Weight Loss Tips

Why Soda is Bad For You: Top 100 Weight Loss Tips #85

These Top 100 Weight Loss Tips continue to count down and here we are at article number 85 in the series. As before, each new article is another great top tip on how to lose weight naturally, easily and of course safely. This post looks at the dangers of drinking soda, or carbonated beverages and how they contribute to weight gain among other health related issues.

Before I get into this, please be aware that when I’m referring to soda, I mean the fizzy, non-alcoholic carbonated drinks that usually come in cans or bottles and are flavoured and sweetened with a variety of ingredients.

Why Soda is Bad For You

Ever since a certain drinks company patented their recipe for cola, then advertised it as the next best thing to, well, the best thing ever, a whole industry has grown up around fizzy carbonated drinks, known in the US as soda and in many other countries as simply fizzy drinks, pop and whatever else they like to call it. They are all the same thing and they are all made by taking straight water, adding flavour and sweetener then carbonating it under pressure to add the fizz.

This produces a thirst quenching drink, especially when its cooled in a fridge. Or at least it would be thirst quenching if it didn’t contain so many chemicals. There are several reasons why soda is bad for you not least of all that the majority of them contain a load of fructose in the form of corn syrup. This is an ingredient that is linked with obesity as well as type II diabetes, so it really is not good to be drinking this stuff.

So you think you can avoid the dangers by switching to a low calorie, or sugar free alternative? Think again.

Sugar free soda contains artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharine and sorbitol, all of which are linked with cancer. Aspartame, by far the most popular sugar free drink additive these days is a time bomb waiting to go off. At temperatures greater than 83 degrees Fahrenheit, aspartame becomes unstable and the wood alcohols in it convert to formaldehyde. That’s the stuff embalming fluid is made of and it is carcinogenic. Aspartame also messes with cell DNA and tricks your brain into thinking you are hungry. This means you’re going to want to eat more, which defeats the object of drinking a calorie free drink.

So do you still want to drink soda in any form?

There are some great alternatives to quenching your thirst. Try good old fashioned water. Remember that stuff? You can flavour it with freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice and chill it in the fridge for a really great thirst quenching drink that is totally calorie free, totally additive free and will help you to lose weight!

Weight loss tip: If you are a lover of sugar-laden soda drinks and drink two or more cans a day, by dropping them completely from your daily routine will help you to drop as much as FIVE POUNDS in a single week. And that’s WITHOUT doing anything else!

100 Weight Loss Tips number 84 follows along in the next post!

Weight Loss Tips

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See Yourself Losing Weight with Photos - Top 100 Weight Loss Tips #86

My own Top 100 Weight Loss Tips are still counting down with this article numbered 86 in the series with each new article another great top tip on the many ways to lose weight naturally, simply and safely. This post looks at the idea of using before and after photographs to actually see yourself losing weight in a graphically visual way. Remember, the camera doesn’t lie (its the clever photoshop manipulators that do that…)

You may have noticed a slight change in format for this post and its one I will adopt for the rest of this series, so the main titles are a little easier to read and more manageable.

Losing Weight with Photos

As I was saying, one truly un-arguable way of losing weight is to watch your progress as it unfolds with the help of the camera. When you get started, take a “before” photo so that you have a graphical image of exactly what you’re moving away from in the “old” you. If it helps by way of a constant reminder of what it is you have decided to set out and achieve, stick a copy to your fridge. Better make it a big blow-up copy!

The reasoning behind this is to keep you constantly and visually reminded of why you are trying to lose weight!

You need a starting point and you need to remember where that is, and by seeing yourself as an overweight lump staring back at yourself from one of the main places where you are likely to cheat from, the fridge, then you are more likely to get annoyed with yourself enough to motivate you to stick to your guns!

You can take this one step further and post pictures of your progress on a blog, or on a really public place like Facebook if you’re feeling really brash!

The good part about this exercise is that as you do progress, the photos will get better each time and you will start feeling very proud of yourself for getting to each stage, represented by a new photo. When you feel proud of your achievements, you are spurred on to greater achievements! This means that as time moves on and you can visibly see the changes in your body (for the better) as each pound drops off and you tone up a little more each week, you will feel even more proud of yourself and will be all the more inclined, or better determined to see it all the way to its conclusion.

What better way to bolster your confidence by being able to compare photos a couple of weeks apart and see the difference as it unfolds before you! This is such a powerful exercise in positive thought, belief and confidence that you give yourself far more chance of succeeding than someone who doesn’t use this strategy.

So don’t succumb to any embarrassment or shyness, because these things will keep you fat! Throw off those negative feelings and embrace the positive devil may care attitude which will be far more likely to push you through the barriers of temptation that creep up on you especially if you’re feeling down. Throw caution to the wind and take those pictures of yourself as you are. And then enjoy the ride as you lose weight week by week and have a photo album of the living proof to remind yourself that you are doing it and succeeding!

100 Weight Loss Tips number 85 follows along in the next post!

Weight Loss Tips

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