Five fast ways to stay slender & healthy

Most of us will never have that perfect body we've always dreamt of, that is a fact. And this is not because we don't try, no, but simply because our definition of "the perfect body" has filled a divorce from reality somewhere during Kate Moss career peak in the 90's.

There are many dangerous weight loss pills, surgeries and extreme diets out there to get you into your dream size, but fact is that if they even do work short term, they are nothing but a quick fix, and be sure, that if you if it does not kill like some diets and pills will, the fat will be back in no time. But that doesn't mean that all hope is lost, and you will forever be doomed to wish yourself 10 pounds lighter, it just means it's time for a little patience and persistence. Loosing weight "the right way" doesn't mean that you have to turn into a health freak who never eats chocolate, it just means introducing a little thinking and planing into your lifestyle choices.

My five favourite ways to stay slender..

1. Sleep
This has got to be my faviourite way of staying in shape, because it's absolutely painless both physically and mentally. By sleep I do not mean "go sleep 20 hours and wake up a size 34!", obviously. Why I do point out sleep to be so important is because studies have in fact shown that people who get the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep at night, snack less (and get a higher metabolism). Sleeping those few extra hours will help you stay clear of that midday Marsbar, simply because those extra hours means you still have a good portion of energy on your own. And speaking of portion, that brings me to the next..

2. Portion control
I think it is quite a classic among weight loss tips. Staying fit doesn't mean never eating chips, chocolate and fast food, it means eating less chips, chocolate and fastfood. Say your food habits includes a pizza/McD's night once a week. Drop that for a moment and go for pizza/McDs night every other week instead. See it's not really that difficult, it's just a question of a little adjustment and a planing! Is the glass half empty or half full? It does indeed shift faster to the latter if you think of it this way: the less you let yourself snack, the more you'll appreciate the snacks! Not to mention how you'll save money on the fastfood/snacks you no longer eat.


3. Cook from scratch
It's very unlikely that those producing the processed food you eat is particularly concerned about your weight issues, and often not your health either (as long as it's not poison they're off the hook you know).  Fact is that in most cases your cooking from scratch would be healthier than the processed food version of the exact same dish.

The younger generation is often a little scared of cooking everything from scratch (so am I at times), but what I've learned is that often it's a lot easier than it looks, and it's a case of Übung macht Meister" (practice makes perfect), you do in fact learn really fast from your mistakes. So go out there and get yourself that good old fashion cooking book, it's a lot healthier and a lot cheep that all that 5 minutes food!


4. Know your food
Do you really know what your food is made of? Well if you took upon you the advice of cooking from scratch you're already on the road to being in control of what goes into your mouth and what does not. However there is another aspect to knowing what goes into your month as well. I'm talking about being aware of the effects of food. To quote a good friend of mine "everyone but the Amish people know that McDonald is bad for you!", but there's a lot more than that to it!

People's favourite argument against my vegetarianism is that it lowers my health because "you need all that protein from the meat, you can't get that else where", but yeah, in fact the very same proteins can be found in vegetarian things such as beans. What can however not be found in beans is the unhealthy (saturated) fat you find in meat (that's the kind stuff that clogs your arteries, makes you gain weight and raises your cholesterol level). And no, this is not me telling you to be a vegetarian, I believe in free choice, my point is that just because you think something in your diet is the better of two evils, doesn't make it so. I am not asking you to count calories and check the fat % percentage of all you eat, I am simply asking you to google up things such as "good and bad fats" and "what contains protein".

5. Water
Water is generally highly underrated (especially considering just how much an average person uses in a day). Water is just one of those few things out that's undeniably great for your body regardless of other factors or portion control (you know as in drinking a glass of red wine per day is good for you, but a whole bottle per day is really bad for you). It has lots of great minerals, it can replace such calorie bombs as cola and alcohol, it helps clean the pores in your face, and it generally detoxes your system. Not to mention you can drink as much as you want and never gain as much as a gram for it! It helps the body get rid of waste products you've obtained from things such as last nights McD or Friday´s party. So drink up!


And the worst way to stay slender is..
Smoking of course!
Smoking is very hazardious to your health in general, most people know about the damage it does to your lungs and the high cancer risk.. but that's only the tip of the iceberg! It is however helpful if you're hoping to shed those extra pounds (and that's not a recommendation) as it decreases your appetite and raises your metabolism. There are many unhealthy ways to lose weight, but the cigarette has got to be the worst.

Among the cigarette´s biggest competitors we find things such as anorexia and bulimia. I chose cigarettes as the worst because it requires a lot less will power, and because is generally a lot more comfortable than it's competitors.. at least until you're dying of lung cancer.

And here's a few things that almost made the top 5
Exercise - it's extremely obvious that exercise is very helpful when trying to lose weight, so because of the obviousness, I decided not to put it in the top 5.
Vegetarinism - A very effective way of staying slender, a lot of people does unfortunately find it very difficult to not eat meat.
Being honest - Don't try to pretend that you eat less or eat more healthy than you do. Being honest can get you far.. presuming that you're actually going to act upon that honesty. Your body will still recognise that cake even if you deny it.
Fruit - is the new Marsbar/popcorn/nachos! - or at least you should try to make it that. But it's a lot harder than it sounds.
Metabolism - Having a good metabolism is a very high factor in your weight (as it decides how fast your body naturally burns off the fats). Things that are known to increase metabolism includes: chilli, exercise, regular meals, green tea, apples and beans.
The leg rule - Remember those unhealthy fats I told you about earlier? Remember what I said about knowing your food? Well here's a great tip for all you meat lowers: the more legs it has, the more unhealthy and weight increasing it is. E.g:
Cow - has four legs: Very bad for you, lots of unhealthy fats!
Chicken - has two legs: Not nearly as bad for you, because they generally has less (unhealthy) fat.
Fish - no legs: The better alternative, fish is very rich in omega-3 (healthy) fat.