12 Random Tips That Will Help You Shed Pounds

ByMike Collins

You know that you need to lose weight, but it’s hard to find the motivation and actually start.

If you’re like most people then your life is busy and complicated. It can be difficult just getting everything done in a day, much less losing weight or exercising regularly.

Here are 12 random tips that will help you shed pounds without having to spend hours at the gym or counting calories every time you eat something.

These tips aren’t revolutionary, but they do work if you follow them consistently over time!

person grabbing belly fat - losing unwanted weight
Here is a list of 12 random tips that will help with your weight loss efforts. These aren’t the typical “diet” or “weight loss” type of tips either, which means they’ll be easier for your brain to accept as true (because they make sense). This helps keep you motivated and stick with your diet long-term!
Dieting, weight loss, food, nutrition, food and drink, foods, vegetable, fat, cooking, sleep deprivation. Low-carbohydrate diet, salad, exercise, hunger, nutritionist, nuts, water, drink, snack, pasta, leptin. Dietitian, breakfast, soft drink, calorie, dietary supplement, popcorn, blood sugar level, sleep, potato. Gratitude journal, weight, juice, cereal, yogurt, ghrelin, stress, garlic, whole grain, tablespoon, sugar. Taste, habit, rice, meal, eating, gratitude, fruit, lemon, energy, research, healthy diet, butter, candy. Cookie, carrot, emotion, lawn, restaurant, egg as food, nutrient, herb, lettuce, pea, carbonated water. Personal trainer, hunger, celery, peanut, blood, potato chip, kale, home, pound, hobbies.

12 Random Tips That Will Help You Shed Pounds

1. For a super-quick and easy breakfast (hat tip to Tim Ferriss), mix up two or three eggs in a microwavable container.  Fill a second microwavable container up with your choice of frozen veggies (spinach, peas, pretty much anything but corn).

Plop into a microwave for roughly 2 mins (adjust according to your microwave power).

When eggs are firm, plop the contents of both containers onto a plate, then season the eggs with your choice of topping: salsa, hot sauce, or plain ol’ salt and pepper (no ketchup, please!).

Add a squeeze or two of lemon juice and (optional) a tablespoon of fish oil or flaxseed oil to the veggies.  Enjoy.

2. Want a simple way to improve your lifts in the gym?  Ditch your lifting gloves.  Yes, this is more uncomfortable than using them, but the improved contact you get with the bar (read: more friction) will better allow you to lift heavier.  Also, your grip will last longer.

3. Here are 5 nearly pain-free ways to include more vegetables in your daily diet:

  1. Mix veggies into your morning egg scrambles or omelets.
  2. Use more greens in your toppings for sandwiches or pizza (and you’re saving these for your cheat days, right?).
  3. Drink a green foods/phyto foods supplement or add to a pre/post workout shake.
  4. Grill a Portobello mushroom with olive oil and a little cracked pepper.
  5. Keep a package of pre-cut vegetables, washed and ready to eat, in your work fridge (or cut and package it yourself on a weekend).

4. Forget grilled chicken and tuna: Novel toppings for salads – ginger glazed beef, buffalo, ostrich, maple salmon, sardines.

5. Stuck in-between meetings with nothing to eat but “unapproved and unauthorized” foods? How To Lose Weight While Eating Whatever You Want.

Head to the nearest deli or grocery and choose one of the following: prepackaged tuna/salmon, can of sardines (either in sardine oil or water), bag of walnuts, or bag of almonds.

6. Time your rest periods between sets. It sounds simple, but no one does it (except me and Mike).  The first time, you will be amazed at how much time you waste by “resting.”  Use an egg timer or beeping timer and set it to go off after 60 seconds.

7. Get some new sneakers – ones that actually fit your feet and their contour.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, head to your nearest sporting goods store and ask the shoe person for assistance (make sure they know what they’re talking about by asking, “I over- pronate when I’m running.  What do you suggest?”  IF all you get is a blank stare, ask for someone else).

8. Carry a water bottle with you at all times and sip from it regularly.  Fill it back up when you drain it.

9. Slow your negatives and gain more muscle. When lifting weights, concentrate on lowering the weights slowly.  Studies show that more muscle damage (“microtrauma”) occurs during eccentric contractions (the lowering phase) and greater microtrauma from a workout correlates to more muscle built.

10. Oops!  Had no time for a workout today?  It’s ok: do our bodyweight workout before you bed down.

And, don’t worry about your sleep – recent studies show that exercise immediately prior to bedtime had no effect on the exerciser’s ability to fall asleep.  In other words, exercising at night won’t keep you up.

11. Do Anywhere Exercise #1 – Calf raise.  Find a raised step (hint: staircases).  Position the balls of your feet an inch from the edge of the step.  Slowly lower your heels until you feel a light stretch in your calves, then slowly raise your heels until they are above your ankles. Repeat for a brief set of 10 reps.

12. Push yourself with this tip: Create an anchor phrase.  Visualize yourself with your ideal body.  As you do this, say out loud a short but positive phrase, such as “Best Life”, “Six Pack”, or “Plus One”.

When performing reps in a given exercise set becomes hard, tell yourself your anchor phrase (“Plus One”), either out loud or silently, to yourself (it is more powerful spoken, but if you’re easily embarrassed, you may want to keep your self-talk to yourself).

Repeat it over and over as you grind out those last, most difficult reps.