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You have done so much to lose a few pounds and looked great.  Now, after a few days off, relaxing with friends or getting through a vacation, we are back home, and sometimes wished we hadn’t had all the drinks and food during our time off.  Don’t despair, not everything that you have work so hard for is undone!  Some say that the average weight gain during a 1-2-week vacation can be 5 pounds.  Many times, this is due to our guard being down while wanting to enjoy, changing our eating behaviors because we are more social or food being too widely available like in all-inclusive formats.  Not everything is lost, here are some ways to quickly get back to pre-vacation weight. 

You do have to commit right now to adjusting some key habits for the following week, so you can detox from all those drinks and processed foods.  This is the time to do it before the habits we got during vacation start becoming permanent and additional weight creeps in.  This is the time to quickly detox and cleanse the system while shedding the pounds gained!

Here are some quick tips to help you during this time to get back to normal within the next week. 

1. Lose 1-2 pounds: Go for just water, ditch any other sugary drinks! 

Substitute all drinks and just go for water this week to help you detox and shed 1- 2 pounds of weight.  It’s so amazing how quickly we all get used to having alcoholic beverages and the fact that an average cocktail will have about 200 calories and most of those come from sugar.  The truth is that we are not having just one drink a night when we are on vacation, in general, we all try not to count. 

If you can manage to just drink water cutting back on all alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks for a week, this approach will shock the system after a vacation helping you detox quicker.  Note that in general, most drinks are filled with sugar or artificial sugars which distract our system making it sluggish and slow.

If you get tired of just water and want some flavor, just google “infused water recipes,” and give your senses a taste of fruity excitement.  It is super easy and fun to make infused water.  Just cut up your favorite fruit, place it at the bottom of the pitcher or infused water bottle, then fill up to half of the container with ice and top off with purified or filtered water.  Refrigerate for an hour, and there it is, a tasty alternative to regular water. Now, it’s easy to save your calories for the main dish!

2. Lose another 2 Pounds:  Monitor total Sugar intake

Moving from white sugar to natural Stevia and consuming less than 50g of sugars a day will help shed approximately 2-3 pounds in a week.  Learn the sugar content of foods by researching it online and keeping a log. 

Don’t forget to check the sugar content in fruits, which are not exempt of containing sugar, you will be surprised how much sugar some fruits contain and how low other tasty fruit options are.  For example, 1 cup of cherries contains 13g of sugar and 1 medium banana contains 14g.  Instead, try strawberries, blackberries or blueberries which contain about 7g of sugar per cup.

The best way to avoid sugar and achieve less than 50g a day is to combine a protein with a salad in during most meals and eat eggs for breakfast and avoiding the bread.  Remember, this is just for the detox week.  It will be worth it once you are done!

3. Lose 2-4 Pounds of Water Weight:  Hold the Salt

Salt is the same as sodium in your nutrition fact panel and we should not have more than a teaspoon a day or 2,300 mg/ day. The truth is that salt sabotages any weight loss program and is present in most snacks and appetizers, especially during our well-deserved vacation.  It is also the easiest area to control and quickly get results from a detox diet.  As you all probably know, salt helps our bodies retain water instead of shedding it. Water retention can sometimes represent as much as 2 or more pounds.

We all know that most packaged foods taste so good because of the amount of salt used to season it. If you are detoxing, just for this week, avoid packaged foods like bread, chips, popcorn, crackers, microwave meals, etc. You will see faster and better results if you do!

4. Lose about 2 pounds:  Optimize your Weight Loss with Exercise

Maybe this happens to you as well, but many times after enjoying a good vacation with friends and family, it’s so hard to pick up the exercise program where we had left off.  We didn’t have time to do our regular routine even though we believe we still exercised through the host of activities we engaged in during vacation. 

Go back and commit to your favorite activity for at least 30 minutes a day this week.  Get back in, even if it is slowly and not at the same intensity as before.  It is a win to just get up and do it.  Exercise gets your metabolism going again, and accelerates your results, don’t compromise on this one, it could be the key to getting back to your pre-vacation weight!

