It goes without saying that you are what you eat. A diet with well balanced intake of fat, carbohydrates and protein works wonder for our health but did you know that your liquid intake plays an important role in your weight loss journey too? There’s no such thing as offsetting the alcohol you knocked back the night before by slogging away at the gym. The calories in alcohol is absorbed directly into your bloodstream so there’s no way your body can burn the extra calories. And when energy drinks replenish your fluid lost during workout, it also contains high amount of sugar that can induce our insulin resistance and take a toll on our health. With all that being said, you are not just what you eat, you are what you drink too. If you want to stock up on more healthy drinks to kickstart a healthy lifestyle, read on!

Green Tea

Green tea is loaded with antioxidants like polyphenols and catechin that can boost metabolism, increases fat burning, treat various diseases and reduce inflammation. It also contains caffeine that enhances our energy level during workout. Choose the freshly brewed green tea instead of the low quality brands that contain excessive amount of sugar, honey and fluoride. Matcha is also a popular type of green tea that contains high amount of disease-fighting antioxidants.

Coffee

There’s nothing like indulging in a cup of fresh coffee with smooth aroma in the morning to perk yourself up. Not only can caffeine increase our attention span and stimulate our creativity, it also helps regulate our hormones and how much fat our body can store and burn. Try to avoid putting cream and sugar in your coffee if you want to capitalise on the health benefits of it.

Apple Cider Vinegar Drinks

There are many reasons why there has been a surge in promoting apple cider vinegar on social media. Apple cider vinegar is basically made by crushed apples added with yeast, ferment the sugar and turn into alcohol. It does wonder for our overall well-being as it contains acetic acid that can prevent weight gain and stimulate weight loss by preventing insulin after consuming food with high carbs.

Vegetable Juice

Vegetables are touted to prevent chronic illness, decrease our carb intake and stimulate weight loss. Guzzling vegetable juice gives you more nutrients than chowing down on vegetables because it weeds the excessive fiber out during the juicing process. You can either whip something up with your juicer at home or get the cold pressed juice concocted with fresh vegetables from juice bars.

Adopting healthy eating habits is touted as the best way to make lasting changes in weight and body composition. But besides food choices, there are some other components that come into play when trying to get a slim body, in which your exercise regimen affects your weight the most. Exercise regularly can help you burn calories, destress, get a better physique and boost metabolism. Sounds amazing right? Check out below heart pumping and pulse raising workouts we’ve rounded up for you to get drenched in sweat.

Inverval Training

Known as one of the most popular workouts, interval training is touted as the best for weight loss. Interval training like indoor cycling a form of exercise that fires up your muscles and keeps your heart rate elevated. The more muscles you engage in a session, the more calories your body burns for energy. If riding on a stationary bike doesn’t float your boat, you can try high intensity interval training that is sure to make you break a sweat and lose weight faster. It sounds ostensibly like a strength based exercise, but actually it leans more towards cardio. It’s the type of exercise that helps you burn calories even after workout. The best part is you can tailor your training to your liking, such as incorporating weight training into it if you want a sculpted physique.

Weight Training

Lifting weight doesn’t just help you build your endurance and muscle strength, it’s also one of the most effective means of ditching weight. It has been scientifically proven that it can increase resting metabolic rate, which means your body will continuously burn calories in your sleep post workout. If you combine it with high intensity interval training, the “afterburn effect” will even be greater. Don’t worry about getting too bulky or stocky from resistance training because the muscles you gain will spike metabolism and eventually stimulates weight loss.

CrossFit

Perfect for those who are bored of the traditional regimens, crossfit is a fast-paced strength and conditioning workout that is consistent with the benefit of high intensity interval training. It consists of varied functional movements that incorporates the best aspects of weightlifting, gymnastics, running and rowing, etc. The format can be varied from pull ups, kettlebell swings, jump squats to rope climbs. It’s an intense, calories-burning workout that is sure to burn calories fast.

