The Skinny on Summer: How to Lose Weight Fast for Pool Season!
Raise your hands—and wave them all about—if you’re thrilled about the fact summer is nearly here.
🙋🏻♀️
And not so thrilled that now you need to lose weight fast.
🙇🏻♀️
Ughhhh…
Is your excitement tinged with a tiny bit of horror when you remember summer also means swimsuits and pools?
Shorts and camisole tops?
No more hiding behind layers of bulky clothes, just lots and lots of bare skin…
THE HORROR! 😱
How are you going to be able to lose the weight you want in just a few weeks?
Yeah. The horror is real.
And that can be for those who want to lose 20 pounds or 50.
So we’re going to take a few minutes and talk about some of the things you can do to lose weight fast.
What steps you can take to ensure showing all that skin is a little less intimidating…
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How to Lose Weight Fast—And an Alternate Route
Since everyone is different and has different goals, we’re going to cover a few paths.
Something for you guys who are all about slow and steady but also something for the “don’t waste my time, let’s just get it done” crowd.
Because they say slow and steady wins the race, let’s start there…
Lose Weight Naturally – Pay Attention to Portion Sizes
Over the past several decades, portion sizes have increased. Tremendously.
And along with that, so have our waistlines. (1)
It’s actually quite scary how large our portion sizes are compared to other countries.
I’ve done a lot of international traveling over the last year and every time I come back, I’m amazed at how much food we are served…
And it’s up to US to combat this growing problem…
It’s pretty simple to fix this, but it will take some repetition to make it a habit.
Start off by decreasing the portion you eat at each meal.
Wait 5 minutes, chat with someone over dinner, drink some water, and if you’re REALLY still hungry… Go for seconds.
But if you put too much on your plate to begin with, you’ll feel obligated to eat it all. (I personally HATE wasting food.)
It also helps to use smaller plates because you will naturally put less on your plate!
Um… Fill My Plate With What?
Good question.
Because, clearly, using a dessert plate instead of a dinner plate and then filling it with dessert isn’t going to help you shed any pounds.
If you’re familiar with what we preach here at Avocadu, you likely know that we encourage more whole foods and less—way less—carbs.
One of the main principles of our highly successful diet program is a detox from carbs.
Before you freak out…
You can eat ALL the protein and vegetables that your heart (and belly) desire!
In fact, you don’t really have to watch your portions if you’re eating the right foods.
When you eat foods full of nutrients, you won’t ever go hungry!
A small plate containing salmon and lots of veggies provides you with tons of healthy protein, fats, and lots of fiber for your digestion.
That plate is a perfect example of what to eat if you want to lose weight fast.
At the time of writing this, summer officially starts in just a few weeks!
If you put the right foods on your plate and do even some light exercise—we’ll talk about that in a bit—you can absolutely lose a few pounds every week.
That’s fourteen pounds by the start of summer!
And hey, it’s also way more time than you need to complete our 21-day Fat Loss Challenge.
Drink More Water
Here’s a fun fact that maybe isn’t a fact. Because while I’ve read this several times, I’ve never found any studies to back it up.
It could be nothing more than an internet myth, and now I’m passing it along like everyone else… 🤷🏻♀️
But because it makes sense, and based on some personal experiences of my own, I’m going to share.
You’ve probably heard before that “most of the time that you’re hungry, you’re actually just thirsty.”
When the body is giving off those telltale warnings of impending starvation, sometimes it’s the body saying it’s dehydrated, and we’re just confused.
I mean, we KNOW for a fact that people can go FAR longer without food than they can without water.
But I challenge you to actually try drinking a big glass of water next time you’re “hungry.”
Because I think more than anything, most of the time we’re just plain bored.
And eating gives us something to do.
We should all be drinking far more water than we usually do anyway.
I challenge you to drink 100 ounces of water a day. Every day.
Remember to space it out throughout the day so you don’t spend all morning running to the bathroom.
And no, the water in your coffee does NOT count.
What’s Your Gut Telling You?
Yes, I know your gut is telling you to lose it, but I’m talking in a different context here.
Your microbiome—your gut—plays a significant role in your ability to not only lose weight but to keep it off. (2)
If you want to lose weight before summer, you need to pay attention here, because this is critical. So critical, I probably should have put this first on the list. Since this is the foundation you have to build upon.
