Guest Post - 5 Easy Ways to Cut Calories Each Day

Healthy Living Natural Beauty

 

    Today we have another guest post article called "5 Easy Ways to Cut Calories Each Day" by Heather Smith. If you have been following our 30 day challenges, you may already be incorporating some of these great tips into your daily routines.  I know you will enjoy this article.

5 Easy Ways to Cut Calories Each Day To lose one pound a week you have to cut 3,500 calories out of your diet that week. That can sound intimidating to anyone who is trying to lose weight, but luckily that comes out to only really needing to lose about 500 calories a day from your overall calorie intake – whether it be from diet, exercise, or both. So how can you easily slice hundreds of calories out of your diet each day? Simple! Just use these tricks:

Count out portion sizes
One of the reasons that snacks like chips or nuts are so fattening is because we mindlessly eat out of the bag or container and end up consuming hundreds of extra calories. Next time you’re craving a snack actually count out the portion size on the container so that you know you’re only eating the calories are on the nutritional label, and not triple that.
 
 Make healthy swaps
Another reason we tend to mindlessly eat chips or m&ms or other unhealthy snacks is because they lack any real substance so they never really fill us up. The next time you feel like snacking get out a portion of baby carrots and hummus to satisfy a salty craving and to mimic chips and dip or slice up an apple and pair it with peanut butter to hit the sweet spot in place of peanut butter cups. The more healthy choices you make the more healthy foods you’ll crave.
 
Halve your restaurant portions
While it’s probably unlikely that you’re going to eliminate eating out entirely from your diet, you can do something to minimize the damage from restaurant fare by eating only half your portion. Restaurants have gotten good at serving us double or triple the size meal that we should be getting, and we tend to eat most if not all of it. Instead package up half of your meal right away or split the meal with your dining partner. You’ll end up leaving satisfied, not stuffed.
 
Change your breakfast
Instead of having a muffin or a bowl of cereal for breakfast, try having an egg white omelet full of veggies or low-fat cottage cheese and berries so that you get a satiating breakfast full of protein. Breakfasts that are high in carbohydrates may satisfy you initially, but you’ll be hungry in no time because they don’t have enough protein and fiber to keep you full. Making sure to eat enough protein in the morning will keep you full until lunchtime.
 
Sneak in exercise
You can quickly torch extra calories by taking a lunchtime walk, running up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or throwing in jumping jacks and push-ups during your favorite television show’s commercial breaks. 

Don’t discredit changing minor things in your diet and exercise program because making little changes can add up in a big way. Tackling weight loss and fitness in small steps makes it more manageable and will make it easier to stick to it. The all or nothing attitude sets you up for failure, but by easing into healthy habits you’ll be setting yourself up for success.  Author Bio Heather Smith is an ex-nanny. Passionate about thought leadership and writing, Heather regularly contributes to various career, social media, public relations, branding, and parenting blogs/websites. She also provides value to become a nanny by giving advice on site design as well as the features and functionality to provide more and more value to nannies and families across the U.S. and Canada. She can be available at H.smith7295 [at] gmail.com. < Previous Post Next Post >