1. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Next time you’re in a grocery store, take note of the layout. Stores put all the packaged foods, snacks and high-fat items in the middle aisles — all leading to the dreaded frozen food section smack dab in the center of the store.

If you want to avoid temptation, shop along the walls, where you’ll find healthy choices like fresh produce, meat and fish.

2. Eat breakfast every day. You might think that skipping breakfast is a smart way to cut calories and shed pounds, but studies show eating breakfast every day actually helps in weight loss.

As the first meal of the day, breakfast helps to kick start your metabolism, making it easier to burn calories throughout the day. Starting the day with a good meal also helps to regulate appetite and cut down on unhealthy snacking. On top of all that, eating breakfast gives you more energy, making it more likely that you’ll stick to your gym schedule!

3. Stop dieting. At first glance, this may sound like crazy advice, but consider this: While obesity rates have skyrocketed over the past three decades, so has the number of diets, pills and meal programs designed to address the problem. So, with all these diets and pills and miracle cures at our disposal … why do we keep getting fatter? The short answer is that, for most people, dieting doesn’t work.

The good news is, there may be new hope. Dr. Alan Hirsch, a Chicago-based neurologist who has spent the past 25 years studying the effects of scent on behavior, recently conducted a study in which nearly 1,500 people lost an average of 30.5 pounds just by sprinkling scented crystals on everything they ate.

The best part? There are no drugs involved. The crystals — now available as part of the Sensa Weight-Loss System — heighten the perception of taste, which tricks the brain into believing you’ve eaten more than you have so that you feel full faster and eat less.

Stop by http://www.trysensa.com/ for the full scoop on the weight-loss study and the technology behind it.

4. Buy a pedometer and use it. With our easy-going, sedentary lifestyles, most of us take only 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day. Adding an extra 2,000 steps will help you maintain your current weight and stop gaining more. An extra 3,000 to 4,000 will start burning away stored fat for fast slimming.

5. Avoid white foods. Foods like potatoes, rice, white bread and refined sugar are often referred to as “white hazards” because they have a very high glycemic index (GI) and wreak havoc on your digestive system.

During digestion, the carbohydrates in your food are converted to glucose and then absorbed into the bloodstream to provide energy. Many white foods tend to have a high-GI value. As a result, they are absorbed too quickly and raise blood sugar levels, causing a sugar-spike that causes the body to depress blood glucose levels below normal.

This yo-yo effect can lead to intense food cravings and overeating. As an alternative, choose whole grain breads, brown rice and sweet potatoes.

6. Make every calorie count. Foods like candy bars, sodas, potato chips are high in calories, refined sugars and saturated fats, but don’t provide a whole lot in the way of satisfying and worthwhile nutrients that the body really needs and can use. As a result, all those unused (and unusable) calories are converted to fat.

7. Drink water instead of soda. The average can of soda contains about 150 calories and 10 teaspoons of sugar. Drinking just one can a day for a year packs on an extra 55,000 calories, which translates to 15 pounds. In other words, soda is essentially liquid fat!

Switching to water will not only cut out all those sugar-saturated calories, it also helps to keep your kidneys functioning properly so that your body can metabolize fat more quickly and efficiently. In one study conducted by researchers in Berlin and published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (December, 2003), drinking 500 mL of water increased the study participants’ metabolism for about a half hour.

8. Drink a full glass of water right before dinner. Drinking a big glass of water before a meal temporarily fills your stomach and makes you feel fuller so that you’ll stop eating sooner. Researchers in Germany also concluded that drinking water can increase your metabolism rate within minutes to help burn additional calories.

9. Turn off the TV while you eat. According to Nielson Media Research, the average American spent 4 hours and 35 minutes per day in front of the TV in 2007. And much of that time is spent with a remote control in one hand, and food in the other.

Savvy marketers try to capitalize on the TV-snacking connection by hammering us with a barrage of fast food, potato chip and soda commercials designed not only to inspire you to purchase their products, but also to raid your cupboards during commercials and eat the products you already purchased so that you will need to buy more.

Instead of noshing while watching TV, try exercising. You’ll be killing two birds with one stone.

10. Eat in. Many great love affairs have ignited in the romantic light of a fine restaurant, and many business deals have been struck over plates of ahi sushi, but all that social eating may have an unexpected consequence.

A study published in the Journal of Physiological Behavior found that people tend to eat more in groups, partly because we spend more time at the table, and partly because we keep eating unconsciously even after we’re full.

Limit any social activities that involve a fork and knife. You can always meet up with friends later for after-dinner drinks or coffee.

What are your top weight loss tips?

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• The Truth About Sensa – We Respond to the Rumors
• What about that drink?
• Effective Weight Loss & Metabolism Myths