Boxing

There’s nothing like putting on some badass gloves and whacking the punching bag to take the edge off your stress. Not only does it help you build your upper body strength, it also helps build your core strength when you rotate for punches. It is an intense, challenging and fun workout that fires up more muscles and burns more calories than any other traditional regimens.

  Burn Fat

When seeking to lose weight, one of the things that you must do so as to ensure you are successful is to burn fat. This is however not an easy task as it does not matter whether you are burning fat so as to lose weight or you are doing it so as to improve your general health, this is a challenging task. So which are some of the most effective and easiest ways of burning your body fat?  Before you start this process it is important for you to keep in mind that you do not have to go to the gym in order for you to lose fat. The following are some the most effective and easy ways of burning fat;

• Beginning your day with exercise. This is for those people who do not have the time to go to the gym. If you fall under this category, you should make sure that work out the first thing in the morning even before taking your breakfast either by going for a run or doing some aerobics or any other type of work out available to you. It has been proven that a morning workout is very effective as it can help you lose almost 20 percent more fat that when exercising after taking your breakfast. For those people who are free to go to the gym, they should start strength training. This is the type of training that helps to build your muscles increasing your strength in the process. This most of the times involve weightlifting and it does wonders.
• Including vinegar in your diet. Vinegar has many health benefits which include controlling the sugar in your blood, among many others. Vinegar has been proven to help in the burning of body fat; therefore, including it in your meals is one sure way of burning that unwanted fat.
• Consuming more healthy fats. Eating more natural healthy fats such as olive oil, fish oil, nuts, and avocado also helps to lose fat. These healthy fats help you to recover faster from your workouts enabling you to build muscle faster and they also help to improve the condition of your heart.
• Increasing your protein intake. This is perfect as it will increase your rate of metabolism, helping you to maintain your muscle mass in the process which enables you to continue burning fat. Also, consuming foods which are high in protein helps to reduce your appetite, making the body to burn more fat.
• Getting enough sleep. Studies done all over the world have shown that those who get enough sleep are able to manage their weight more easily compared to those who don’t. Therefore, you should always ensure that you get at least seven hours of sleep per night as staying up late at night results in increased appetite which puts you at risk of eating more than required.
• Eat more vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, and seeds. These are some of the foods which have a high amount of soluble fiber which helps you to feel fuller and for longer periods which helps to stop fat from accumulating in your body.

Here are the 5 top foods that help to boost up your metabolism:

1. Opt out for organic foods whenever you could:

Genetically modified foods and conventional foods that are treated with chemicals such as endocrine disruptors, rBGH/rBST growth hormones, and antibiotics can screw up your metabolism and make you gain weight. Organic foods on the other hand, have much lower level of chemicals, pesticides and herbicides linked to obesity and weight gain.

2. Incorporate rich-fiber foods to your diet

Raw organic foods are high in fiber and other valuable nutrients such as micronutrients, antioxidants and phytochemicals and can help to cleanse the body from accumulation of toxins and free radicals and improve weight loss.

3. Include foods high in Omega 3 fatty acids to your diet

Food sources high in omega 3 fatty acids or DHA are essential for improving intelligence and proper brain function of babies and growing children. Foods sources high in omega 3 fatty acids can also help to get rid of bad fat or stubborn fat in the body. Wild sockeye salmon (lowest mercury fish), nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil and avocado oil are great source of omega 3 fatty acids.

4. Include foods high in magnesium

According to researchers, more than 80% of Americans have Magnesium deficiency. Keep in mind that the ratio of magnesium to calcium happens to be a very important factor in improving health. In the Western diet, the ratio of calcium to magnesium happens to be 1 to 6, but many nutritionists suggest that the ratio should be more like 1 to 1. Organic green leafy vegetables, raw cacao beans, seeds and nuts such as sesame seeds, almonds and cashews are great source of magnesium.

5. Drink more water and skip sodas and sugary drinks

Drinking water on a regular basis throughout the day can improve weight loss and help to cleanse the body from accumulation of free radicals and toxins. You should drink at least 3 liters of filtered water throughout the day and skip drinking sodas and sugary drinks.