Despite the never ending popularity of crash diets, it still remains a proven fact that consistent and continuous changes in order to improve our lifestyle are the best way to achieve a healthy weight and a body worth envying. However, the road to impressive weight loss results the healthy way is often slow and losing our motivation along the way can be extremely easy. Using a few tricks to speed up results safely can help us keep our motivation at reasonable levels.
There are various tweaks and tricks that can be used in order to burn fat more efficiently. Even simple and seemingly trivial habits can have an important impact over our health. Take water intake and breathing, for example. A proper water intake can make your workouts more effective, improve digestion, speed up your metabolism, help you prevent injuries and even decrease water retention. Moreover, drinking 6 extra glasses of water a day can help you burn 5 extra pounds of fat per year, according to one study. Taking these facts into account, the habit of drinking water regularly suddenly becomes even more important. Similarly, deep breathing exercises performed on a regular basis, can also raise the basal metabolic rate, which results in a calorie burn increase.
Another strategy you can use is incorporating fat burning foods into your diet. These foods are nutrient dense, healthy options that will fill you up while boosting your metabolism. Some of these foods include: almonds which are rich in magnesium, salmon which contains omega 3 fatty acids, hot peppers which contain capsaicin, a substance that speeds up metabolism, spices such as cinnamon, which have a similar effect or grapefruit, which is rich in vitamin C. Drinking green and black tea are also useful additions to your diet as they are able to control insulin levels and even help detox.
Regarding your fitness routine, constantly challenging yourself and combing cardio exercises with strength training ones are two proven, effective ways in which you can achieve your weight loss goals faster. While the reasons why constantly challenging yourself and varying your workouts are rather obvious, for most women the need for strength training might not be so clear. While cardio workouts burn a lot of calories, strength training exercises help your muscles develop, leading to extra calorie burn even while resting. Decreasing rest time between intervals when training is also important if you notice that you might be reaching a weight loss plateau.
Keeping journals is another great tip which can impact your routines significantly. While food journals have received the most of attention lately, due to the fact that they can dramatically improve your habits thanks to the awareness they bring, fitness journals can be just as useful in keeping your motivation levels in check. When keeping journals, it is important to be as specific as you can. Aside from getting specific about your habits in writing, it is also important to include photos whenever possible. Taking a picture can help you see progress and will help you become more realistic about your records.
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