Weight loss is a hot topic among people today, especially considering the fact that more than half of us are overweight. As we get older we often get busier, and before we know it, find ourselves in the prime of our lives and packing a few extra pounds. With so little extra time in our lives it is impractical to join the latest diet fad or commit to sweating in the gym for hours at a time. Are we all destined to grow outward with each passing year, or is there a simple way for us to reclaim our healthy figures? If you struggle with your own battle of the bulge read on for five sure-fire ways to drop a few of those unwanted pounds, and more importantly learn how you can prevent packing them in the first place!
TIP #1: Burn it in the AM
What is the first thing you do when you wake each morning? Hit the snooze button for an extra ten minutes of sleep? What if I told you that taking those ten minutes to strap on your sneakers and walk briskly around the block would result in weight loss? It has been proven that aerobic activity done on an empty stomach forces your body to recruit energy from storage. This energy is stored in the form of fat on various parts of your body. Starting tomorrow take ten minutes out of your morning to walk briskly around the block before breakfast. Do not sprint or try to walk as quickly as possible, simply walk at a pace that you could comfortably hold a conversation. This seemingly small activity, when done consistently, will produce surprising weight loss results!
TIP #2 Forget Your Late Night Snack
I know I am not the only one who enjoys eating a snack after dinner! Although comfort food seems to taste better right before bed, it is also more prone to stick with us when eaten late at night. It has been proven that not eating three hours before bed reduces fat storage throughout the night. If you go to bed at 10pm, finish eating for the day no later than 7pm. Once you have made this a habit you will be ecstatic over the long term weight loss!
TIP #3 Kiss that Frappuccino Goodbye
What tastes better than a frothy, venti frappuccino smothered in whip cream and chocolate syrup? While blended coffee beverages have rapidly gained popularity with the masses, their caloric tallies have been all but ignored. Whether you are an avid Starbucker, or only wander in for an occasional treat, it is important to know the truth about what you are drinking. The average Venti sized frappuccino weighs in at 530 calories. This staggering number equals 2.5 bagels, or one third of the recommended daily calories for an average woman. Not only is this an extreme amount of calories to be consumed in a beverage but the calories come purely from sugar, which is easily stored as fat. Next time you are in line at the coffee shop and find yourself eyeing a sugary beverage, redirect your attention to the tea selection, or stick with an old fashioned cup of coffee.
TIP #4 Fuel Your Fire
Have you ever tended a campfire? You probably remember continuously adding sticks and branches to keep the fire from running out of fuel. Your body’s metabolism is similar in its need for constant fuel. Eating a small meal every three hours is a great way to keep your metabolism high all day long. When your metabolism is high you burn more calories throughout the day and are less likely to store fat. Rather than eating 2 or 3 large meals a day, and allowing your ‘fire’ to go out, giving way to hunger pains, try eating a small meal every three hours and be amazed at your weight loss results.
TIP #5 Curb Your Carbs
I’m sure sometime in the past year you have found yourself subjected to the testimony of a converted ‘low-carb’ enthusiast. While these people may look great it is definitely not the right diet for everyone. Extreme fatigue, crankiness and downright impracticality are what make this diet a tough cookie to swallow. Cutting one or two carb-filled items out of your daily diet can make a huge difference in meeting weight loss goals. While I wouldn’t recommend throwing out your bread basket entirely, consciously cutting carb-filled items out of your daily food intake is a great idea. If you normally have a sandwich for lunch make it open-faced, thus cutting out half of the bread. If you enjoy eating pasta for dinner reduce your pasta portion and add extra vegetables. These minor changes to your daily diet will prove themselves priceless when you step onto the scale!
It is you against the bulge, and now that you are armed with these 5 tips for easy weight loss, I am confident that you are going to win! Keep in mind that consistency is the key. The more effort that you put into implementing these 5 tips into your daily lifestyle, the quicker the unwanted pounds will disappear!
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Five Tips for EASY WEIGHT LOSS!
8 Steps to Take When You Feel Like Giving Up
Although the hard road is more fulfilling, it isn’t all champagne and victory laps. There will be times when you feel beaten and depressed — times when quitting looks like the best option. There is no formula for dealing with hard times, but these 8 steps will help you understand your predicament and determine the best course of action.
1. Take a Break
One reason we get down ourselves is fatigue. When you’re tired everything is harder. Working your tail off for extended periods will wear you down if you aren’t careful. You’ll also get bored. Fatigue and boredom combine to cause burnout — one of the biggest reasons people quit. When faced with burnout, the best thing to do is take a break. Cut yourself off completely. Do absolutely nothing for a day or two. What’s the worst that could happen? By allowing yourself to recover you’ll be more productive in the long run.
