will take shorter to walk to shopping centers than drive your car.
• Gardening – If you have the passion to have a garden I think you must know how to garden too.
• Cleaning the house – one of my clients had to do her house work while her house keeper was away for a few days. That’s when she realized cleaning the house is a lot of calories burning. Do it yourself!  Again, let’s be honest. You get a maid so she can clean the house while you are working on Kepler’s theory for NASA?

3. Never go shopping when you are hungry

It says it all. The thing is when you are hungry and you go shopping every single thing on those shelves look delicious and healthy so you end up picking the wrong stuff. Make sure you have enough time to read the labels for making a better choice J I learned this when we threw out almost all of the stuff we bought a few weeks ago when Moez and I were hungry and shopping. It was worth 3000rs.

4. Always have a shopping list

Never go shopping without a shopping list. You should know what you need and then go buy it otherwise you either slip buying the things you need or you buy the things you don’t need. Always buy groceries for a week so you make sure you don’t have to go shopping every single day! Plus the best thing is to choose one-day of the week for shopping so you make sure you always have everything available for preparing a healthy meal Laughing Follow the PLAN!

5. Make a menu for your meals

It has always been a confusion for everyone what to eat or what to cook. Even I heard my mum asking every single day “WHAT SHOULD I COOK?” You see, Sunday is 24-hours and you can just keep 30 minutes of it making a menu for the week. This way you are clear that what you want to cook and it also helps you make your shopping list for the week. For this you don’t even have to wake up earlier, you can do it any time.

6. Surround yourself with healthy snacks

This is something very natural, you keep eating whatever is around you, no matter if it’s healthy or not. So, why not keeping all the healthy snacks around you, instead of filling your fridges with Sodas, chocolates, food cans, and many more unhealthy things. Read my article on High-Fructose Corn Syrup and you will stop eating those!

7. If you are too busy to cook for every meal learn to prepare things in advance

I know for most of you, it’s difficult to get time to cook. In today’s life everyone is looking for a quick meal and run back to their offices, and of-course you can’t cook if you are in the office, but you can take your meal with you to the office J

We have spent 30 minutes of the Sunday to make a food plan, now you can spend another hour to prepare for that plan. According to your plan you can easily chop your veggies, half cook your legumes and beef, and other things that you have on your menu and freeze it. Even you can cook some of the food on your list and freeze it. Do it so when you are home tired and hungry all you need to do is defreeze the food and enjoy it! We have two deep freezers full of vegies and healthy proteins.

8. Control your portion size

Portion size is the thing that usually nobody gives a lot of attention to it. Normally you see people around eat without noticing how much they are eating! Especially when they are drinking Coke with their food :-/

Have more meals during the day but in small portions. (You can eat more at one meal provided you don’t eat every 3 hours – meal frequency is inversely proportional to portion size). However, instead of eat

ing one thing only go for a small portion of Protein, whole Grains, Vegetables, and Fruits at each meal. This is much more satiating and healthy. NOTE: as soon as you feel full STOP eating even if there is some food still left on your plate. It’s no sin having left-overs. Believe me even if you don’t eat, it’s not gonna go to children in Africa.

This portion division is highly recommended.

9. If you are a gym person keep fix timings for your workout

YOU DON'T FIND TIME FOR SOMETHING LIKE A GYM. YOU HAVE TO CREATE THE TIME. Having fix timings for gym and exercise is good because that way you can always schedule everything else around that time, and you make sure you are never going to miss your sessions at the gym. Get me? Like Moez keeps saying, if you are LATE for your workout more than 4 sessions a month you are soon going to drop out. Think about it.

10. Don’t give up on your plans on holidays or vacations

I know you are going to have fun and eat and gain at-least 10lbs in your 5-day vacation. You don’t care because again you are there to have FUN, and I should shut my trap and let you ENJOY it!

NO, a big NO! I am not gonna let you ruin all your efforts. You can still have fun while keeping your routine fixed. You just need to have everything planned. There are a couple of easy things you can do while on vacation:

• Don’t call a cap or rent a car try to walk to the super markets and do your shopping , after all you are there to have FUN J
• Instead of calling for breakfast to your room, just get up earlier, take a shower, get dressed and walk the stairs to the hotel’s restaurants. I am sure you will enjoy the services there too.
• If you are familiar with the place you can of course join a gym nearby or use the hotel’s   gym facilities for those days staying there. After all you can’t shop and eat the whole  day. You just need 30-minutes to do your workouts.
• Don’t eat junk and stick to your health plans. I am sure everywhere in this world there are people who are looking for good food. You might not find the same things you find in your own town but you can always look for substitutes.

I didn’t find it necessary to add “Don’t skip your meals” because if you do all the things above you are unlikely to skip meals.

Good Luck!
Samira J



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