Weight loss isn’t all about eating right and working out, although this is what many people believe. It’s about much more than that.
To lose weight successfully and actually keep the weight off, you need to have healthy habits which help you create the right lifestyle for weight loss and happiness. In this article, I want to talk about 7 of those lifestyle habits and why I think you should adopt them.
Get Up 15 Minutes Early
In the past I used to grab, steal, and beg every second of sleep I could get. Even when I was already awake, I used to stay in bed, delaying the moment in which I finally got up.
When at last I rose, I had to scrabmle through brushing my teeth, grabbing a shower, eating something for breakfast, until I had to run off to work. All this created a lot of stress in my life and I didn’t get anything done before I got out of the house.
I recommend getting up early, 15 minutes would do, and make something of the first part of your day. These 15 minutes can include a short morning workout, a bit of relaxing reading, and eating a solid breakfast. You will find that when you leave home you will feel refreshed, energized, and with a more positive feeling.
I call this early period my morning ritual, and I advise you to develop your own. It sets the right tone for the rest of the day.
Carry a Water Bottle With You
One of the best nutrition tips I can give you is to drink enough water each day. This is more of a challenge that you may believe. I know that there are days in which I go for hours without drinking simply because I don’t feel thirsty. This doesn’t mean that my body doesn’t need to be hydrated, though.
The solution I found was to carry a small plastic bottle with me. I fill it with water in the morning and place it on my desk while I work. It’s sheer presence reminds me to drink more regularly.
Whenever it’s empty, I just fill it up again and once it’s on my desk I find myself sipping every few minutes.
Extra tip: One of the things which the 7 Minute Diet teaches is to drink more cold water. This forces the body to use more calories to heat the water to body temperature, so you get a small metabolic boost.
Cook Your Own Food
If you want to make sure you’re eating healthy food you’re going to need to take control over what you put in your mouth. The best way to do that is to actually make your own food.
By cooking your food you know exactly what goes into it, including each and every ingredient. When you eat out or order take out or buy pre-made meals, you relinquish your control to someone else. And, you may even pay extra for it. Cooking yourself is a great way to save up on calories and money too.
Cooking your own food doesn’t have to be hard. There are plenty of dishes you can create in a short time and without an in depth knowledge of cooking. I’ve been using some of the recipes from Metabolic Cooking and they’re very easy to make. There are also other resources you can use to help you cook more easily.
Practice Meditation
We live in a busy, modern lifestyle and things can get hectic. It’s quite easy to get stressed out over little and big things. The problem with stress is two-fold: it may drive you to overeat and it stimulates the secretion of the hormone cortisol which has been linked to an increase in abdominal fat storage.
One way to combat stress is to practice meditation. Even if you’ve never pictured yourself doing meditation, try it for a few minutes each morning for 10 days and see how you feel.
What I want you to do is to sit comfortably, close your eyes, and think of nothing at all. Let your mind wander aimlessly. Just breathe while you’re doing so, deeply and evenly. Let your body relax and release the tension you’re feeling.
Become an Activity Seeker
To lose weight you need to burn more calories. This is why you workout. However, you also burn more calories whenever you’re more active, even if these actions aren’t what you consider exercising.
I want you to become someone who seeks any chance to be active. For instance, if you need to pick your kid up from a neighbour, walk there, don’t drive. Get out of the office to have lunch, don’t order it in. Climb stairs instead of using the elevator.
All these actions burn calories and these quickly add up. Being more active may result in a few pounds worth of weight loss each year.
Watch Less News, Read More Books
If there’s one thing I noticed about TV these days is that we get too much news. We have channels that broadcast it 24/7 and most of what they do is repeat themselves and try to arouse emotions so you watch them and not a competing channel.
I think that watching too much news can make you fearful, nervous, and stressed out. By all means, stay informed. Just don’t allow anyone to bombard you with frightful conjectures of things that aren’t even likely to happen. We’ve already talked about stress and how it is bad for your waistline. Watching less news is a good step in de-stressing your life.
The way I pass more of my free time is by reading. Escaping into the realms of a fiction novel is an excellent way to “forget” about your day and your obligations and to simply let go of worries for a while. A lot of us don’t read as much as we should. This is a habit that you need to adopt.
Exercise At Home
If you need to go to the gym in order to workout, there’s a good chance you’ll skip sessions, make excuses, or simply lack the time to go as often as you should. Once you become comfortable about training at home, you will always be able to exercise, come rain or come shine.
In a previous article about home workout tips, I talked about how easy and affordable it is to do a solid workout at home. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You can even do bodyweight exercises with no equipment whatsoever.
The main thing is that once you are able to exercise at home, you’ll be much more active, you’ll burn more calories, and lose weight much faster. Check out this 10 minute home workout for some exercise ideas.
In Conclusion
I hope that this short list of healthy lifestyle habits has inspired you to take action and make a difference in your life. Remember, little actions often have big results. A lot of small actions can really make a difference.
