13 Easy Diet Challenges for Weight Loss

Every time you boot up your social media feed, it may seem like there's another new challenge popping up on your screen like a 30-day diet challenge, etc.  

The truth is that you don't need an army of social friends to give you ideas for your journey to weight loss. Instead, there are several mini diet challenges to help you lose weight that you could be trying—some you already know you might be doing and some you don't.

Do This When You Wake Up

Start your morning every day with a glass of lemon water and a positive meditation. This is actually one of the best health tips for getting a flat belly—fast!—because lemons are a diuretic and help to diminish bloat. 

Have at least One Serving of Greens in Your Diet

Get one serving of green veggies and fruits at least one time a day, if not twice. Being healthy can be intimidating. Oftentimes, we over-focus on macronutrients such as the number of carbohydrates, protein, and fat we are eating, and forget to look at nutrients and fibre. Greens are necessary for helping with alkalizing, digestion, and nourishing the cells.

Combine Fibre and Protein

Make sure all of your snacks contain both fibre and protein for nutrients, satiety and stable blood sugar and energy levels. Pistachios are one of the favourite munchies in snacking as they are crunchy and satisfying and they're one with the lowest fat, lowest calorie, and highest in protein and fibre. 

Plan a Snack which is Time-consuming

Rather than opting for a grab-n-go munchie snack, opt for in-shell pistachios as you'll need to slow down and remove the shells yourself; plus, this may even help you fool yourself fully because leftover shells may give a visual cue to potentially curb portions. As a bonus, you'll get both fibre and protein from pistachios.

Hydrate

The recommended amount is approx eight glasses of water each per day. Drink water instead of consuming soda, tea, lemonade or other beverages you typically drink. Morning coffee is fine, but other than that, try drinking water with meals and throughout the day. Calories from beverages can cause weight gain just like food, and water hydrates you even better than any other beverage. By switching to water you are cutting down on your calories and sugar intake of yours.

Go Oil-free Whenever Possible

Oil is a processed food that is pure fat consisting of 2,000 calories per cup. Substituting vegetable broth or water when sautéing and whipping up a dressing for a salad or making sauce for your food can save you hundreds of calories consumed in a day.

Use Smaller Plates

Use your salad plates instead of your dinner plates and notice how much less food you eat overall. If you're craving something sweet, try putting your dessert in a ramekin bowl.

Follow the Red, Orange and Green Rule

Follow the 'Red, orange and green Rule' to include one red, orange or green vegetable or fruit in every meal. When you focus on getting one of these colours at every meal, you'll get an excellent source of disease-fighting nutrients and a meal high in fibre and low in calories that's good for maintaining a healthy weight and fighting age.

Get More Omega-3s

Take little steps every day to get more omega-3s.  Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids help to keep your heart and brain healthy.

Consume Only Whole Grains

Whole grains are a good source of fibre, and vitamin B, and may also help regulate blood sugar levels and promote a loss of belly fat. For every grain, you select, make it 100% whole grain which means your cereal, your wraps, your snacks, and your rice at dinner all should be swapped with whole grains.

Add More Pulses when Possible

Pulses like dried peas, chickpeas, beans and lentils can be easily incorporated into any meal of the day. If you like you can add white beans or chickpeas to smoothies, split pea puree to baked foods or make some lentil soup. You'll get a healthy and tasty dose of plant-based protein, filling fibre, and various nutrients like iron and folate.

Watch Your Salt Intake

Look at labels very carefully and monitor how much sodium you intake. Your actual total daily sodium consumption should be under 1,500 mg per day.

Cut off Eating at 7:30 P.M.

Take the no-food-after-7:30 P.M. challenge and you may even realize you wake up with a great feeling so you want to make it part of your regular routine. It really does make a difference and help you to lose weight as late-night eating is often unhealthy and can make it difficult to shed pounds.

Take Away

Weight loss is a continuing journey. While it may seem difficult, it may be very helpful for you to think about how a few little changes can really add up.

Overall, finding ways every day to eat a healthy balanced diet, exercise, drink more water and get enough sleep might provide you with good results. 

For more personalized suggestions to lose weight, you can consult your doctor, who can help you provide an individual plan for your health needs.