The most important aspect of eating well is consistently making healthy choices. Here is a quick rundown of some of the easiest ways to cut or burn a few extra calories. Add a few of these substitutions to your everyday schedule and you’ll be rockin’ without any major effort on your part.
- Take the stairs – not the elevator
Depending on what floor you work on this can be a great way to burn some extra calories. I work on the 7th floor of my office building, so making an effort to climb some steps instead of taking the elevator may actually burn around 50 extra calories each time I go to the office.
- Order water with lunch – not a soft drink
By skipping the soft drinks and drinking water with your lunch, you can easily save 150 calories or more. As a Mountain Dew addict, this was hard for me to adjust to at first. Now, however, I sometimes enjoy water more than a sugar packed soda.
- Drink black coffee – no cream and sugar
This may not be for everyone, but if you can slowly train yourself to cut out the extra calories found in cream and sugar you can easily save yourself 100 calories per cup. Plus the black coffee could put some extra hair on your chest (I have no idea what that means, but I’ve always wanted to say it).
- Eat breakfast – instead of skipping it
By eating something for breakfast, you will prevent your body from going into starvation mode by lunchtime. This means that your body will be better able to handle the calories it gets instead of converting it straight to fat. This is huge.
- Eat slowly – instead of wolfing it down
The slower you eat, the more time your body will have to realize when it has had enough. If you wolf down your entire meal you will more than likely be eating more calories than you really need. Take your time; this isn’t a competition.
- Healthy Snacks – instead of candy bar
Periodically eating healthy snacks throughout the day can, in fact, be a good thing. If you substitute the candy bars with something healthy and easily digestible like dried fruit or some nuts, then you will definitely be doing your body a favor.
- Hold the Cheese and Mayo – umm… instead of eating the cheese and mayo
If you enjoy sandwiches, then a great way to cut back on the calories is to order without cheese or mayo. This is a really simple and easy way to skim an extra 200 calories from your meal. Sometimes a little sacrifice is worth the effort.
