The average American gains about one pound during the holidays, but if you’re overweight that number creeps up to five.[i] These pounds are typically not lost in the New Year but rather contribute to the ever upward-ticking of the scale we often describe as middle-age spread.

You don’t have to fall victim to this holiday weight gain trap, or weight gain at any other time of year either, and I’m not only referring to diet and exercise. Yes … eating right and exercise are essential for staying fit, but they don’t make up the whole picture. Also important are countless daily habits that you do or don’t do, which significantly influence your bodyweight, body composition, stamina and so much more.

Making small tweaks to your lifestyle can lead to big changes in your weight, especially when you stick with them for good. So by all means eat more vegetable and get exercising – but also try these top weight loss tricks that follow.

10. Stop Eating Out

You’ll slash countless calories by eating at home instead of at a restaurant – even if you eat basically the same foods. It’ll be far healthier too.

9. Purge Your Pantry

Gather up all those cookies, candies and salty snacks and clear them from your pantry. Also rid your freezer of unhealthy foods to fall back on, like ice cream and frozen pizza. When you get hungry, you’ll have no choice but to snack on something healthy instead.

8. Eat in Front of a Mirror

If you watch yourself eat, you might eat less (by up to one-third!).[ii] While trying this, practice being mindful while you eat — really savor the flavor, texture and scent of your food and focus on thoroughly enjoying each bite before you swallow and reach for another.

7. Sniff Cocoa, Banana, Spearmint or Olive Oil

These are examples of scents that have been shown to suppress appetite and help with weight loss. Taste begins in your nose, as the olfactory nerve in your nose is linked to the brain regions that tell you when you’re full. So by sniffing a pleasing scent, your brain may be fooled into thinking you’ve already eaten it.

6. Add Veggies to Everything

Vegetables are good for you and filling, which means they help you eat less. Fortunately, they’re incredibly easy to add to just about any meal.

Add spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms to your scrambled eggs; pile your pizza with green peppers and onions; puree greens into your smoothies, soups and sauces, and keep cut-up veggies at the ready (with your favorite dip) for snacks.

5. Set Aside 20 Minutes

… and exercise. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy … sprint up and down the hallway, climb staircases, do jumping jacks and pushups – just get moving, and be sure you get some intensity in (i.e. you get your heart pumping and you break into a sweat). The more intense your workout, the greater the calorie-burning afterburn effect will be. You’ll build on the momentum and soon feel changes happening in your body.

4. Get Enough Sleep

Cutting your sleep short, even by a mere 80 minutes one night, can make you eat nearly 550 calories more than you ordinarily would the next day.[iii] Being sleep deprived increases your appetite, as sleep has a significant impact on the complex production and release of hormones that influence how much you eat, when you eat and how many calories you burn or store as fat.

3. Tap Your Forehead to Reduce Food Cravings

Researchers analyzed the effects of three different 30-second distraction techniques to reduce cravings for study participants’ favorite foods.[iv] These included:

• Tapping on your forehead and ear with your index finger
• Tapping your toe on the floor
• Staring at a blank wall (the control task)

Each of these techniques worked to significantly reduce cravings (even the control task), although the most effective was the forehead tapping. The researchers explained:[v]

“This reinforces the idea that it’s possible to distract ourselves from craving even our favorite foods … and this could be used as a weight-loss strategy.”

2. Drink Water Before Your Meals

People who drank two cups of water before a meal ate up to 90 fewer calories![vi] The water probably helps you feel full faster, but it also helps you stay hydrated. This is important since when people feel thirsty they often reach for food instead of water.[vii]

1. Rev Up Your Youth Hormones

Your body’s natural production of youth hormones (HGH, or human growth hormone) begins to steadily decline by the time you reach your early 30s. Around this same time, you probably find you “can’t eat the way you used to,” and losing weight becomes much harder. As your HGH declines, all of the following occurs:

• Your metabolism slows down
• You pack on adipose tissue (FAT)
• Your organs shrivel
• Your aerobic activity decreases
• Your muscles shrink

Research shows that men who supplemented with HGH for six months had a 14.4 percent reduction in fat, and a nearly 9 percent increase in lean body mass,[viii] which is why you might be interested in learning about ThinMist, which is NOT a synthetic form of HGH, but a way to increase your body’s production of this youth hormone naturally.

This breakthrough formula contains a uniquely calibrated blend of 7 essential vitamins and amino acids that work together to help boost your body’s ability to produce HGH. Among them:

• L-Valine: To help muscles heal after strenuous workouts. By speeding the recovery of muscle, lean muscle develops quickly. And the more lean muscle your body has — the more fat-burning power it possesses!

• L-Arginine: Clinically shown to boost your production of creatine in the muscles … increase circulation … improve blood flow … boost sexual desire … and even protect your heart!

• L-Tyrosine: To turbo charge your adrenaline! Also helps suppress your appetite … improve your brain’s ability to focus … relieve headaches and tension … and fight off chronic fatigue!

Another clinical study of the effects of HGH on humans was performed at the Palm Springs Life Extension Institute. When Dr. Edmund Chien combined HGH injections with other hormones that decrease as you age, he discovered that patients experienced a 10% loss of body fat … a 10% increase in muscle mass … and a 1.5%-2.5% increase in bone density every six months!

What’s more, researchers found that over a 2-year period, patients experienced the following results…

• 88% of patients enhanced muscle mass
• 84% of patients reported higher energy levels
• 83% reported increased exercise endurance
• 78% reported improved overall sense of well being
• 72% decreased body fat WITHOUT dieting
• 61% of patients experienced faster healing of injuries
• 53% reported increased back flexibility

ThinMist is a 100% natural way to safely boost your pituitary gland’s NATURAL release of HGH ‘youth hormones.’ You simply take ThinMist three times each day by spraying it under your tongue, and as the ingredients slowly build up in your system, your body NATURALLY begins releasing more youthful levels of HGH, one of your body’s most powerful fat burners to help you lose weight without exercise and dieting.

Try ThinMist Risk-Free for 90 Days Now!

[i] N Engl J Med. 2000 Mar 23;342(12):861-7.

[ii] Reader’s Digest

[iii] Study presented at the American Heart Association’s annual Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2012 conference

[iv] Science Daily November 4, 2014

[v] Science Daily November 4, 2014

[vi] Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) 2010;18(2):300-307. doi:10.1038/oby.2009.235.

[vii] Physiology & behavior 2008;94(5):700-708. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2008.04.007.

[viii] New England Journal of Medicine (1990:323:1-6 July 5)