We didn't wake up one day and find ourselves overweight or obese. It usually happens over a long period of time and due to many habits that don't promote weight loss. Habits are hard to break but they can be broken. I've probably lost 2,000 pounds in my lifetime only to lose and regain along with a few bonus pounds from the diet. To lose weight and reach your weight loss goals, check these seven habits to see if they apply to you. If any of them look familiar to you, change our habit to change your weight to change your life.
1. Regularly eat sweet, sugary treats. If you can eat a bite of something you'd like to eat, great! However, if it is a trigger food to set you off on a day-long binge (or longer), it is best to avoid eating it in the first place. Become aware of your own behavior and know yourself. There are some food choices that I just can't handle. As I've lost and maintained my weight, I'm able to stay more in control and my trigger foods have lost their power over my ability to choose.
2. Eating the majority of meals in restaurants or fast food. Restaurant portions are huge. Usually, a portion in a restaurant is the equivalent to three or more healthy portions. If you must eat out, ask for a to go box at the time that you order. When your meal comes, take your single portion and put the rest in the box. You'll save calories and money to eat it the following day. Fast food is void of nutrition but packed with calories, fat, and carbohydrates. Fast food may be fast but it is far from healthy. The additional time you spent in preparing something healthy for you is minimal compared to the additional time spent trying to lose the weight from fast food.
3. Faster causes fatter. Slow it down. Did you know that it takes 20 minutes for the physical message to get to your brain that you're satisfied. Yes, it take 20 minutes for your brain to essentially catch up to your stomach's "I'm full" cues. Eat slower to allow sufficient time for your stomach to communicate with your brain. In 20 minutes, you can consume a lot of excess food. Try putting your fork or spoon down between bites.
4. Have a sedentary mindset. Become aware for small ways to be active. Exercise is important yet being active is also a mindset. Look for ways throughout your day to be more active. Little things can lead to a more active lifestyle and extra calories burned along with a boost to your metabolism. Take breaks and go outside for a different perspective and for some fresh air. Muscles were meant for movement rather than sitting at a desk all day. Take the stairs instead of the escalator; park further away rather than drive around for a closer space. Active people lose weight and maintain it just by having a mindset for moving your body.
5. Don't exercise regularly. There's no way around it, exercise is a component to weight loss. Exercise (such as walking) a few days a week along with resistance training is the key to weight loss. Resistance training is important because it builds muscle. Muscle helps boosts your metabolism and burns more fat. Even walking around the room, walking in place or lifting hand weights during commercials while you watch television can make a difference.
6. Eating as a recreational activity. Eating in response to true hunger is a physiologically and psychologically satisfying, nurturing experience. Many people eat out of food triggers, soothe emotions, or even provide an outlet for boredom. Eat because you are physically hungry and not according to the clock or in response to your head.
7. Skip meals. One of the ways to encourage a late day binge is to skip meals. By skipping meals results in larger meals and unhealthy food choices. Being overly hungry triggers eating fast and overeating, along with poor food choices. Feed your body throughout the day to avoid issues with insulin and blood sugar rise and crash episodes.
Habits are created and habits can be broken. Identify habits that encourage overeating and making unhealthy food choices. Become aware of how many habits don't serve you well and assist you in losing weight. After you're aware, it's time to take action. Take the heavy habits and exchange them for healthy habits. Before you know it, your new healthy habits will be such a natural part of who you are and what you do with your diet and activity per day. If you're tired of being heavy, ditch the habits that make you heavy. Healthy habits are the way to reaching your weight loss goal.
The word diet would indicate something temporary maybe you have some quick weight to lose and then you will be done. If you have twenty or more Lbs. to lose and you have struggled with weight most of your life then you need to learn that a diet is something a person goes on to lose a small amount of weight and then goes back to their normal routine again.
