Everyone wants to lose weight now, not later. Few people understand that to lose even one pound you must change your mind…and your routine. Here are 15 easy-to-do tricks that will help you lose weight, whatever your goal, just 15 pounds at a time.

1. Eat protein with every meal. Eating this way keeps you full for longer periods of time, helping you to avoid over-eating. This helps you to stay within your calorie budget for the day, rather than exceed it.
2. Drink More Water. In fact you should drink half your weight (in pounds) in ounces of water everyday not only to lose weight, but to also boost your metabolism, keep your muscles, tendons and joints lubricated for workouts. Here’s an easy way to approach your daily water consumption. If you weigh 150 pounds you should be drinking at least 75 ounces of water. Round it up and shoot for 80. Find a favorite water bottle and keep it filled. Drink your first 16-20 ounces as soon as you get out of bed and finish it up 2 hours before bed to avoid disrupting your sleep patterns.
3. Eat whole fruit instead of drinking the juice because it saves lots of calories. Just think of it, 1 medium orange contains only 39 calories and no added sugar, while 1 cup of OJ has 112 calories and 26 grams of sugar.
4. Fill-up on veggies. Vegetables are lowest in calories of all other food categories and have more fiber, which fills you up so there’s no room for high-calorie, sugar and fat-laden, diet-blowing foods. For weight-loss, veggies are the holy grail because they’re not only chock-full of fiber, they are nutritional powerhouses. They also contain lots of water, which makes them nutrient-dense, high volume foods that you can eat far more of without the guilt. Steam, bake, broil (think tomato), sautee, or roast. Make a point to eat lots of leafy greens (collards, kale, arugula, spinach, cabbage, Brussels sprouts), green beans, and asparagus. Green foods help to protect you from inflammation throughout the body from the joints and muscles to causing more serious diseases (heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and more).
5. Replace white rice with black, brown, red, wild rices, and quinoa. These whole grains contain more fiber and keep your blood sugar stable, which prevents the weight-gain.
6. Replace refined grains with whole, unprocessed grains called sprouted grains, like that found in whole grain breads and cereals, such as Ezekiel Breads and Cereals.
7. Substitute refined pasta with that made of Black Beans and other beans. Black Bean Pasta is made of only 2 ingredients: black beans and water, and is 48% fiber, packed with 25 grams of protein (never heard of in pasta before), and 26% iron. The combination of fiber and the small 17 grams of carbs with the 25 grams of protein is a dietary coup for losing weight. The texture is chewy, the flavor, slightly meaty, and perfect for a filling, high-protein meal with ground turkey, mushrooms and red sauce.
8. Make meat, fish, and poultry an accompaniment to your meal, not the main attraction. Fewer calories and portion control will get the body you seek much quicker. Learn to do this several times a week and you’ll find that you not only lose the weight but it will stay off. Permanently!
9. Eat sandwiches 1 slice of bread at a time. Instantly slash 100-130 calories from your meal by eating open-faced sandwiches. Most slices of bread are 100-130 calories each. By making open-faced sandwiches, you beat the system and cut calories, a necessary and manageable way to lose weight. If you opt for Ezekiel Bread, which is whole, sprouted grains, you could occasionally use both slices of bread at only 80 calories per slice.
10. Go Meatless. Make meatless meals such as pasta and red sauces, veggie stir-fry, beans and brown, black, or red rice, curried veggies, egg salad or egg white and veggie omelet, almond butter on toasted cinnamon (Ezekiel) bread. From breakfast to dinner, these are just a few examples of quick-n-easy meals to make in minutes to help you stay the course.
11. Share entrees and dessert when eating out. You can save up to 500 calories if you do this and make a point to leave food on the plate. No one ever lost weight from being a member of the “clean plate club.”
12. Boost Metabolism and Up Your Workout Game. Eat 2/3 cup of cooked oatmeal 45 minutes to an hour prior to your workouts to increase endurance and in turn, burn more calories.
13. Eat your first meal within 1 hour of waking up. You boost your metabolism this way, which prepares your body to work harder for you for the day.
14. Stop Eating 2-3 hours before bed. If you are working out consistently your body will burn fat and calories even at rest. Late-night snacking is the bane of existence for anyone trying to lose weight, so lose this habit…quickly!
15. Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Your body has its own clock and needs sleep just as it does food and water. Sleep makes you more alert, helps you to maintain high-energy, and keeping your circadian rhythms in tact, which help you to lose or maintain weight.

This blog post is sponsored by F-15 Meal Plan (The Program Dr. Ro used to help America Shed 5 Million Pounds).

With Love and Happiness,
XOX

Rovenia Brock, Ph.D. is a medical advisory board member and contributor to the “Dr. Oz Show,” where she helped more than a half-million Americans lose more than 5 million pounds. She is the author of Dr. Ro’s Ten Secrets To Livin’ (Bantam). For more health, nutrition, and fitness tips, join Dr. Ro and her social media community and get a FREE Download of her new eBook of super-easy tips, “You Healthy and Happy” at http://www.everythingro.com