Who isn't looking to drop a few extra pounds as the warmer months approach? Before you starve yourself to death or kill yourself in the gym start with the basics and you'll be surprised as to how much weight you can drop just from some minor changes.

Cut out the Salt

Sure there is a level of salt that your body needs for a variety of functions; however the foods you eat now more than likely have all the salt you will need in a given day. So for starters stop adding salt to your food while cooking and stop adding it to your foods once it has been served.

Cut out the Sugar

This being the toughest of the tips, we all have some kind of sweet tooth. Whether it is for sugary carbonated soft drinks, or the occasional sugary treat like a piece of cake, a doughnut or a slice of grand mom's homemade apple pie, sugar is tough cookie to break (pun intended). But sugar accounts for a lot of everyone's weight gain. By eliminating the sugars, for example drink a diet soda as opposed to a regular soda, drink Crystal Light as opposed to regular iced tea, and so forth, can add up to some huge fat savings if you will.

Change to a Healthy Spread over Butter

Do you put butter or margarine on a lot of things? I used to do that as well. There are a number of spreads at your supermarket today that are made from healthy fats such as omega-3 and omega-6 that are far better for you and taste just as good. Also instead of using butter to grease up a pan for cooking or baking, use a non-stick fat free cooking spray. You save literally hundreds of calories from your waste line by making that change.

Whole Grains

Growing up my mom always bought the white bread, the sugary cereals and oatmeal and really got me used to what I should not have been eating in the first place. So this took some adjustment time for me, but I made the switch from white bread to multi-grain bread, sugary oatmeal to a plain oatmeal and exchanged my sugary cereals of my youth for the more healthy fiber rich cereals that I need today.

Lean Meats, Fish and Chicken

By adding in good quality proteins to your eating habits you will be giving your muscles the building blocks it needs to stay strong and get lean. The stronger your muscles the more fat they burn and that is what you are going after. Stick with lean meats, plenty of fish and chicken breasts. Before you cook the food make sure you chop off any excess fat that it may have and if you need to flavor it, there are plenty of spices on the market that are sugar free, salt free and very tasty.

These are just five of the many ways you can make minor adjustments to your eating habits today that will pay big dividends on your way to your weight loss goals. Start implementing and you will be there in no time.

About the Author
Bruce Tucker is a contributing writer to Mike's How-To Blog, a blog that covers a wide variety of topics and how to do them. You can also follow him on Twitter.

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