2. Step Back
Sometimes we get so absorbed in our own sphere that we develop a distorted picture of reality. When you feel like giving up, there’s a good chance that a) things aren’t nearly as bad as they seem, and b) there’s a simple solution that you’re overlooking. When things seem bleak, distance yourself from the situation to gain an accurate perspective. What would someone without any emotional involvement do? Asking this question will help you make optimal decisions.
3. Do Your Research
The only constant in the universe is change, but when you’re plugging away with your head down it’s easy not to notice. People often make decisions based on outdated assumptions made months, or even years earlier. To develop a course of action, you’ll need to know where you stand. Stop to evaluate your position.
* What do you have?
* What do you want?
* How has the market adjusted?
* What opportunities still exist?
* What new opportunities have arisen?
By taking stock of the current situation, you’ll discover if your urge to quit is a passing whim or the correct decision.
4. Consult an Expert
When your knowledge base is insufficient you should seek an expert opinion. This doesn’t mean you have to make contact with a world class expert, anyone who knows more than you will be able to help. Think of friends, family, and business associates. Have any of them been in your position before? The web can also be a great resource, just be careful who you trust. Check out relevant forums or email a reputable blogger. I’m consistently impressed with the effort people expend to help total strangers.
5. Re-evaluate Your Strategy
Once you’re well informed, apply that knowledge to revamping your strategy. If you feel like giving up, you might be doing something wrong. This is the time to pour over your efforts and determine what works.
* What actions have lead to the greatest benefit?
* What mistakes have been made?
* What can be improved?
By answering these questions you’ll fine tune your strategy. The urge to give up is a blessing when it leads to analysis and constructive adjustments.
6. Change Course
Knowing what’s wrong and how you can fix it is a relief. Unlike an invisible monster hovering over you, an exposed problem can be directly assaulted. Once you’ve determined a change needs to be made, implement it full force. Don’t hesitate or dwell on past mistakes. Trust your own judgment and deal with new issues as they arise.
7. Push Through the Dip
In some cases you might feel like giving up even though you’re doing all the right things. This is called “the dip” — the plateau that separates the average from the best in the world. Knowing what to do when you hit the dip is so important, Seth Godin wrote a book on it. In you’ve hit the dip and you can honestly say that going forward is the best decision, lower your shoulder and plow ahead until you reach the other side. It might not be pleasant but the rewards are tremendous. If you make it.
8. Quit
We don’t have thoughts and emotions for nothing. Sometimes quitting is the best decision. Maybe you didn’t know what you were getting into. Maybe your priorities have changed. Maybe you’d be better doing something else. If you know deep down that quitting is the right move, do it. Don’t hesitate because of previously invested effort. That’s a sunk cost. If you ignore your better judgment and continue you’ll waste more time and energy.
Original source of the article can be found at http://www.pickthebrain.com
Basic Ways to Exponentially Improve Your Productivity
Don’t limit yourself. If you want to get things done in the least amount of time with the best results you need to follow these steps.
1. Turn off your TV.
Besides being a brainwashing tool, TV eats away four hours a day from time you could spend doing more productive things. Four hours a day? That’s ten years spent watching TV if you plan on living past seventy five.
2. Checklists.
No brainer here. Make a checklist of things you need to get done, then go bullet by bullet. So simple yet so effective.
3. Harder things come first.
If you built yourself a to-do list (which you should), tackle your hard tasks first, don’t save them for last. If you finish them you have nothing to worry about as your tasks will only get easier. This will set a great outlook for the rest of the day and keep your mentality afloat.
4. Consolidate.
Take a look at your checklist and see if you can put somethings together. If you’re going out for errands, try to do them all at once, if you’re calling clients, schedule a period to do them all in one stint.
5. Early to sleep, early to rise.
Getting up at 6AM is a drag I’ll admit. However you’ll be surprised how much more you can get done as opposed to waking up at 2PM. Grab a coffee and go. Of course if you’re waking up earlier, you’re going to need more sleeping hours so going to bed a couple of hours earlier is a must.
6. Say “No”.
Carefully strategize your options and your goals (as well as your tasks). Say no to things that are outside those bounds that are not helping you meet your goals. Keep focused on the important tasks at hand.
7. Start now.
Stop holding off! You’re big projects will just get even bigger with time on their side. Dive in and take a chance, build or demolish your goals brick by brick.
