How to Lose Extra Pounds with Minimal Excercise

When it comes to losing weight everyone wants it off without any real effort. There are so many diet fads, pills and surgeries available today that offer quick and easy ways to lose weight.

The fact is that diet pills, surgeries and fads are short term solutions to a long term problem. Most folks don't gain twenty pounds of extra weight in a few days. So why does everyone want to lose twenty-five pounds in one day?

Quick fix diets are simply short term in nature and some even pose risks and potential dangers to your health.

The key to losing weight safely and consistently and keeping it off is to create lifestyle decisions and choices each day that will positively affect your overall health for the rest of your life.

Here are a few things that you can do right now that will help you for the rest of your life:

1. Kill the soda and soft drinks before they kill you. Let's face it, in America many people that are overweight drink soda everyday. Most people that are overweight drink more than one soda everyday. It does not matter whether it's diet soda or regular soda. Soda has too much sugar that not only adds to your weight gain everyday, and too much sugar is a precursor to diabetes. Even though diet soda has less refined sugar, the chemicals used to create the taste are obviously not natural. Do you eat chemicals for dinner? Why drink them? There is evidence that diet sodas can contribute to even worse disorders and ailments than excess sugar. Substitute the soda with water or 100% natural fruit juices. Your body will thank you for it.

2. Slow down on the fast food. How many times have you eaten out at a fast food restaurant this week? Fast food is generally much higher in calories, salt and processed ingredients (which equals less nutritional content). If you are eating at a fast food restaurant more than once a day you are definitely not treating your body as well as you can. You need to substitute your meal choices with healthier foods.

3. Curb the snacking. Do you have chips everyday? How about cheese? Are they a small part of your meal, or are they in between meal snacks. How often do you eat snacks? All those extra chips, pieces of cake and candy bars add major calories and extra sugar and salt to your body (read diabetes and high blood pressure which leads to heart disease). If you're hungry between meals it's better to have an apple, banana, orange or some other fruit or veggie such as a carrot or even a potato (but go real easy on the sour cream, butter and bacon chips, those are the killers).

4. Don't lie to yourself at the salad bar. How many times have you told yourself you're on a "diet" so you order a salad, or even worse, go to the "all you can eat salad bar". Ask yourself this....How much lettuce did you actually eat at the salad bar? Did you load up on pasta, soup, mounds of cheese and loads of dressing with actually very little greens? And then treat yourself to a Coke(TM) or Pepsi(TM) to reward yourself? If you're on a "diet" keep it real and stop fooling yourself, because no one else around you really believes what you're doing anyway.

5. Move a little. Sitting in front of the television watching movies and squeezing the remote is not exercise. Surfing the net and typing is not exercise. You don't need to go run 5 miles and exhaust yourself for the rest of the week. A simple walk around the block, or park or lake or beach gets your circulation moving and your heart pumping. Whatever it is, move everyday. If you have a dog, take it out for a walk. If you have kids go play with them at the local playground. Just get away from your TV or computer everyday for 15 to 30 minutes or more.

6. Go easier on the alcohol. The average beer, wine or cocktail has about 100 calories or more. If you drink 2 or more drinks every night, that equals over 6000 calories a month or about 3 good sized meals...that equals at least a couple of extra pounds a month that you'll gain unless you work it off. In other words your body has to work harder to burn more calories. In addition alcohol provides zero nutritional energy or fuel that your body can really use effectively. Drink more water to cleanse water is calorie free, and it will help digestion and other bodily functions.

Be true to yourself. Simply implementing one or more of the above will help you lose weight over time. You'll have more energy, look healthier and feel better.