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These habits are quite common and possibly not helping your journey to losing weight. Change them up and your sessions at the gym will be much more effective.
Everyone knows that losing weight is much harder than packing on the pounds. It’s all too tempting to reach for that extra slice of pizza or succumb to your supermarket’s weekly chocolate discount.
However, we have plenty of subconscious habits that that aren’t doing any favours to our waistline. We’ll take a look at some below.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that more than half (56 per cent) of Australian adults aren’t active enough and almost two-thirds (63 per cent) are overweight or obese. Don’t let your bad habits contribute towards these statistics, and also to the detriment of your health.
Here are some things that you need to stop doing in order to help you lose weight.
Removing the association of food with your television may help unnecessary snacking.
1. Set food-free zones
There are probably plenty of places around your home where you like to sneak a snack or two. However, by eliminating these places as viable eating locations, it may help you to cut down on unnecessary eating.
This should include the couch in your living room, in front of the computer, and yes, even your bed. It’s the mentality that sitting at these places requires a snack to help you enjoy other activities, like watching a movie, that really leads to those extra kilos gained.
If you constrict yourself to proper sit-down meals at the dining table instead of nibbling straight from the pantry or the fridge, you’ll notice how much you’re eating on top of regular meals.
2. Figure out if you’re bored or hungry
Are you eating because you’re actually hungry, or are you bored?
Leading on from the above point, when you find yourself heading towards the kitchen, ask yourself – are you really hungry or just bored?
Consider the last time you ate, or if there’s something else you could be doing. It’ll help to eliminate fulfilling half-hearted peckish cries from your body and hey, it may actually help you be more productive around the home!
If you’re not really hungry, find a hobby or a task to consume your mind with. Most likely, it’s your brain that’s hungry and not your stomach.
3. Focus on how good you feel and not how much you weigh
Your weight is just a number, really. There’s no hard and fast rule as to what weight is good or bad, because it can be influenced by a multitude of factors such as your family history, physiology, and any ailments you may have.
When losing weight, if you’re just focussed on getting those digits down then you’re going at it from the wrong angle.
Put your scales away and look towards eating healthier and keeping active to feel better. Harvard School of Public Health suggests that an optimistic perspective might be a major player in living a healthier life. If you work out regularly and eat well then you’ll feel better and the rest of the puzzle pieces should fall into place, in order to help you lose weight.
Instead of thinking, “I wish I looked like that”, opt for, “I could look like that”.
Do these numbers matter as much if you are healthy and feel great about it?
4. Be kind to yourself
Whether this means implementing cheat days for special occasions or stepping back from a restrictive diet plan, just be nicer to yourself and you’ll reap better benefits. If you’re constantly worried about your body’s measurements and what foods you consume, it’s likely to become an obsessive habit, which can stress you out.
The American Institute of Stress explains that there is a proven link between many disorders, both psychological and physical, and stress. It can wear your body down to disastrous results and seriously affect your health and fitness.
Stopping once in a while to take a breather will help you to readjust yourself to better health.