Did you know it’s nearly impossible to lose weight with an unhealthy gut?
How many times have you tried to diet with absolutely no success?
You may have lost some initial water weight, but after that, nada.
How incredibly discouraging, right?
You did everything you were supposed to, you followed all the rules, and it was just an exercise in torture.
What happens then? You just go back to your old eating habits, because what’s the point, right?
Wrong!
The only problem is that you didn’t start in the right place.
And I am not placing the blame for that on your shoulders. There are so many websites, books, videos, and courses offering diet and weight loss advice that don’t even address this very crucial point.
If you have an unhealthy gut, it’s nearly impossible to lose weight or feel good.
And you know what? We here at Avocadu get that. We know that. We preach that!
We even have a probiotic that can help restore your microbiome and make weight loss easier.
A happy gut, full of good bacteria, makes it easier to lose weight and keep it off.
Start taking a good probiotic and combine it with a good diet!
By summertime, you will not only have managed to lose weight, but you will also look great and feel great too!
Exercise & Burn Fat – It Doesn’t Have to be Torture (Honest!)
I’m going to be blunt here. You need to MOVE!
In some way.
This doesn’t mean you have to do intense exercise, but…
Just sitting around leading a sedentary life isn’t doing you any good.
At all.
Healthwise and weight wise.
Sitting on your butt all day can have an impact on your life expectancy fairly equal to the extent smoking and obesity do. (3)
So if you are over 200 pounds and you never move, you could be in some pretty serious trouble.
Now, I’m not suggesting you start training for a marathon. Or doing monotonous cardio for hours a day.
No intense exercise.
Just go for a walk.
Since the nicer weather is finally upon us—at least for those of us not lucky enough to live somewhere where the weather is always fine—there’s really no excuse for not getting out and moving a bit.
Yes, it’s really that simple.
Going for a walk is a great start.
And frankly, depending on your weight and endurance levels, that may be all you can manage.
And that’s cool, it really is. Even if you’re just out strolling around the neighborhood, it means you’re not laying on the couch.
So feel proud of yourself.
If all you’re doing is walking, just make sure to add some spring to your steps and some swing to your arms. Put your whole body into it. It means more calories burned and more fat loss.
As long as you maintain sensible eating habits as well.
Eat More Vegetables and Lose More Weight
I know, I sound like your mother.
God, I sound like MY mother. 🤦🏻♀️
But seriously, you HAVE to eat vegetables!
And not because they have fewer calories and we’re trying to force you to restrict yourself to low-calorie foods.
That will never happen here because we don’t preach calorie restriction as a weight loss method.
(I’ll pause while you dance in glee over that tidbit.)
Why am I encouraging more veggies? Because it goes hand-in-hand with creating that healthy gut I talked about above. (4)
And the healthier your gut, the easier it is to lose weight.
Okay, finally…
I promised something for the “let’s just get it done” crowd, so the following is just for YOU.
Lose Fat Fast – The Aggressive Method
Slow and steady and just eating in moderation has its place, but there are times you want to lose weight fast—like needing to get ready for pool season—or just because that’s the way you do things.
We generally recommend it just for motivation.
If you’re dropping a few pounds a week, you’re likely going to stick with that plan. Because it’s WORKING.
The info about starting off with a healthy gut still applies here too.
So you might want to start off with some sort of mild detox to flush some of the crap—literally!—from your body.
The more unhealthy your diet has been, the more unhealthy stuff is backed up in your intestines.
The next step to healing your gut is to cut out processed foods entirely.
I know I don’t have to tell you how HORRIBLE sugar is for you. And you don’t have to cut it out forever — let’s be realistic here.
But you need to detox to fix your gut and get it to a place where it’s ready to shed some weight.
Replace the bad stuff with some of the good stuff and you can move to the next step.
Implement those daily walks like we discussed earlier.
Get more physical—but please be sensible and know your own limitations.
These are some of the basic steps you need to take to lose weight fast.
But if you want a plan that shows you exactly what to do every day to lose 10-21 pounds in just 21 days (yep, that’s our guarantee!), I encourage you to check out our 21-Day Fat Loss Challenge.
You won’t be sorry and your friends will be jealous come summertime!
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