Aloft Fitness

Eat healthy fats.

Fats have gotten a bad rap, but not only are healthy fats essential to good health, a Harvard study found that eating good fats actually makes your body more efficient at burning fat. In the study, the group eating healthy fats lost 5 more pounds than the low-fat diet group. Healthy fats are usually high in calories, and you should aim to get about 20% of your calories from these nutritional powerhouses; good sources include: nuts, avocados, extra virgin olive oil and wild salmon.

Feast on flax seeds.

These little gems are an ideal weight loss food: they’re packed with healthy fats, fiber, minerals and vitamins. The high fiber content (1 ounce is 32% of your RDA) makes you feel full because it promotes the release of leptin (the hormone that makes you feel full), but even more so with flax seeds, because they form a gel-like substance which enhances the feeling of satiety. In addition to this, the healthy fats help increase your metabolism. For weight loss, make sure you have ground flax seed, which is far easier to digest and divide it into portions to have with you meals throughout the day (sprinkled on food, or in smoothies).

Laugh!

You probably already know that laughter is a good way to reduce stress (and we’ve talked about the weight loss benefits of lower stress), but did you also know that British researchers have found that 1 hour of intense laughter burnt up to 120 calories – that’s a pretty good workout! So if you’re going to watch TV, make sure you watch the sitcoms, grab some healthy snacks and ditch the remote – your waist will thank you.