The Get Lean Diet: Baby Steps To Healthy Weight Loss

The countdown to Memorial Day has begun. With just a month to get their beach bodies back, many resort to strict calorie-cutting, cleanses or bizarre fad diets. But usually participants are hungry, miserable and unsuccessful.

Wellness expert Kathy Freston, bestselling author of Veganist and Quantum Wellness, offers an easier way to tackle weight loss and keep the pounds off for good. New book The Lean: A Revolutionary (and Simple!) 30-Day Plan for Healthy, Lasting Weight-Loss helps readers lean into weight loss with one small step a day for 30 days. If followed, she promises a permanent weight loss of 1 to 3 pounds a week, plus increased energy and improved digestion.

“When we dive head first into a really disciplined diet, we’re miserable and we’re not going to stick with it,” says Freston. “But when we lean into really good, healthy eating habits, we’ll be successful with our weight loss because we’re going to feel fulfilled and happy and enjoy the foods we grew up loving.”

Unlike other diet plans, Freston does not focus on prohibited foods. She suggests that you “crowd out” instead of “cut out” by adding things into your daily routine. Little by little, you’ve added in so many healthy food habits there’s no room for the bad stuff because you’re so full. Here are some of Freston’s easiest and most effective tips to lose weight quickly and sustainably.

Drink Water Before Meals

Drinking lots of water, at least eight 8-ounce glasses a day, is one of the simplest and best things you can do for your body, says Freston. Staying hydrated boosts your metabolism, and drinking water before meals helps you eat less. "It's called preloading, and it literally fills up your stomach so you can't put as much in," she says. In one study, participants who drank two cups of water before eating lost an average five pounds more fat than those who did not.

Eat An Apple Every Day

Keep the doctor away, and get into your skinny jeans. Freston says eating an apple every day will make you healthier and leaner. Apples have a fiber called pectin that slows down the process of digesting food by twice as much. "You'll feel fuller that much longer, and it releases blood sugar into your system slowly and stably." Next time you reach for a snack or dessert, make it an apple.

Add Flaxseed

Freston says one of the easiest things you can do to speed weight loss is to add two tablespoons of flaxseed into your daily regimen by sprinkling it into your morning oatmeal, adding it into a smoothie or mixing it into a salad. Flaxseed are low in carbohydrates and high in B vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids and fiber, which fills you up faster and keeps you sated longer. You can buy flaxseed in the health food section of the grocery store or a specialty store like GNC, and it should last for six weeks in the refrigerator.