What you need to do under these circumstances is to realize that you need something a little more permanent, you need to change your eating habits for good, rather then go on a diet, a complete change of your normal eating pattern is what the doctor would order. Learn to stay away from the word "Diet"
Changing your eating habits is not as difficult as one would think, keep thinking why you are doing it in the first place, maybe you want to lose weight to look better in your clothes, which is great, maybe a wedding is coming up, the list could go on and on, the main reason should be health related.
Getting your weight down in proportion to your height should be your goal, being at this weight will give you an entire realm of health benefits, lower chances of a heart attack, lower blood pressure, less chance of disease, and the list of benefits could go on and on as well.
There are many different reasons why someone may want to lose weight, but it's a pretty safe bet that almost everybody will want to at some point in their lives. Losing weight will make you feel and look better, and will increase your self confidence. An excellent place to start for most people is to set a goal to lose 10 pounds. Like in many other aspects of life, the key to achieving your goal - to lose 10 pounds - lies in proper planning and execution.
Everybody is different. We all have different lifestyles, schedules and abilities, and it's important that this is kept in mind when approaching your project of losing 10 pounds. Before you actually begin trying to lose the weight, you must decide on a realistic plan that is right for you.
The worst thing you can do is set a plan that will be unrealistic for you to achieve. If, for example, you're an extremely busy working parent, don't create a plan for yourself that entails exercising 10-15 hours a week, as chances are you're going to fail, which will only end up making you feel worse about yourself.
Every weight loss attempt should ideally be composed of both dietary changes and an increase in exercise. Depending on your situation, you may want to focus on one more than the other.
If, for example, you want to lose 10 pounds but don't have time for lots of exercise, you might want to focus on your diet, which after all requires more discipline than time.
When looking at your weight loss plan, do some research and come up with some healthy meal ideas that you don't normally eat. Plan to eat these new meals on a regular basis. You want to break your plan into as many small steps as possible, so that you provide yourself with many small, achievable goals.
Remember the old saying, you must first crawl , walk and then run, don't try to do to much too soon. For example, you may decide to research your new meal on Monday, buy the ingredients on Tuesday, and make it on Wednesday. Not only does this split the work up - if you leave it all to one day it's far more likely you won't have the time to do it - but it creates a constant sense of accomplishment.
Now let's say your plan to lose 10 pounds is going to be mainly through exercise. Again, don't plan to "exercise 10 hours a week" because what will probably happen is you'll put it off all week and then won't have time for it. You want to plan to exercise for an hour a day, and you want to try and incorporate that exercise into other activities.
Get yourself motivated and stay motivated, it's all too easy to read a book or listen to a motivational speaker and get all excited about losing weight and you say to yourself "this is it" I'm really going to stick with it this time. This is a good thing, sometimes we need to get really mad at ourselves before we finally do something about it at.
The problem is we don't stay mad enough. Whatever got you fired up in the first place, keep doing it or listening to it, stay motivated and you will have a huge advantage with your weight loss goal.
At least half the battle with trying to lose 10 pounds is one of discipline: as anyone who has been on a diet or exercise regimen will tell you, it's easy to start a diet but hard to stick with it.
Stay with it and you will be very proud of yourself as will others around you, remember that it will all be worth it, to look better, feel better, have more energy and know that inside your body is improving as well and your will add years to your life.
Both Cathy Wilson & Michael Gregory are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Cathy Wilson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Lose Weight and Fitness. Cathy Wilson is a weight loss life coach. Cathy lost 147 pounds six years ago. Her passion is helping clients achieve their weight loss and life goals. Cathy works with clients to create a weight loss life plan that is customized to each client. Cathy is. Cathy Wilson's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.
Michael Gregory has sinced written about articles on various topics from Stock, Fitness and Investing and Trading. Michael Gregory had a heart attack at the age of only 39 due to being overweight and not getting enough exercise. Now in terrific shape He gives credit to losing the weight to the "Apple Patch Diet" You can learn more here:. Michael Gregory's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.