5. Get rid of 2-4 pounds: Get Rid of Bloating

Introducing probiotics in your diet can help detox your body by cleansing your bowels and getting rid of that extra weight.  It is estimated that depending on the size and condition, one may benefit up to 2-4 pounds from cleansing the gut. Certain probiotics have been proven to aid in digestion by strengthening the walls of the intestines, reducing bloating, and helping relieve constipation.

The best way to jump start your body is to take a quality probiotic to help accelerate your metabolism and clean out the intestines. Cleansing the gut and intestines is the one step that most who diet or detox forget about, and it is one of the most effective steps in showing early results, which in turn keeps us motivated. 

Our gut flora is easily compromised with indulgent eating while vacationing, making our metabolism slower and sluggish. When our system is compromised, symptoms like gas, bloating and even constipation start occurring, which means that the bacteria population along our digestive tract and the gut is out of balance.

Best Time to Take a Probiotic

The best time to take your probiotic with a full glass of water is right before a meal. There is no need to wait a long time between taking your probiotic and eating breakfast lunch, dinner or your favorite snack.  It is a common misconception that probiotics should only be taken on an empty stomach.  There are many types of probiotic strains that are sensitive to heat and stomach acid, so taking these types of strain with food assures that more of the probiotic will arrive to the gut. 

Most importantly, the best time to take it is really the best time it fits into our routine so you can remember to take it.  Probiotics are no good if we are not consistent about the intake.  Most people do prefer to take them in the morning because they have other supplements they take and it’s just easier to incorporate into the routine.

Timing is even less important if you take a “spore forming” probiotic, which is currently growing and becoming the go-to probiotic pills for many.  Why?  Spore forming probiotics occur naturally and are different from traditional probiotics because they have a protective coating that allows them to survive heat and stomach acid.  The “spore forming’ quality of the probiotics makes them special because they don’t degrade with heat and easily survive stomach acid, making them have much higher survivability rates than traditional probiotics.

This new type of spore forming probiotics are much more flexible and shelf stable, which means that we don’t have to worry about “when” to take them.  We can take them anytime and be re-assured that they will make a difference in our bodies and metabolism.

How Do You Tell a Probiotic is Working

Specifically, as it relates to bloating, gas and constipation, if you are taking the correct probiotic, you should experience an emptying of the bowels after starting to take probiotics.  This may happen within 48 hours of starting the probiotic intake, but in some people, it may take just a few hours.  It all depends on your own metabolism.

After the first emptying of the bowels, significantly less bloating should be experienced.  Depending on the individual, it might take a week for all bloating to subside.

If your gut was compromised with bad bacteria growth, symptoms may worsen before they get better.  If that is the case, give the probiotic at least a week to renew and detox your system.  If you had been experiencing acne and skin issues, these may get worse for a period of 48 hours after starting the probiotic and then start to subside and clear up. The skin should become significantly better, clearer and more beautiful by the end of week 1.

Here is a Recommended Choice

One strain of spore forming probiotics that have been proven to help with bloating, gas and constipation are Bacillus Coagulans. ActiveChange Probiotics contains 15 Billion CFUs of the Bacillus Coagulans spore forming probiotic strain plus prebiotic fiber to help it reproduce and colonize the gut faster.  Because this “spore forming” probiotic survives the heat and stomach acid, 15 Billion CFUs per tablet is considered a potent concentrated dose.

Some more information

ActiveChange Probiotics is science and results based.  The product is made here in the US under strict GMP guidelines in a facility that is FDA approved.

•    They offer a 100% Satisfaction or Your Money Back Guarantee. 
•    In addition, Activechange™ Probiotics is free of gluten, lactose, nuts, soy, GMOs or added Animal Ingredients.  
•    It is convenient for travel because it does not require refrigeration.  

ActiveChange is a social enterprise seeking to improve the health of its consumers through nutritional products while providing worldwide hunger relief. Through a strategic alliance with Rise Against Hunger, every time a purchase is made it helps to feed 4 in need….! If you would like to find out more about their probiotics and about this social enterprise please go to www.activechangenutrition.com, Amazon or EBAY.

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