When it comes to losing weight and making sure that that weight actually stays off, the process is much more about taking up healthy habits than relying on all of the latest fads and trendy diets. Something super calorie restricted might help you to drop a quick fifteen pounds, but unless you know how to live properly and healthily, you are just going to pile those pounds back on again. Here are some habits that are way better than crash diets.
Don’t expect too much of yourself too soon. We all want to lose a stone a week, but that just isn’t feasible when you factor in your overall health. The best way to go about it is by setting goals and targets that you can reach without actually making yourself ill in the process. Two pounds a week or something like that is much more sensible than five or six.
If you have been used to snacking, then going cold turkey can be really hard and unproductive, creating the need to binge. Instead, work on replacing your unhealthy snacks with healthy snacks. Any snack that you eat should ideally be fewer than 150 calories, and things like nuts, seeds, and dried fruit are all perfect for that.
Get into the habit of eating more lean protein. Protein does the double job of helping to keep you feeling fuller for longer as well as boosting your metabolism, so in effect, the more you have of it, the less you will want of everything else, and the quicker your body will burn calories and fat.
You don’t need to avoid all carbs, just the bad carbs, aka unrefined carbs. Things like white bread and white pasta are essentially empty carbs with very little nutritional value, but complex carbohydrates like sweet potato, squash, oats, barley, lentils, and beans are all great for keeping you in a good mood and keeping your energy levels high.
You can’t get away from the fact that vegetables are the best thing for you, there really are no amount of supplements that can replace the real thing! Their high water and high fibre content is a magic combination for filling up your tummy and keeping you feeling full with very little calorie damage done.
It really essential that you stop seeing exercise as a chore and instead start to enjoy it as a hobby. To do this, you have to test the waters and find things that you actually look forward to doing. There is so much more to exercise than just running on a treadmill. Broaden your horizons!
Don’t spend time beating yourself up if you happen to have a bad day or week. We are all human we all make mistakes. It isn’t the food binges or gym skipping that define you, it is the commitment to doing twice as much the next day to re-address the balance!