Tips For Losing Weight Without Giving Up Wine

With the festive period concluded and the New Year’s celebrations having come and gone, many of us are going to be left with that familiar feeling of having indulged a little more than we normally would. For some of us, this means we may have packed on a couple of pounds thanks to all of the amazing meals we will have enjoyed during the holiday, while others may have made losing weight one of their New Year’s resolutions.

Whatever the case may be, if you feel like you need to lose a couple of pounds, you may be tempted to give up drinking wine in an effort to control your diet. However, you don’t need to do this. In fact, it is entirely possible to lose weight without having to give up on your favourite drinks, and we are here to offer a few tips that will help you to do just that.

Drink In Moderation

The first thing that you need to keep in mind is that moderation is key in everything that you do when you are looking to lose weight. This is especially true when it comes to your wine consumption for a number of reasons.

Firstly, even light wines pack a few calories, which means more than one or two glasses a day can really start to add up if you aren’t careful. You also need to be aware of the fact that drinking a lot of alcohol can also lead to your appetite expanding, resulting in more food being consumed that you really don’t need. Of course, we don’t need to go into too much detail about how a hangover can prevent you from doing exercise or eating properly either.

Write Your Goals Down

Motivation is one of the key issues that you will need to confront in your efforts to lose a little bit of weight, so it is a good idea to define your goals so you know exactly what you want to achieve from your weight loss. Perhaps you have a target weight that you want to reach, or maybe your goal is just to fit into an old pair of jeans that you no currently can’t wear.

Whatever the case may be, it is always a good idea to write your goal down so that it is somewhere for you to see every day. Doing this means you have a constant reminder of what you want to achieve, which may dissuade you from having that extra drink, eating that additional snack or skipping that visit to the gym.

Balance Your Diet

Many people approach weight loss with the idea that they are going to have to cut all sorts of things out of their diets in order to find success. While it is certainly true that you will likely need to eat less of what you eat a lot of now, so that you can replace those meals with healthier alternatives, you don’t need to cut anything out entirely.

It all comes down to that issue of moderation again. Achieving balance in your diet is much more important than cutting foods out entirely, as doing the latter can result in the development of cravings. These cravings can lead to you overindulging or binge eating, particularly on tough days. To avoid this, consider your meals carefully and create a plan that allows you to enjoy your favourite foods as well as eat your healthy foods. Again, just remember not to overindulge and you should be fine.

Drink Plenty of Water

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they are hungry when really all they need is a glass of water or two to tide them over. It really is remarkable just how similar mild dehydration can feel to hunger, so if you start experiencing pangs when you know that you have eaten well enough for the time of day, consider pouring yourself a glass instead of eating another snack.

Drinking water regularly is good for a number of other reasons too. It can help to regulate your metabolism, plus you may even find that water can aid you with skin issues and other problems.

Don’t Skip Breakfast

Breakfast is called the most important meal of the day for a reason, but many people try to skip it when they are on the path to losing a little weight. For some, it can feel like an unneeded meal, especially if they wake up with little appetite in the first place.

However, a good breakfast will set you up for the entire day, allowing you to eat small, regular meals throughout instead of developing massive cravings that can only be sated with larger meals. Simply put, those who skip breakfast often find that the snack more throughout the day because their bodies are missing out on important nutrients.

Get Active

It should come as no surprise that exercise comes hand in hand with good nutritional planning if you want to lose a little weight. However, with so many people working long hours in office jobs it can often be difficult to get as active as you might like to be.

Still, you need to find a way to fit some exercise into your days so you can burn through calories and start dropping a couple of pounds. Joining a gym is a good step, as long as you can maintain the motivation to keep going, but even something simple, like riding a bike to work instead of driving, can be an enormous help.

Check Your Snacks

The easiest way to not eat junk food is to make sure as little of it as possible is in the house. As such, be careful when selecting your snacks and try to keep the cupboards stocked up with healthy alternatives and plenty of fruit.

Again, don’t eliminate the junk food entirely, as everybody should indulge every so often. Just keep such foods aside as the very occasional treat, rather than the standard snack for when you feel a little peckish.