1. Eat Spicy Food

I have read this all over the place and no one seems to dispute it. In spicy foods there is a little molecule called Capsaicin. Capsaicin is known to increase your metabolism. Perhaps only for a half hour, but it still increases it and that is better than not increasing it. How to make it work for you: Add hot sauce to your meals. This will also add flavor without adding extra calories too, provided that you use a very low sugar hot sauce. You can also add jalapenos or other hot peppers, chopped up, to your prepared meals or blend it into a soup. You can also add cayenne pepper to your meals. If you are not accustomed to spice do not worry. You can build up a tolerance to spicy foods. Start with a small amount of cayenne or Siracha added to each meal and slowly build up more and more. I, personally, enjoy a good eye watering, nose running spicy meal so this is a very easy solution. This, in my opinion, is a really simple way to help in your weight loss. It is basically eating your self thin!

2. Stop drinking alcohol

Alright, this one is near impossible. I need to write an entire article just to address this subject. I have to say it though because it is a killer when it comes to calories...empty empty calories. I have spent decades going to bed after a nice glass or two of wine ever single day. When it comes time to diet, I know I need to cut that out if I want to really see results. My advice to those like me: get some sleeping pills. I went to my doctor and told him my situation and he gave me some lovely, mild sleeping pills. These have replaced my alcohol before bed needs. I still drink on the weekends, mind you, and I will keep on doing that. Like I said, stopping completely is simply OUT of the question. Hey, it's my JOB. Still, any corner you can cut, even if it means cutting down the amount, changing the type of alcohol or cutting out the days you drink, it all works in your weight loss favor. Avoiding a hangover is great too because the next day you have energy to go out and do things rather than want a greasy breakfast and flop on the couch for the remainder of the day.

3. Sleep

Get your 8 hours of sleep. Every study I have read agrees that sleeping helps with weight loss. I like it because I am also sleeping off 8 hours of potential hungry, eating time. The above mentioned sleeping pills help here too. Go to bed early. If you are sleeping in the early evening then you can not be doing late night snacking. Sure, you will have no life, but having a life often means eating and drinking so just think that this is temporary and in a couple months, when you are svelt and happy, you can go out on the town again.

4. Keep moving.

There are a lot of ways to be moving where you dont even know you are doing it. I am not going to say what all the other diet blogs say and tell you to play with your kids. I dont have kids so this isnt an option. Plus, I am too lazy for that kind of stuff. Instead, I will list a few things you can do to trick yourself into moving more and thereby burning extra calories. Some things may make you look ridiculous and that is ok. When I am sitting here on my ball talking to my boss, bouncing up and down, or when I am walking through the hall punching the air, I get strange looks. I just tell them that I am on a diet and trying to burn calories. They just give a laugh and understand, moving on.

Develop a nervous twitch

Tap your feet

Wiggle your toes

Stand when you are on the phone

Stand when you are waiting for something

Swing your legs

Hold your legs straight out at your desk and bounce them.

Squeeze your butt

If you can, skip or hop instead of walk (you look stupid but, hey, I do it anyways)

Twirl your hair

Use the stairs

Use the upstairs bathroom

Park your car further away and walk

Get a ball chair like I do and bounce

5. Drink tons of Ice Water

It is true, this is a very simple one. If you put ice cold water into your body, it actually takes your body ENERGY to heat the water up to your body temperature, thereby burning calories. I am going to combine the ice water with just drinking water in general. Drink two litres of it a day (64 ounces) or at least TRY. Yes, you will be peeing all day long but that is what you are actually aiming for. Think of it as flushing out all the toxins, salts, unwanted minerals and fats out of your body every half hour. You get used to it, don't worry. What I found helps, specially at work, is to have a water drinking challenge with your coworkers. Have a competition as to who is drinking towards their two liters faster. This way you are not the only one leaving a meeting to pee three times before the meeting is over.

6. Go Green

While you are drinking that water, might as well toss a bag of green tea in your water bottle or glass. I am not even going to go into how great green tea is for you. You can not Google "diet" without getting tons of info on green tea. It helps boost your metabolism, it has polyphenols, anti oxidents, it has caffeine, it increases thermogenesis....all sorts of great stuff. If you do not like caffeine you can get the decaf type. I, personally, feel that caffeine helps in the weight loss department so that is what I prefer. I toss a couple bags in my 800 ml water bottle a day. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to heat the water to make tea. Just leave the bags sitting in the ice water and by the end of the bottle you will be drinking pretty strong tea. Just remember to cut out the caffeine a few hours before going to bed or you will never get to sleep!

7. Take Iron and Calcium

For some reason these minerals are supposed to really add to your weight loss efforts. I take an Iron pill every morning but you can also make sure you are eating a lot of Iron rich foods like shrimp, turkey, oranges, strawberries, egg yolks, spinach and beans. You can increase your calcium intake by having a glass of skim milk. I like to have one before a meal. This helps me eat less of the meal too. Other calcium rich foods include yogurt, salmon, tofu, spinach, beans, peas and almonds.

8. Have sex.

It burns calories. I don't need to read a study to tell me that. The act of kissing burns calories, undressing burns calories....and even if you are alone you can burn calories. I have read that an orgasm burns up to 150 calories. Just saying.

9. Chew gum

You can burn an additional 11 calories per hour if you chew gum. Remember, every calorie counts so if you are going to be sitting there anyways, might as well chew some gum. Sugarfree, of course!

These are my little easy button tips for burning up a few extra calories and increasing your metabolism. Follow some, follow all, either way you will end up benefiting.

As for my progress, I had another distraction last night. The Mexican Buffet. No matter how hard I try or how hard I plan I can't help myself! My plan of attack was to only eat the meat and veggies. No cheese, no refried beans, no tortilla, no tamales and no sour cream AND I planned on eating only very small portions. Most of this did not happen. It is always the same for me and "build your own" tacos. My intentions are great in the beginning. A small pile of meat on the center of the plate. A small mound of black olives. A bigger mound of tomatoes ('cause after all, they are veggies so I can pile them on, right?), a bigger mound of onions, some black beans, some salsa...by now I have a pretty big pile and my original pile of meat looks so minuscule so I add a little more meat and a little more olives. By the time I sit down at the dinner table I have an atomic burrito sized mound of food of which I shovel ferociously into my mouth. Mexican food lends itself to being shoveled I have found.

Following the dinner I was then tempted by a fantastic birthday cake consisting of crushed chocolate cookie crust, Gold Medal Ribbon ice cream and topped with a good half inch of caramel goo. Sure, I asked for a tiiiiiny sliver but I sneaked over to the pie dish and "trimmed up" the leftovers.

Soooo, where I am now is I need to lose 15.5 pounds in 64 days. This minor set back is a bit of a bummer but I keep on going. More incentive to stick to this even harder for the next few days. I hope I can get through the weekend unscathed. My plan: go to bed early. Maybe a hike too, weather permitting.