It can be extremely frustrating to maintain a diet, without seeing any results. You’re doing everything by the book, but you haven’t lost a single pound. What’s holding you back? It could be your eating and health routine. Eating right is the first step to weight loss, but creating consistent and healthy long-term habits will help you shed the pounds quicker and keep them off.
Weight Loss Enemy #1. Skipping Meals
Skipping lunch might seem like an easy way to lose weight, but it’s actually causing you to hold onto your fat cells. You’re way more likely to binge eat if you’ve been sitting at your desk with an empty stomach all day, and may end up consuming more calories than if you’d just had a salad for lunch. Not only that, but when you go for more than 3 hours without eating, your metabolism slows down to a crawl. A light snack every few hours will keep your metabolism gunning all day, while regulating your appetite and blood sugar.
Weight Loss Enemy #2. Mindless Eating
We’ve all been there, sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn. We start off taking a few bites, but before we know it, we’ve consumed the whole bowl! This is something referred to as “eating amnesia.” When you do something that consumes your whole attention (like watching TV, surfing the internet, or reading a book), you forget that your hand keeps going back to that bag of chips. There are 2 simple ways to fix this problem. First, you can eat only when you will be focused on savoring each bite, but not during mindless activities. Second, if you can’t give up your snacks, fill a bowl with a healthy treat you like to enjoy before settling down in front of the TV. You’d be surprised how quickly a bowl of fresh tomatoes disappears, without giving you extra starch and calories.
Weight Loss Enemy #3. Not exercising
Try as you might, you can’t get out of it. If you want to lose weight, you’ve got to move. Thankfully, you don’t have to hit the gym for 2 hours every night. Simply taking an evening walk for 20 minutes after dinner with boost your metabolism and help you digest your food. Start small, and find more reasons to exercise throughout the day. Bike to work, complete a difficult cleaning task, dance for no reason, or just run around in the park with some energetic loved ones. Whatever you do, get moving!
There are many other things that could be stopping you from losing weight. Just remember to be kind to yourself and try something new. If you’ve been in a weight loss rut, try eating slower, exercising more, eating mindfully, and eating a light meal every 3 hours or so. No matter what, keep your chin up and try again tomorrow. You can achieve your weight loss, once you’ve put your mind to it.
Find more weight loss and wellness tips at PsychologyToday.com.