8. Leave time for non-urgent (but necessary) activities.
Schedule time during your day when you work only on non-urgent yet necessary activities like e-mails, phone calls, paying bills, etc.
9. Each day is different, respect that.
What I like to do is prioritize my days differently. Friday is more relaxed so I can focus more on my general & fun projects while Mondays I focus on organizing and planning for the week ahead of me. Wednesdays I use as a marker to see how far I am and the type of progress I need to be showing.
10. Get a ‘The Office’ calendar.
The Office Calendar will at least remind you that it could be a lot worse ;-). Write down all your important meetings and to-do’s, stuff that you can’t fit on post-it notes.
11. Sticky notes wall.
I used to categorize all my tasks onto sticky notes. One sticky note per task. I then put them on the wall of my office as a big collage and when I finished one, I’d ‘X’ it out. This was a great way for me to visually see the progress I was making however it ended up taking up too much space.
12. Reward yourself.
Keep yourself motivated by setting rewards for completing big tasks. This could be anything from a movie ticket to a football game or a gift of some kind. This way you’ll have more push rather then just the obvious monetary gains.
13. Take breaks.
Another no-brainer. Give yourself time to relax and let your thoughts drift. If you’re workhorsing for twelve hours a day with no breaks, eventually you will go insane. Take the time to sit back and look at everything your doing to get some fresh perspective on it.
14. Do your shopping online.
Why run to the story when a diligent UPS or FedEx worker can carry it to your door? You’d also be surprised on how much you can save by shopping online. Here are some great store links:
http://amazon.com
http://half.com
http://overstock.com
http://bestbuy.com
http://newegg.com
15. Automatic bill pay.
Most banks offer this, take advantage of it! You’ll save that extra 1-2 hours paying your bills, spend it doing something more productive.
16. Direct deposits.
Most employers offer this now. Save that trip to the bank, having to wait in line to cash your check. Get it directly deposited every other Friday. Let your employers do the work.
17. The Pareto Principle.
Recently read up on a ‘improve your personal finance’ book and it covered the Pareto Principle. It basically states the 80-20 rule, which is that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of the effort. Focus the bulk of your energy on that critical 20%, and don’t spend too much time on the non-critical 80%. For more about the Pareto Principle, click here.
18. Review yourself at the end of the day.
Before you go home from work, sit down and run through your checklist. Be proud of the things you accomplished and focus on the things you left to be done. Sit back and re-organize your new objectives.
19. Make your workspace comfortable.
Use a chair that is ergonomic and conforms to your back. Be sure to get up and stretch every hour or so and make sure that you are working in good lighting.
20. Keep your software and hardware running smooth.
How are you going to get things done with tons of spywar and adaware on your computer? Make sure to keep your hardware and software and check and be security conscious. Want some good anti-adware and spyware tools? Check these out:
SpyBot
Ad-Aware
21. Use computer short-cuts.
Take the time to check out what the common keyboard shortcuts are. Stop using your mouse to copy and paste, use Ctrl+C, and CTRL+V! Here is a link to Common Windows XP Computer Shortcuts.
22. Set deadlines, use alarms.
My T-Mobile Dash calendar is overflowing with alarms, to-do lists and other things to keep track of my ideas, goals and tasks. Use alarms and deadline notifications to help you keep yourself in check.
23. Enjoy your meals.
Yep, you heard me right. Take the time out to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner properly with the necessary time to de-stress yourself from the common difficulties of a normal everyday life. Get back to reality and cool off. Food is crucial, if you are well fed and feeling good, you’ll be able to get a lot more done once you resume your work.
24. If you’re using FireFox, use these tools to improve your productivity.
LifeHack recently published this great article: Top 10 FireFox Extensions to Improve Your Productivity. Definitely a worthwhile read.
25. Coffee/caffeine.
Another no-brainer but it works. Without my coffee in the AM I can hardly keep away. Coffee keeps me focused and alive for the majority of the day (and it tastes good :)).
Two more for the road…
26. Break things up.
Kind of touched on this already but its worth noting again. Break things up. Those major daunting tasks will seem a lot easier when their smashed into bits and pieces.
27. Team up and stay focused.
Having someone either on your back or helping you will make you push yourself harder. However, don’t let this get in the way of the work - cut out the procrastination.
Original source of these tips can be found at http://cashbulge.com
Tips on how to save green by going green
Want to do something good for the environment but unwilling to give up your car, grow your own vegetables or start living off the electrical grid? Relax. Doing something good for the environment is easier than you might think and can actually save you money, too. We spoke to local experts on how you can make your lifestyle a little greener.
