Ways to Shrink Your Waist Without Dieting

At Health Jigsaw we don’t promote fad diets, magic pills, supplements or meal replacements. We encourage and educate our clients to change their lifestyle rather than a quick fix. Being healthy is not just about exercising, nutrition plays a big part too.

Here are a few “secrets” on shrinking your waist without dieting.

• Hang Out Your Old Clothes – Hang an old dress or pair of jeans on your bedroom door handle so you’ll see them every day. Find something that’s just a little too snug, so you reach this goal in a relatively short time. Once you can fit into this dress or jeans, then pull out another smaller item for your next small, attainable goal.
• Eat Slowly – This is one of the best habits for slimming down without changing your diet. Slowing down your eating triggers your body’s fullness hormones. Vacuuming your food down in a hurry blocks those signals and can lead to overeating.
• At Least 4 AFD Per Week – AFD stands for Alcohol Free Days. Alcohol has more kilojoules per gram (29) than carbohydrates (17) or protein (17), and are usually associated with chips, nuts, and other foods you don’t normally eat.
• Eat At Home – With home-cooked meals you can control what goes into it. Fast food and most take-away meals can often be high in saturated fat, salt and kilojoules, and low in fibre, vitamins and minerals. See bit.ly/gdZHU2 for more information on healthier ingredient options.
• Eat More Veggies – The fibre in veggies helps fill you up with not a lot of kilojoules. Eat most veggies raw and use balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and herbs instead of smothering them in high-fat dressings or butter.
• Drink Water – If you are hungry, drink a glass of water first. Your body can mistake the feeling of hunger for thirst. The minimum amount of water (litres) intake each day should be = Your Body Weight (kg) × 0.03.
• Eat Whole Grains – Whole grains such as brown rice, barley, oats and buckwheat help fill you up with fewer kilojoules. Also, research has shown that whole grain foods can lead to better health, help lower the risk of being overweight and lower the risk of diet related disease such as diabetes and heart disease.
• Shrink Your Dishes – Most people increase in size simply because they eat too much and you’re more likely to eat everything you can see on your plate. Shrinking your plate or bowl can cut out around 500 kilojoules a day.
• Choose Wisely at Restaurants – Eating out and an increasing waistline usually go hand in hand but you can limit the damage by: splitting the entree with a friend; order an entree size meal as your main and include a side salad; or go for tomato-based sauces (such as marinara) instead of the more fattening cream-based sauces.
• Be Active – The easiest activity you can do is walking and try to do around 10,000 steps each day. Or go to bit.ly/femaam for more suggestions of other activities that you can choose from.