Every day, everywhere we hear what we should do to be healthier and to lose weight.
Whether it’s a new diet trend like Paleo diet or the DASH diet, or a new workout like Zumba. Each claiming to be the “right choice” leaving you feeling confused and unsure of what to do. But what do you do to get started? What do you do if you’re not familiar with all the diets and you just want to begin somewhere and you don’t know where?
Instead of finding just the right diet or fitness program, becoming healthier and starting to make better choices start with you and what you do. Every day you make thousands of decisions, and when it comes to your diet it’s important to think before you buy. It may seem like a very complicated process but I want to show you that all it is, is 1 step at a time. With each step you build a healthier lifestyle without having to worry about a certain diet or keeping up with the latest fitness fad.
1.) Come up with a Plan
Think about what you want to accomplish and set a goal for yourself. Be realistic. Start with a small goal and also a bigger goal to work up to. Write it down. Put it where you will see it like by a mirror or on your fridge. Keep track of your progress and changes you see in a journal.
2.) Clean Sweep Your Pantry
Evaluate the food you have and what you typically eat. If you have junk food like cookies, snack cakes, sugary cereal, and pop tarts then you need to throw those out. If you drink sodas or juices with a high content of sugar, you should also throw those out.
3.) Read Your Food Labels
Thousands of additives are put in our food and the majority of them cause us to crave them, gain weight and contribute to a variety of diseases and health issues. It’s best to avoid them as much as possible. This is a long list so I recommend printing this and having it with you when you do your grocery shopping. You can find the detailed information on each ingredient on naturalnews.com.
Avoid consuming anything with these ingredients on the label:
- Hydrogenated Oil
- High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
- Aspartame
- Mono and Diyglcerides
- Soy Lecithin
- Monosodium Glutamate(MSG)
- Olestra
- Sodium Nitrate or Sodium Nitrite
- BHA & BHT
- Polysorbate 80
- Potassium Sorbate
- Artificial Coloring
- Enriched Wheat
- Propyl Gallate
- Brominated Vegetable Oil
- Propylene Glycol
- Acesulfame-K
- Acrylamides
- Phosphoric Acid
- Corn Syrup
- Artificial Flavoring
- Soy Protein
- Sodium Benzoate or Potassium Benzoate
4.) Make Your Own Smoothies
Smoothies are an excellent way to help you get the fruits and vegetables that your body needs each day. You can combine a variety of fruit and vegetables together to make a delicious drink. I love to make mine in the evenings so it’s ready for the morning to have for breakfast. They are filling and I don’t need anything else to feel full. It gives me an energy boost and I feel great after drinking a cup. Although there are pros and cons for any way you have your juice, blending is excellent for you because you aren’t losing any nutrients in your drink from juicing and leaving fiber unused.
5.) Exercise at least 3 days a week
Start with doing some type of cardio exercise you enjoy about 3 times a week. And to burn even more calories than just doing cardio and to tone your body, begin some weight lifting with a weight you feel challenged with but isn’t too heavy. Alternate your reps. Be sure you don’t always do low weights and high reps. Change it up by doing low reps one week and high the next. Be sure to change things up so your body doesn’t get too used to a routine. Find examples of weight lifting exercises on fitness websites like Bodybuilding.com or muscleandstrength.com.
6.) Always Eat Breakfast
Breakfast is a very important meal of the day. When you wake up your body needs fuel and if you don’t eat you will feel fatigued. Not eating breakfast can also cause weight gain. According to a study, 10,000 young people from adolescence into their twenties found that not only did skipping breakfast lead to being overweight, but also increased unhealthy choices about what to eat the rest of the day.
7.) Minimize Intake of Sweets and Unhealthy Snacks
During the day we typically get a craving for something sweet and it’s easy to get candy or a sugary snack for our fix. But our bodies are trying to tell us we are hungry for something substantial and sugary snacks are far from that. Sugar is just empty calories that only cause harm to our bodies. Sugar contributes to obesity and in the US, there are more than one-third of U.S. adults that are obese. Obesity contributes to a variety of conditions such as cardiovascular risk, cancer, disability during old age, decreased life expectancy, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and hypertension. There are lots of options to choose from when it comes to snacking smart. Yogurt, nuts, fruit are all good choices.
8.) Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is essential to our well being and health. It is very important that we get enough sleep to feel refreshed and revived each day. There are some functions that our bodies can only carry out while we sleep.According to the National Sleep Foundation, timing is regulated by the circadian biological clock that is located in our brain. This part of the brain, the SCN or suprachiasmatic nucleus, is influenced by light so that we naturally tend to get sleepy at night when it is dark and are active during the day when it is light. In addition to timing the sleep-wake cycle, the circadian clock regulates day-night cycles of most body functions, ensuring that the appropriate levels occur at night when you are sleeping. For example, important hormones are secreted, blood pressure is lowered and kidney functions change. Research even indicates that memory is consolidated during sleep.
9.) Drink More Water
Our bodies are 60% water and so we always need to be replenishing it with water all throughout our day. We need water to function; to carry oxygen and nutrients throughout our bodies. Since we are losing water every day, that water must be replaced.Drinking two 8-ounce glasses of water before breakfast, lunch, and dinner while also cutting back on portions may help you lose weight and keep it off for at least a year, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, in Boston.
10.) Stop Emotional Eating
When we are stressed or upset, we typically turn to food to make us feel better. Emotional eating will not make us happy and can cause us to make unhealthy food choices and cause weight gain. Aside from weight gain, the problem with this is you are not addressing the reason you are eating for emotional peace. And then later on, the same thing happens and the problem is never resolved. Dealing with the problem instead of turning to food with resolve this issue and bring peace back into your life.
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