Several people have been reaching out to me recently to ask how to shed that winter weight for the spring. I've written many emails and had many discussions, so figured I do a quick post about how to loose a few pounds for the nearing warmer months.
I'm going to outline a fairly strict diet regimen that I tend to follow closely on a regular basis.
In terms of what to eat...you really should cut carbs out of your diet. No pasta, no bread, period. No croutons...I think you get the point. Try to eat a lot of protein...I'll give you some specific recommendations:
Breakfast: 1 packet of organic oatmeal that has approx 160 calories
or 2 egg whites with ketchup or hot sauce
or 1 small Fage 0% yogurt with a few slivered almonds and a few fresh raspberries or blueberries
*This is all I ever eat for breakfast - pretty much all the time. But I ALWAYS eat breakfast. It's incredibly important to get your metabolism going first thing in the morning.
Lunch - Soup that is DAIRY FREE
or a salad with a light vinaigrette dressing of some kind. Watch the portion sizes! Remember you aren't trying to stuff yourself like a turkey, you want to be ever so slightly full, to hold yourself over for a few hours. So avoid filling up on some huge salad bar salad. Soup is probably the best option. As it gets warmer you can do smoothies too but you have to be careful to do a low fat one.
Dinner - Avoid all cuisines like Chinese food, mexican etc. There are very few, if any, low fat options, period. If going out, order fish and eat ONLY half of it. Even better offer to split it with a friend so you are forced to eat only half. Portion sizes are always too big - try to always divide your food in half as soon as it arrives and once you eaten half - stop eating...even if you aren't quite full - it takes 20 minutes to feel full after eating anyway. Try to eat little to no red meat. It has tons of calories. If cooking at home, make chicken and spinach or quinoa with yogurt and hummus with spinach. When you are cooking you get to control how much fat goes into what you are eating. Sometimes if I am really lazy, I'll have an oatmeal for dinner. It only has 160 calories so its super low fat.
If you want to drink, drink red wine ONLY, but as sparingly as possible - maybe allow yourself to have a drink 3 times a week.
If you are feeling like you need something sweet have a small Hershey kiss or something little. You'll be surprised how satisfying one little bite of chocolate can be.
Drink no soda - only water or tea. Cut out fake sugars of all kinds. If you drink coffee, start to drink it black or switch to green tea - I have a brand that is naturally sweet - Yogi green super antioxidant. Much better for you than coffee. Avoid putting milk in coffee and tea.
If you are actually able to do all of the above - which I pretty much live by anyway, the weight should come off pretty quickly. I try to follow these rules most of the time, but since I'm maintaining I will eat carbs occasionally.
If you are dying for a snack at somepoint in the day have an apple or half an apple, but other than that try to avoid snacking.
And finally exercise!! At least once a day! Even if its only 20 min on the treadmill, do something! I do 45 of cardio at least everyday. I typically do the treadmill or elliptical. I try to do yoga once a week as well and love going for a walk outside, weather permitting.
In the end a little hunger is worth fitting into those skinny jeans and feeling sexy in a bikini. And summer is just around the corner!
I just discovered the Cranberry and Ginger oatmeal flavor and I am in love.
Posted by: Carina | April 11, 2011 at 10:52 AM