10 innovative ways to lose weight in the new year

1. Schedule your exercise time! Set aside a specific time very day for exercising and make sure you do nothing else during that time but exercise. Doing exercise in an orderly scheduled manner often helps you to stick to it.

2. Juice it! Choose one day a week when you only drink natural juices. This is a great way of kick-starting your body to burn more fat, cleanse and also shrinks your stomach. It’s best to have natural freshly made juices such as carrot, melon, pineapple, watermelon, apple etc.

3. Find thinner friends! It sounds crazy but you DO get influenced by your friends. If your friends are always eating or talking about food, then you will do the same. If you want to stay lean, hang out with lean people!

4. Cleanse your kitchen! After one of your meals today (when you are full) go round your kitchen and throw out all bad/temping foods such as sweets, pastry, chocolate, crisps, junk etc. Better still, put them in a bag and take them to a shelter. Then go and fill up the empty shelf spaces with other items so there is no more room for future sweets and junk foods.

5. Use your eyes! Take a photo of you when you were at your fattest or unhealthiest. Carry it around with you. If you don’t have one, choose a photo of someone who you think looks terrible. When you are next tempted to eat something bad, take the photo out and have a good hard look and say to yourself “I will not look like this”.

6. Take a cold shower! If you can bear it, take a cold (or colder) shower. It will give you more energy, tone you up and help your shift your metabolism into high gear.

7. Choose activities that are active! If you have a choice between going to the cinema or bowling, choose the latter. Try and make “active” choices when deciding on what to do in the evenings or at the weekends.

8. Download useful apps! There are hundreds of apps for your mobile devices that encourage you to exercise, be healthy and lose weight. If you keep feeding your brain healthy and active things, it will start accepting them more. Try downloading the free “active channel” app from iTunes. This app allows you to access unique health & fitness programs at any time, anywhere or even watch live health & fitness TV when you are on a wireless connection.

9. Change your holiday plans! Why not book a more active holiday? If you go to the sun and lay on a beach every year, why not go to the mountains this year? If this is a no-go for practical reasons then buy a piece of equipment that will make you more active whilst on holiday e.g. snorkeling.

10. Chop up your meals! Smaller meals, more frequently in the day are much better for weight loss than 3 large regular meals. A meal can be anything from a banana to some chicken/salad.