It does not matter if summer is around the corner or it's getting towards the end of the year, if you are like many other people, you are starting to think about slimming down. And shedding pounds fast. There are some things you can do to drop a few pounds in a short period of time and do it safely.



None of those insane soup or celery or lemon juice diet programs. Those do give you results, but what a cost you have to pay for releasing a couple of lbs. And the worst part is that when you go back to regular eating after lemon juice for 10 days, the weight seems to miraculously reappear all by itself.



But if you want to do some small modifications in how you eat; changes that you can deal with and keep going with after your initial weight loss, then listen up because here a few good tips for you.



Tip #1 - Pay Attention



There is a reason why many popular dieting programs have you keep a food diary of everything you eat. When you pay attention and write down everything you eat, whether it's a goody or a breakfast bar or even a stalk of celery, you tend to consume less food.



Could be because the thought of needing to keep track of each nibble makes folks want to eat less because it's a pain to write it all down. But more likely it's because your brain begins to think to itself "Hmm, am I really hungry enough to eat this and then write in my food diary"? Often, the answer to that is a "No" and you wind up eating a lot less food.



This writing idea works in a lot of self-improvement areas, not just for dieting, but when it comes to food, it really can help you focus on what you are doing. And being conscious about how you are treating your body and your well being is a very good step in the direction of feeling better and reducing your weight.



Another excellent tip has to do with the idea that less is more.



Cut it down.



One of the largest amounts of calories comes from the consumption of fats. Of course, this is not the case 100 % of the time for 100 % of the people. But if you live in a place that has a diet like the Standard American Diet, which is very high in animal fats and saturated and hydrogenated fats, you are eating a lot of calories from fats.



The fats themselves contain a high amount of calories per unit measurement. Basically if you took a teaspoon of a carbohydrate and a teaspoon of fat, the fat would have more than two times as many calories in it.



Fats contribute to the taste and the mouth feel of food and this is a large reason why they are very popular. Problem is along with twice as many calories, they don't metabolize as cleanly as many carbs and you are left with the results hanging around your waist.



If you like butter on your toast in the morning, put only half the amount on that you usually do. Use only half the amount of oil when you're cooking on the stove. Try something such as one of those cooking sprays. Your food will still cook nicely and will slide out of the pan, but the amount of oil you will have added in is almost non-existent.



Bake your potatoes as opposed to frying them. Boil your eggs instead of scambling them with a tablespoon of butter. Do just a couple things like this and you will incredibly find that you are ingesting nowhere near the amount of calories that you did before.



The fact remains, it doesn't take a lot of doing to change some dietary habits. And when you make those modifications to your lifestyle you will be on the right track to losing some weight quickly in a safe, easy to sustain way.