Weight Loss Secrets

Continuing with the theme of getting in shape for the new year, people wonder if there really are secrets to losing weight. Of course there are! As reported in Prevention there are lots of little things you can do which take less than one minute, to help you rev up your metabolism or keep you from falling into traps that keep you from your weight loss goals. Here are a few and I'll be posting more in the future:
1) Instead of drinking fruit juice, just add a little bit to some club soda for a juice spritzer. You can cut up to 85 calories per glass and lose 5 pounds over a year just doing that.
2) Get a cordless phone if you don't already have one. When you are talking on the phone, keep moving and doing your chores while you talk. You can burn a couple of hundred calories just doing that alone.
3) Chew sugarless gum. By doing this on a regular basis, you can rev up your metabolism by 20 percent. This could easily burn off over 10 pounds per year just doing that.
4) Sip green tea before you take a walk. Both the caffiene and the polyphenols in green tea appear to work together to increase your calorie burn while you walk.
5) Sprinkle flax seed in your cereal, yogurt and home-made muffins. The high fiber in the flax seed will help fill you up and keep you from snacking on less healthier alternatives.
6) Drink ice water. The body needs to heat up after you drink the ice water, revving up your metabolism and making you burn more calories in the process.
7) Trick your tastebuds by sucking on a menthol/eucalyptus cough drop. It will stop a craving instantly.
8) Fidget! By fidgeting alone, you can burn up to 700 calories a day.
9) Blot the fat. By dabbing off the oil from two slices of pizza, you can cut the calories by about 40 calories and 4.5 grams of fat.
10) If you really want fresh-baked cookies, try taking a long whiff of them before you go ahead and eat them. Just by smelling them, you can sometimes stop the craving and keep you from derailing your diet.