It is mid-January already, and among our list of New Year’s resolutions, many of us listed losing weight. How are we doing so far?! In case you needed some extra support, here are some weight loss tips that can easily be incorporated into all of our daily diets. My friends that have been reading my blog for a while will see that some of these tips are ones that I have been harping on repeatedly. :) But they work! And they are worth saying again as a friendly reminder… because I want you guys to feel and look your best!!
While they seem simple, they really add up to big improvements towards our weight loss goals. Oftentimes we want to make huge dramatic changes, but these can seem restrictive and if we haven’t transitioned properly we usually just go back to our old ways of eating. Small changes that we incorporate and repeat day after day are much more powerful than fly by night changes that we drop pretty fast with foods that help burn fat!
Check out these easy tips that will help you along your path to vibrant health and easy weight loss!
1. Start lunch and dinner (if it is not the main course) with a green salad. Greens are full of fiber, so we get filled up on this mineral-dense food first. All the raw plant enzymes and chlorophyll go to work cleaning and detoxing our blood and systems. When we cleanse on an ongoing basis, it continues to be easier for us to maintain our ideal weight.
2. Try to consume the juice of 1-2 lemons every day. You can squeeze them over salads, in water, over veggies, or even over grains like quinoa. Lemon helps regenerate and support our liver by benefiting bile formation. Since our liver is our main fat-burning organ, lemon can therefore help promote optimal fat metabolism.
3. Stop drinking Diet Coke. We have all gone through love relationships with diet colas, being lured in by the fact that they have 0 calories and have a sugary, satisfying taste. But… it IS all too good to be true. Sodas are considered the most acidic “food” on the planet. They leave an acidic residue in our bodies, and the more acidic our bodies are the more we tend to hold on to weight and age faster. Sodas are full of acidic chemicals like carbonic acid and phosphoric acid. Soda demineralizes the bones, teeth, and skin, robbing us of our highest beauty by eating up our minerals. All the chemical sweeteners in diet sodas can also overload our liver.
4. Drink as little as possible while you are eating. If you drink a lot while you are eating, you will dilute the gastric juices and slow down digestion, which can lead to the fermentation and putrification of our food. Drink water half an hour before eating, and wait at least an hour afterwards to start drinking significant quantities of water (or other liquids) again.
5. Avoid table salt at all costs- both in cooking and adding as a condiment. Sometimes we are tempted to add salt to our food as a fat-free, calorie-free condiment, as a way of cutting back on oil or other “fattening” options. But regular table salt, which is really de-natured sodium chloride salt, is toxic poison in our bodies. It will leach H20 and other minerals out of your body. These kinds of salt will also create “false fat”, making us look bloated and up to 9 pounds heavier than we truly weigh. We must avoid it all cost. Throw it out of your cabinet right now, and resist the urge to add any of it onto your food from salt shakers at restaurants or cafes. Celtic sea salts and Himalayan sea salt are the right choice to fulfill our salt needs, as they are natural and full of minerals.
Love!!
Kimberly
Thank you for the tips! I am so happy that I live by Tips #3-5 already! :)
I do need to incorporate more salads before my meals on a regular basis. And also drink more lemon juice.
I will have those as part of my life asap.
Great tips, thanks! I juice sooo many lemons a day! I drink a ton of hot lemon water with cayenne!
Hi Kim! You always have such wonderful little tid-bits to share. I savor each one! However, about the lemons, I have been using them more in my diet (particularly in green smoothies and salads); but I worry about their acidic effect on my teeth! I am afterall a dental hygienist. I worry about acid wear and decay. Any thoughts??? Thanks for your advice!
Ann Parker
Hi Ann! I talked to my dentist today, and said that lemons were far less problematic than many other acidic foods, like coffee. The lemons are always diluted in water or in the Smoothies, so we are not biting into straight lemons all the time. :) If you are worried, you could brush your teeth.
What I like about these tips is that they’re all doable, and many of them focus on adding things into your diet rather than restricting it.
