The “FANTASTIC 5” – FOR LOSING 10 POUNDS IN 10 DAYS!

Just how hard is it to lose 10 lb in ten days? That all depends on you, dear reader:) The good news for you, is that originally I was thinking of calling the article 20 things you can do to lose 10 lb in 20 days! Once I sat down to put fingers to keyboard, I realised that would seem like a huge amount of things one would have to absorb and implement to be able to achieve…so I went back to the drawing board and thought, “keep it simple” and also, decrease the time!

O.k. Remember, these are just tips and not a systemised, custom program from yours truly! By implementing just the “Fantastic 5” you can expect to lose 10 lb in ten days if you have any significant amount of body-fat to lose and you are not on a starvation/calorie restricted diet already! If you are on one of those types of “diets”, read on, because nothing in this article has anything to do with restricting calories, eating only grapefruit all day or taking some type of wonder-pill. Its just science and experience here folks!

Tip #1 – INCREASE your water intake
The more water you drink, the faster your body gets rid of the excess, this means you will not be retaining any water at all after a good week of ingesting at least 2 litres of water daily.

Tip #2 – DECREASE your intake of Carbohydrate
Did you know that 1 gram of carbohydrates attract 3 grams of water into your body? Its not too hard to figure out why those that start a low-carb/paleo style diet lose a good chunk of weight in the first few days! Start with cutting out sugary drinks and aim to be at a greatly reduced carb intake by Day 8!

Tip #3 – Learn to meditate
Anxiety/stress is one of the main culprits in peoples battle with weight/bodyfat issues. Increased stress causes your body to react in many negative ways, and one way, is “false hunger” based on the fact that under stress, you are going to want to eat more sugar laden foods so that your brain can get its greedy hands on those wonderful, feel good “dopamine squirts” that are released by the brain when you ingest carbohydrates. A quick 15 min meditation can greatly reduce your stress levels and therefore help control how much food is passing your lips!

Tip #4 – Increase your overall activity
Open that cornflakes box, take out the free pedometer and then throw out the cornflakes. (see tip #2) You can also just go and buy one at your local superstore. They are cheap and effective. Measure how many steps you take on your first day and then aim for at least 2000 more/day. Sounds like a lot right? Its not. Using the stride of a person of average height, that is about 1 mile.

Tip #5 – Start a real, systemised training program!
While this may seem like a no-brainer, I had to put it in because so many times people looking for quick fixes/tips are also sitting on a couch or reading things on their mobile device while eating a donut on the way to work. All in hopes of finding some magic elixir that will have them into that cocktail dress by the weekend! Get off your butt and start a real, regular and well designed exercise program! While anyone and everyone can lose weight following pretty much any program using the “willpower” approach, the majority gain it back due to the fact that they wanted it NOW and they went to the first place that had some “transformations” in their ad, dropped $600+ bucks a month starving themselves and being miserable!**

**Note: Nowhere in this article did I say start doing piles of cardio, eat 1200 calories or any of the other crazy stuff people still recommend for weightloss! That may be part of another article… “baloney you still hear in the diet/fitness world”

Til next time, stay relaxed, calm and centered in your body; One breath at a time!

The Body Transformer
Eric Morrison