9 Effective Eco-friendly Diet Ideas to Green-up Your Weight Loss Routine

– Lean and green diet ideas for trimming down while being kinder to the planet!

Most of us could stand to lose a few pounds, but did you know that losing weight can also be a very green thing to do? Consuming less in general and choosing more eco-friendly foods is both good for the planet and healthy for you. Look at these top 9 diet ideas you can do to lose weight while being green.

1. Stay Away from TV Dinners and Processed Foods

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Choose whole foods—real fruits, veggies, grains, legumes, and beans over processed foods, which also help to reduce the packaging you require to get a meal on the table, making it the greener choice compared to TV-dinners.

2. Try Whole, Organic Foods

Whole, organic foods offer lots of weight loss advantages. Unlike processed foods, they’re full of fiber (to help you feel full), water and natural juices (to keep you hydrated), vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial components that keep you feeling focused and energetic.

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True, they may require more time to prepare, but they’ll have you feeling more alive than the processed menu you’ve been on.

3. Eat Less Meat

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In general, those who choose a vegetarian diet are slimmer and healthier, with lower rates of health problems like high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Plant-based diets are extremely tasty and diverse and are higher in fiber, lower in fat, and rich in nutrients. Plus vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and beans require much energy, water, and fossil fuels to produce, making vegetarian diets a much better way to help the planet than buying a hybrid car.

4. Sleep More and Regularly

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Believe it or not, getting more sleep is one of the diet ideas that can actually help you lose weightaccording to several studies reviewed in Glamour Magazine recently.

Generally speaking, the less you sleep, the more you weigh; so getting a good solid 7.5 hours of sleep every night will help you stay trim without spending money or consuming packaged goods. And you’ll feel less stressed and healthier to boot!

5. Purchase Only Foods Produced Within 100 Miles of Your Home

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Known as the 100-mile diet, this weight loss regimen is a really green choice. If you really stick to it, you’ll purchase and eat only foods made or grown within 100 miles of your home.

Try it, and you’ll soon discover that many weight-gain foods like starchy breads and potato chips, processed dinners, and high-fructose corn syrup-laden sweets aren’t created near your home.

And though you’ll likely eat butter and full-fat cheese instead of low-fat margarine, the increase in fiber, whole foods, and nutritious grains will have you losing weight in no time.

6. Swap Exercise Gear with a Friend or Family Member

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If you’ve got an old thigh master in the basement that you never use, but have been eyeing your sister’sexercise ball (that she never uses) consider swapping with her. Or take your old equipment to the local thrift shop and purchase some used weights or a yoga mat for yourself.

Getting workout equipment used from sites like craigslist.org or through freecycle.org helps to keep usable materials out of landfills and reduces the need for new resources to make new products. And it’s cheaper, too!

7. Workout at Home or Out-of-Doors

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Rather than purchasing a costly gym membership that will require you to expend greenhouse gases to get there, find ways to work out close to home (or in your home).

Go for a walk or run in your neighborhood, share equipment with a neighbor, and if you purchase equipment for working out in your own home, be sure they don’t require power so that you reduce your electricity usage, too.

8. Grow Your Own Food

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Growing your own food means it doesn’t have to travel at all from farm to table, and you don’t have to spend gas getting to the grocery store, either.

Plus, organically-grown food that’s picked fresh requires no chemicals (better for the planet) and is packed with more essential nutrients than those picked before they are ripe and shipped halfway across the world.

And getting outdoors will help you produce your own vitamin D while getting some exercise as well.

9. Pack Your Own Lunches

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The average restaurant lunch is packed full of sodium and fat, and though it tastes good, even the salad will likely not help you lose weight.

Packing your own meals while away from home is one of the diet ideas that not only control portions, calories, fat, and salt content, but when you choose reusable carrying devices like washable containers and reusable water bottles, it reduces your waste, too.