Athletes have healthy, agile bodies and perfect forms most of us aspire to have. What do you think is their secret? Take a page from their book and maybe you’ll find for yourself how to lose weight like a pro.
- Start your day right with a proper breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for everyone, including athletes. You see, the human metabolism slows down considerably when we’re asleep and it enters into a fasting phase. Starting your day with a healthy and filling breakfast would jumpstart your metabolism—your body’s ability to burn calories. Once you’ve had breakfast, your body will get right back on to work burning calories. If you’re not used to eating breakfast, better start doing it now. You can include something from the four basic food groups like cereals and whole grains, brown bread, fruits, nuts, vegetables, milk, yogurt.
- Follow a carbohydrate and protein-rich diet. Athletes are by nature, more active people, so they need a diet that requires more amounts of healthy carbohydrates. You can infuse your diet with whole wheat pastas, multigrain breads, oatmeal, fruits, and lots of vegetables. Do stay away from highly processed food like white breads and pastas. Because these are highly processed, your body has only little use for the carbohydrates they provide. Aside form carbohydrates, proteins are also essential to your weight loss regimen. Eating the right kinds of protein-rich foods help make you feel full instantly. You won’t feel the urge to add more to your plate. Proteins also fuel your workouts and is an important ingredient in muscle growth.
- Complete your meals and include healthy snacks in between. Since starting your day with a healthy breakfast starts the “fire” for your metabolism, completing your meals and eating healthy snacks keep this fire roaring. This is a fitting metaphor. Remember that you need to keep your metabolism running to burn calories and lose weight. And the fuel to keep your metabolism running is of course, food. Starving or depriving yourself of food would only keep your metabolism to a standstill, and might tempt you further in binge eating. You wouldn’t want this to happen. Snacking on vegetables, almonds, an apple or a banana every few hours or so is very effective in satisfying hunger and preventing yourself from overeating. You won’t feel any urge to snack unhealthily after meals. Also, you’ll have plenty of reserve energy when doing heavy work and activities.
- Keep yourself hydrated. The golden rule to maintaining a fit and healthy body is to always keep yourself hydrated. Drink water every now and then, not only when you feel thirsty. Water cleanses the body, flushes out waste materials, replenishes nutrients lost, and is needed for proper food digestion.
- A light dinner is the best way to end your day. Since our body rests at night and is also the time when our metabolism is at its slowest rate, it does make sense to eat a light dinner. You can opt for a moderate serving of salad, a healthy sandwich or veggie wrap.
- Maintain a positive attitude and visualize your goal. How do you think athletes win a game? Physical prowess is of course important, but athletes have one ultimate secret ingredient to add to their goal of success—a vision. Mental preparation is as much important as intensive physical preparation. Most successful athletes see ahead a specific end goal--crossing that finish line in a marathon, emerging first place in a tournament, winning that much coveted world cup, etc. There’s no reason you can’t apply the same technique to losing weight. Start by pinpointing a specific goal and creating a scene where you succeed in achieving that goal. It can be something like finally fitting in a very slim cocktail dress, losing ten pounds, developing more lean muscles, or gaining a much more flattering figure. Focus on believing in your strengths and visualizing your goals. Surround yourself with positive, inspiring thoughts. This kind of positive attitude makes a big difference.
You don’t have to strictly live the life of an athlete so you can lose weight the way they do. Just take these few pointers from their book and apply what you can. Always remember to complement physical action with a positive attitude and belief in oneself.