Yes! We are about abundance, not restriction. :)
All great stuff. Especially the diet Coke one– that stuff is pure crap!
Kim, you a fan of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos??
I’m getting away from it b/c I am not sure if the soybeans are fermented or not. I’ve found unpasteurized miso mixed with dulse is a great substitute for that flavor! xx Kimberly
Bragg Liquid Aminos: Ingredients: Our Bragg Liquid Aminos are made from health-giving, NON-GMO soybeans and purified water. They are an excellent, healthy, gourmet replacement for Tamari and Soy Sauce. Not fermented or heated and Gluten-Free. This is from their website.
Well there you go! We WANT soybeans to be fermented. Nama Shoyu is raw and fermented, though it does contain gluten.
Always rinse your teeth after lemon juice to prevent teeth issues. Then brush approximately 20-30 minutes later. You can brush sooner if you don’t brush too hard and/or use a soft brush.
Instead of a salad, it can be even better to have a lot of fruit before each meal. Then 30 minutes later eat the rest of your meal. There’s tons of other great tips I could give, but don’t want to take over Kimberly’s blog. :)
Hi Dimond, Thanks for leaving a comment. However, I have to say that I completely disagree with your advice. I said that the greens should come before lunch and dinner. Fruit should only be eaten in the morning, as it leaves the stomach in 25 minutes and needs to move out. Greens add fiber and leave more of a full feeling, and are in the stomach for about 2 hours. If someone were to eat fruit before dinner and possibly lunch, that food would most likely be sitting on top of much slower-moving foods. That is a great way to create more fermentation and GAIN weight (not to mention toxicity and speed aging, as fermented material leads to disintegration and not clean, healthy tissue). Thinking to add fruit (which is only a truly cleansing food in an alkaline body) before each meal is an overly simplistic view that does not take the overall diet into account. That is advice I would NEVER give to my clients! :-)
Great Blog Kimberly!! Your advice is always so helpful and right on the money!! I have been following your advice and tips for over a year now and have lost 30 pounds and have never felt better. Thanks So Much!!!
Hi! I think its so nice you direct message your followers on twitter to get in touch on here. ;) I was wondering if theres an email we can send in questions? My main question (since now going from vegetarian to vegan) is what are your favorite foods/supplements to include for thicker hair and strong bones?
HI Rachel! We can not just throw supplements on top of our toxicity and expect longterm, outstanding results. What we have to do is create overall balance in our body. When our bodies are acidic we do not absorb as many minerals (to make our hair strong) and calcium and other alkaline minerals will be leached out of our bones to help buffer the acidity. The most important foods are greens, greens, greens!! xx Kimberly
Fantastic post, Kimberly… backs up everything you and I talked about the other day and I need to focus on lemon water, lemon water, lemon water!
Hi Jennifer! Yes, you are doing fantastic!! No more soda or soy lattes. :)
Hi Kim!
Great post, as always.
I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on mushrooms?
I hear such conflicting things about their healthfulness. I am a long-time 95% raw fooder and have really tried to do my research on the subject, but I’m baffled.
I’m especially interested in organic shiitakes. I would like to eat them as I used to love mushrooms when I ate a more standard diet.
Hi Marcheline! Yes there are a lot of conflicting things on mushrooms. Some think they are toxic and are to be avoided altogether. Some believe they are incredibly healing, and those would include the shiitakes. I personally enjoy mushrooms in moderation. I like them in my salads and certain recipes, and personally have not experienced any negative consequences. :)
Hello, Kim :)
Thanks for the helpful post.
I was wondering, how much Celtic sea salt would you say is the ideal maximum per person per day?
Is it, in your opinion, ideal to consume overt salt at all?
I am trying to get my diet to the most ideal I can.
Thanks!