“The easiest steps to take are those that are practical as well [environmentally friendly], whether they’ll save you money or improve the health of you and your family,” said Jenna Rose, of A Fresh Squeeze, whose bi-weekly emails give subscribers practical ways to live more sustainably. “It’s easiest to start with those first and progress on to the acts that require more of a sacrifice later on.”
1. Bottle your own water
A bottle of Aquafina at the office vending machine often costs $1.25 or more. Add to that the cost the environment and that drink is a lot more taxing than you think. According to Stephen Bell of the Chicago City for Green Technology, a city agency that promotes “green” homes, workplaces and communities, it takes three times the amount of water you’re buying to produce just the container. The stuff you get out of your tap, he adds, is likely as good as or better than what you buy in a bottle. Adding a filter to your tap or buying a Britta water pitcher can give you filtered water at home. For drinks on the go, you can buy a reusable plastic bottle from Nalgene for about $10. Some people favor aluminum bottles, such as those made by Sigg, which run between $15 and $20 and last longer than plastic bottles.
2. Shop vintage
When you’re shopping for your first apartment or looking to cheaply furnish your guest room, it can be tempting to head to the nearest IKEA. But new furniture made from plywood and particle board emit volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, toxic gases that can make your living room an unhealthy environment. To avoid polluting your home, A Fresh Squeeze’s Rose recommends heading to your local flea market for second-hand furniture made from hardwood that is a lot cheaper than what you can buy new. “If you are reusing a product, you are reducing the stress on raw materials and also the energy cost of producing and transporting those materials,” Rose says. “You don’t have to track down another tree to make a chair because you’re using a chair that’s already made.”
3. Lighten up your “phantom loads”
Cell phone chargers, computers and other electronic devices continue to draw electricity even when they’re not in use, a process known as a “phantom load.” Rose recommends reducing energy usage by unplugging your cell phone charger from the outlet, plugging your computer into a powerstrip and turning your computer off when you’re done using it.
4. Drive differently
Not everyone lives in a pedestrian-friendly community or has access to public transportation, but there are ways you can improve your energy efficiency in the trips you take every day. The easiest one, Rose says, is to drive the speed limit, which improves your fuel efficiency, lets you spend less money on gas and reduces your carbon emissions. Rose also suggests planning your trips in advance to link your errands together, thereby reducing the number of single trips you make.
Joining a carpool or starting one yourself is another way to save money on gas. At www.erideshare.com and www.carpoolworld.com, you can connect with other people looking to swap rides in the Chicago region and offer your own car up for use.
For those who live in Oak Park, Evanston and the Chicago city limits, the I-GO car sharing service is another option for eliminating or reducing the cost of car ownership. Using figures from the American Automobile Association of Chicago, a 40-mile round-trip commute costs $21.27 per day, $638 a month and $7,657 annually. These figures include gas, maintenance, tires, insurance and more. Members of I-GO pay a one-time membership fee of $75 and a minimum driving fee of $6 an hour and 50 cents a mile, including gas.
5. Eat your vegetables
During the summer season, farmer’s markets are a great way to save money on food, do something good for the earth and get all your vitamins and minerals. “A lot of times you can find organic produce that’s reasonable compared with what you can find at a traditional grocery store,” Rose said. Additionally, the shorter the distance a potato is transported from field to table, the better it is for the environment and the fresher it is. Most towns in the Chicago area have weekly markets. To locate one by zipcode, you can check out www. localharvest.org.
Another way to eat more vegetables is to join a community supported agricultural cooperative. New Leaf Natural Grocery store in Rogers Park delivers boxes of organic produce to homes from Wilmette to the South Loop. A mixed box, including foods such as kale, mushrooms, lettuce, bananas, mangoes, and strawberries costs as little as $15 a week for a one- to two-person household – a cost savings of 25 to 50 percent over a traditional grocery store, according to owner Steve Parkes. “We try to keep it varied and interesting,” he said. “It makes it nice for our customers to eat a lot of different kinds of foods that they wouldn’t ordinarily eat.”
Eating a vegetarian meal a couple of times a week can make a difference, too. The energy cost of planting, fertilizing and harvesting the corn to feed the cow that becomes your $6.50 sirloin steak dinner could be reduced if you chose beans over beef just once a week.
6. Change it up
You’ve heard this one before, but it bears repeating. Bell, from the Chicago Center for Green Technology, says compact florescent lightbulbs use up to 66 percent less energy than regular incandescent bulbs, last up to ten times longer and can save up to $30 in energy costs over the lifetime of the bulb. That can be a bright spot on your next energy bill.
