Sarah's Tips

by Sarah L

I don't know if this really counts as a tip or not, more like a variety of different ideas rolled into one.

I already do a lot of the things you mention, like parking further away from the store, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and other things like that. The calories burned table gave me an idea a while back. Like I said I do a lot of stuff that's in the table anyway, so what I'm doing now is trying to extend the time I'm doing them to beyond 15 minutes.

Usually when I'm cleaning up around the house I just give the table a quick wipe, wash the dishes, etc. and that's it, done in 5 minutes or less. So now I try to continue my cleaning so it takes me at least 15 minutes. If nothing else I'll have a cleaner house!

My biggest helper is the stairs part. I live on the second floor of an apartment building, the back door is somewhat private so I just go up and down the stairs for 15 minutes (or longer) whenever I'm bringing the trash down. (2-3 times a week) I'm sure my neighbors probably think I'm bananas but it's definitely making a difference.

I've lost about 10 pounds in maybe 6 weeks, so I don't really care what they think. I'm going to try bringing my trash down more often, or maybe back up, more calories burned going up. This is starting to sound more like an endorsement than a tip, so I'll get to the rest.

Other little things, like cream and and sugar in your coffee. I work in an office and drink 5-6 cups of coffee a day. Aside from trying to drink less (I'm down from 7-9 cups a day), I used to drink it with cream and 2 sugars, now I use 1% milk and 1 sugar, that saves you a lot of calories. Check out the calories on the creamer bottle, you'll be amazed, not to mention the 16 calories per teaspoon of sugar. If you drink a lot of coffee or tea, it adds up fast, even just over the course of a few days, never mind weeks.

I also used to use a real lot of butter on my vegetables, etc. -more like a soup, with the butter I used. Now I always try them with none. I may put a little on after, but I find I was using it out of habit as much as anything else. Most taste fine with much less or none, and that saves a huge amount of calories as well. So many of the things you eat or drink all the time, just using less sugar, butter, syrups, mayo, salad dressings, they all add a lot of calories without the bulk to fill you up.

My ride home after work is always 30 minutes or more with traffic, I try to drink a couple of bottles of water on the way home, so by the time I have dinner I'm not as hungry. I used to be ravenous by the time I got home at 6 or 7 pm, now it's a lot easier to control my hunger.

Well, those are my little tips for burning up some extra calories, they may not help as much if you have a lot to lose, but they are pretty easy to include in your every day plans without missing out on the foods you like. If you want to burn more calories, you just exercise a little more each day, and cut down on the calories going in each day, or better yet both.