Ask An OC Expert: How To Keep Your New Year's Weight Loss Resolution

With the new year comes the new year's resolutions. One of the top resolutions is the weight loss. Before you head over to sign up at the local gym, take a look at these tips from the local Orange County expert Joel Greene, the founder and CEO of the Visual Eating and Exercise Program. Here are his top five tips to maintain the weight loss in the new year.

Joel Greene is the founder and CEO of the Visual Eating and Exercise Program (VEEP) based in Orange County. The findings behind the science of VEEP are based on over 4,000 studies that are used in wellness by some of the nation's largest employers.

Accept the fact that sustainable change is not possible with behaviors you can't sustain. Behaviors like tracking activity, meals or calories may feel like progress but simply are not sustainable. Instead, focus on things that are easy to do and sustainable over time. Follow these tips to help create the behaviors that will have big payoff in the end.

Get control of your hunger by recolonizing your gut bacteria. New research tells us that bacteria communities in your gut exert vast control over fat metabolism and hunger. Recolonizing your gut helps eliminate craving. One way to do this is to have a large salad with shredded cabbage and broccoli stems a couple of hours before bed to begin the gut reset process. The fibers from these foods ferment in the gut and feed the good guy bacteria.

Use non-time sensitive routines. For example, two days a week, have a small meal with mostly fat and a small amount of protein. Do this upon waking and then again 2.5 hours later and wait another 2.5 hours before lunch. This easy strategy will add an extra 8 -10 hours of fat burning every week.

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Use the body's natural daily cycle to use food instead of avoiding food. Your body naturally burns and stores fat a multiple times a day. Instead of avoiding foods, accentuate the fat burning periods and minimize the weight gain periods by using food strategically. For example, 20 minutes prior to eating pasta, eat a few strawberries with walnuts. The berries help your body better metabolize starches and you are much less likely to store fat.

Small units of exercise time every day will win out in the long run. For example, in five minutes in the morning you can do a few basic exercises with your body weight (push-ups, wall squats, etc). In the evening, you can do a few basic stretches with your legs and lower back and make progress every day. Over time, this simple routine will pay massive dividends with strength, flexibility, energy and it is sustainable.

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