HI Ava! Celtic sea salt, with 70 trace, beneficial minerals, is great. I don’t really aim to get a minimum amount each day, but I use it in recipes and sprinkle it on certain salads as needed. I think it adds a good balance to the diet in moderation- as long as you are using the good kind of salt! xx Kimberly
Hi Kimberly,
I was wondering how liquid-y things like soup or fruit heavy in water (grapefruit, for example) fit into your advice regarding water and meals? I know that you shouldn’t eat fruit after a cooked meal (thanks for that tip!), but would it be bad for digestion if, for example, I had a grapefruit following my lunch salad? Or are you talking more about guzzling water, rather than eating something high in water content?
Thanks!
Hey Sara! Check out my blog on the “How to Eat Soup.” I am talking more guzzling water though- you can sip it. The grapefruit would be better before the salad. :)
Great tips and ideas. Very helpful! Readers might also be interested in another article I found, about beauty and dry eyes. It can be found at this website:
http://whatistheeye.wordpress.com/
Dear Kim, I was so pleased that you wrote about the wonderful benefits of Lemon Water! I have an organic Meyer Lemon orchard with 40 trees and ship every Monday Priority Mail all over the US. These sweet beautiful lemons are raised with sunshine, water and love (and organic citrus fertilizer)! Perfect for every lemony delight imaginable! I’d love to send you a sample. Let me know!
Hey Karen,
Wow, that sounds great!!! I am so into Meyer Lemons. Please email me more about it, at info@kimberlysnyder.net.
xx Kimberly
Wonderful tips to losing those extra pounds. I am sure not too many people have hear of tips #4 … drink as little as possible while you are eating… by prolonging digestion, your brain doesn’t get the message that its time to stop eating and you will still feel hungry even after a full meal and eat more.
Dear Kim,
I’ve been told by naturopathic doctor that lemons and other citrus inhibit the liver function and that i should avoid them. why would they say this? i am interested in detoxing the liver because i was on antidepressants for 9 months and developed alot of health issues from taking it (i believe).
what is your opinion on this?
by the way I love your site!
Hi Kim,
First of all you are so pretty and I dont only mean physically, but your radiant energy shines from within, and i want that too! I was just on a low carb/high protein diet for a while and lost a bunch of weight, but i felt like crap, I smelled despite showering everyday and my breath was gross despite my obsession with dental hygiene! Anyways, I am moving towards a vegan diet for weight loss and overall well-being, but I have IBS and the minute I put fresh raw greens in my mouth, ESPECIALLY on an empty stomach, I get extremely bloated to the point of looking 5 months pregnant, and oddly enough, I get very constipated as well. I find that I do so much better when my vegetables are steamed really well. Do you have any suggestions or reasoning for why this may happen?
Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I’ve truly loved surfing around your blog posts. After all I?ll be subscribing in your rss feed and I’m hoping you write again very soon!
I was just told that one of my kidneys is so tiny, that my right one took over, I just suffered from my back going out on me, it is taking so long to get back to my self, I just purchased your book and I tried your green smoothie, do. Have to drink it everday, and also do the greens have to be organic, I really want to chage my bad eating habits, this news really scared me, one kidney scary, I would like your advice.
Hi! Your blog and facts are amazing- can you explain #4? I did not know about this fact before! Does this Mean soups shouldn’t be eaten at the same time of it is a liquid watery soup? I had once heard that drinking water will fill you up so you don’t eat as much. Is this based on any fact? Thanks for all the tips!
Weight loss foods are a great way to stay in the mix. If you go out to eat a meal just eat one third of the meal and take the rest home. When your body gets hungry just give it a couple of bites to end your noisey stomach. We are conditioned to feed ourselves lots of food. Food is great. Its one of the best things in the world but to much food results in a over weight disaster. We get sluggish and really slow. Heavy weight on our body can hurt our structure and make us feel negative towards ourself. Dont let yourself go. Come back to where you want to be. You can do this.
Kim,
What about the fact that the acid in lemons can erode your tooth enamel? I am drinking hot water with lemon everyday but I am afraid of the acidity over time. What are your thoughts on this?
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several emails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove people from that service?
Thanks a lot!