You have done it! You've lost fifteen pounds over the last six months and you know you are on your way to where you want to be. However (and it's a big 'however'!), you can't seem to rid yourself of the last stubborn ten that seems intent on sticking to your thighs and rear end. Your weight loss goal was twenty five pounds, and you know other people have done it-so how do you do it? What is the best way to lose those last, stubborn ten pounds?
You have sacrificed many a chocolate chip cookie and watched beads of sweat turn into pools on the floor in your spinning class week after week. So why won't those last ten pounds move? There could be a number of reasons. The body reaches a set point, or a given weight beyond which it's not so willing to budge. Sometimes, we have to trick it into moving along anyway. If you are already in a committed exercise program and you have changed your chicken from KFC to baked at home in the oven, here are some tips to go one step further :
Watch the white! Hand in hand with processed foods go 'white' foods. Literally, you should try to cut down on any white-colored foods that don't come from nature if you want to shed the last ten pounds. Sugar is white and horrible for your body. Sodium (or salt) is white and can make you hold water weight, feel bloated, and increase blood pressure in high doses. Many people are surprised to find how much sodium is in certain foods when they start actually reading the labels to notice these amounts. Soups, for example, contain a very high level of sodium. In fact, the low fat or low calorie soups tend to contain more salt than the creamy ones! Try making your own fresh soups instead of buying the canned variety. White flour - the likes of which cookies, cakes, and pies are made of - is completely robbed of the nutrients it used to contain before it was turned into such a refined grain. Try to eat wheat breads instead of white breads. Even white rice has higher sugars in it than brown rice; it's higher on the glycemic index, which measures sugar conversion of food. Of course, white foods found in nature are perfectly fine in moderation. Milk, potatoes, and other natural white foods will not significantly add to your waistline so long as you're not eating a pound of potatoes or drinking a gallon of milk!
By taking on these three simple changes, you will be able to stoke your metabolism just enough to push you into that ten pound deficit. It may be gradual, like the first fifteen you lost, but it will be long-lasting.
