Do you want to learn about healthy habits for weight loss? Do you wonder if it is possible to lose 20 pounds in a month? I’ve been doing a lot of calorie counting lately and wanted to share some great tips. Weight loss can be very difficult. It’s important to never give up, which is why the following tips are so helpful
HEALTHY HABITS
A healthy habit is any activity or behavior that can benefit your physical, mental, or emotional well-being. At first, these small changes might not seem that effective. But when put together dozens of these tiny habits you can create a framework for a healthy life. It is important to remember that healthy habits can be created in stages. What might be an unhealthy habit for one person today may be a healthy habit for someone else.For example, pretend you have an unhealthy habit of eating two bowls of ice cream every night. Cutting this down to one bowl or even just half a bowl is making progress towards the healthy habit of cutting down on unhealthy food. However, for someone who doesn’t eat these foods to begin with, eating a bowl of ice cream a night would not be considered a healthy habit.
Simple Health Habits worth Adopting Into Your Life
- Use stairs and furniture as makeshift gym equipment
If you have stairs at your home or office, take them every chance you get. Don’t stop there, though. For a strong cardio workout, walk up and down the stairs repeatedly. Start with a limited number of repetitions and then increase them as you feel stronger.
Get even more creative by using wine bottles or a gallon of water as weights and your kitchen chairs for planks and tricep dip exercises. Why buy expensive equipment when you can utilize your furniture instead?
- Drink 1 extra glass of water a day
It’s nothing new that there are health benefits to drinking more water. It helps keep your temperature normal, lubricates and cushions joints, protects your spinal cord and other sensitive tissues and gets rid of wastes through urination, sweat and bowel movements. Since 50 to 75% of your weight is water, drinking some plain old H2O is imperative in keeping your body working the best it can and staying hydrated. If plain water isn’t your favorite, you can add flavor to your water to help up your intake.
- Replace diet soda with carbonated water
Research suggests the brain reacts to artificial sweeteners much like it does to sugary sweets.
“If you drink diet soda each day, use carbonated mineral water to help wean yourself off of it,” says Jeffers. “Ingesting them frequently can increase your desire for high-calorie foods and put you at risk for weight gain.”
If you’re not a fan of carbonated water, try drinking unflavored tea, coffee or fruit-infused plain water. Quitting cold turkey isn’t realistic but if you start decreasing the amount of diet soda and artificial sweeteners you ingest, you’ll be doing wonders for both your waistline and your health.
- Take a 10-minute walk
“Even a 10-minute walk can help boost your cardiovascular health,” says Travers. “Take a walk during your lunch hour or to a store that is a block away to buy a gallon of milk — it’s all good for you.”
If you’re at work, walk to the furthest bathroom and take the stairs. While running errands, try to find the farthest parking spot and walk from there. Remember, even the smallest amount of steps still add up.
Sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate and the last thing you want to do is go outside when it’s snowing or windy, but don’t let cold weather deter you. You can often walk comfortably by dressing right: Start with a sweat-wicking layer next to your body, add insulating layers for warmth, and top them off with a waterproof shell.
- Correct your posture
When you were a kid, have your parents ever yelled at you for having bad posture? Well, the bad news is that they were right. Having good posture can prevent aches and can also reduce stress on your ligaments. Not only that, but good posture prevents backache, fatigue and muscle pain.
“You can try to leave yourself a note to sit up straight until it becomes an unconscious habit,” says Travers. “Walking with your shoulders back and head held high can also make you feel good about yourself.”
While teaching yourself to have better posture isn’t something that can be fixed right away, reminding yourself to sit up straight has a positive effect on your overall health.
- Go to bed ½ hour earlier
Do you sleep a solid seven or eight hours most nights? Many of us don’t but experts say this is a marker of good heart health. Solid sleep doesn’t just give you more energy, it can also help with healthy eating goals. When you’re short on sleep, it reduces your body’s production of hormones that suppress appetite, which can contribute to weight gain. You may have a higher risk of heart disease, obesity and high blood pressure if you suffer from untreated insomnia or sleep apnea, too.
Those seven to eight hours don’t have to be consecutive. If you’re feeling particularly tired, try to sneak in a short nap early in the day. Don’t overdo it, though. Limit your naps to 30 minutes to avoid falling asleep later than you should.
Try to head to bed ½ hour earlier than your usual time. Turn off your phone (we promise you won’t miss anything!) and wind down with a book. You’ll be falling asleep in no time.
- Incorporate balance exercises into your routine
Balance on one leg for 10 seconds at a time, then switch to the other leg. Travers suggests incorporating this balance exercise into your routine, but it can also be done while brushing your teeth or standing in a line. It’s a part of neuromotor training, which helps you improve your balance, agility and mobility — all things you need in everyday movement and in other forms of exercise.
- Weigh yourself every week
To keep your weight from creeping up on you, set a weekly maintenance or loss goal for yourself, write it down and check yourself against that goal. Weigh yourself each week on the same day and at the same time – and wearing the same amount of clothing for consistency. It’s important to be mindful of clothes fitting and scale measure.
Team up with your doctor or dietitian to create meal plans so you can reach your weight loss goals faster and in the healthiest way possible.
- Start off your day with a healthy breakfast
Eat something high in fiber that includes protein to keep you full and energized. If you start the day out right, you tend to eat better overall and it helps lower your risk of diabetes and improves heart health. Not only have that, but eating breakfast helps reduce brain fogged, so you’ll be ready to go for those morning meetings.
Tired of the same bowl of oatmeal? Add different toppings to make it more exciting. Omelets don’t have to be boring, either. Throw your favorite salsa, cheese and eggs into a whole grain wrap for a quick and easy breakfast burrito. The options are endless.
- Include greens and lettuce in your meals
Incorporate lettuce into your meals to add nutrients and water to your diet. The fiber in lettuce helps to fill you up and it does so at just 20 calories per serving. Lettuces that are dark green and reddish in color are the most nutritious and the most flavorful. But even the popular, pale iceberg lettuce provides water, fiber and folate.
- Find creative substitutions for unhealthy foods
Work to eliminate foods and snacks that you buy regularly that are high in calories but low on their health benefit. Eat them less often as an occasional treat. Try using low-fat dairy, whole grains, healthy oils like avocado and olive oil and natural sweeteners like fruit instead of high fat or sugary alternatives.
“Remember that building new healthy habits can take some time and it’s OK to treat yourself to avoid feeling deprived,” says Jeffers. “Stay focused on your goal, and if you slip along the way, just start again.”
A healthy habit tool
Here’s a way to help yourself create a healthy habit:
- Decide on a goal.
- Choose a simple action you can take every day.
- Plan when and where you will take your action: choose a time and place that you encounter every day of the week.
- Every time you encounter that time and place, take the action.
- Congratulate yourself when you find yourself doing the action.
- It gets easier with time, and within 10 weeks you should find you are doing it without even thinking.
Healthy Habits That Help You Lose Weight
Don’t eat dinner after 9 p.m.
No, it’s not because your metabolism slows down after this time—that’s a common food myth. But it is true that late-night eaters are more likely to gain weight compared to those who take advantage of the early bird special, according to a study published in the journal Appetite. It’s not because they don’t burn those calories as rapidly; it’s because these night owls are more likely to binge eat (after starving themselves since lunch) and subsequently choose unhealthy foods high in sugar and fat to quickly put in their rumbling tummies. Not only will these high-energy foods pack on the pounds, but many of them can make it harder to fall asleep. And if you didn’t already know, getting enough sleep is one of the answers to how to lose 10 pounds.
Reward and comfort yourself without food.
Setting goals—and reaching them—is a cornerstone of an effective weight-loss plan. And while, yes, even a one-pound loss is something to celebrate, that doesn’t mean indulging in your favorite comfort food is how you should reward yourself. Instead, make an effort to congratulate yourself in non-food ways, like treating yourself to a new workout tank, splurging on a fitness class, or going to see a movie with your friends. Replacing the connection between food and emotions will make it easier to eat better in the future.
Eliminate distractions while eating.
It’s time to put an end to TV dinners once and for all. According to a Food Quality and Preference study, people who listened to music with headphones while eating consumed significantly more of the exact same food compared to those who weren’t jamming out.
Experts have explained that keeping your mind busy while eating can block certain satiety cues from alerting your brain that you’ve eaten your fill. So, while you’re working to slim down, follow one of our best weight loss tips and press pause on your TV remote or spottily playlist during your meals.
Sit down.
We’re all for walking meetings, just as long as they’re not lunch meetings. That’s because studies have found that people who stand while munching end up scarfing down 30 percent more at their next meal compared to those who sit. Researchers speculate that it’s because our body subconsciously dismisses a standing meal as a “false meal,” which causes us to eat more lately in the day.
Cook at least 51% of your meals at home.
It’s a time saver in the moment, but eating out for most of your meals can ultimately delay your weight loss progress. Restaurant food is high in calories and loaded with salt, which research has found can release the addiction-inducing hormone dopamine. When you add the healthy eating habit of cooking the majority of your own meals and snacks at home, you put the calorie-cutting power in your own hands. In fact, Johns Hopkins researchers found that home cooks will consume nearly 200 fewer calories than people who eat out more often. These healthy breakfast ideas are an easy place to start.
Keep your bedroom for sleeping, not eating.
An analysis published in the journal Sleep Medicine found that keeping a television in the bedroom was associated with shorter total sleep time. It’s not just TV that will prevent you from getting a restorative night’s sleep (which, if you didn’t already know, is one of the essential rules for weight loss); it’s also noshing in bed. When you reserve your bedroom for snoozing, you can train your brain and body to associate slipping under the covers with sleep—making it much easier to catch some ZZZ’s.
Eat, rather than drink, your calories.
Yes, that healthy eating habit goes for everything from sodas and alcohol to juice cleanses and bottled teas. That’s because beverages often lack healthy fats and fiber: two satiating nutrients that keep hunger pangs at bay. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that participants ended up drinking more (and thus consumed a greater number of calories) until they felt satisfied, compared to when they ate solid food.