- Try Mindful eating
Mindful eating helps you to gain awareness over your eating habits and what you put into your body. If you want to stop overeating and control portion sizes better, it will help you to notice when you’re full and stop you from overeating. If you want to stop stress-snacking, it can help reduce emotional eating and normalize your relationship with food.
- Cut out processed, convenience foods and eat whole foods instead
Rather than trying a regimented eating plan, simply cutting out processed foods that are full of artificial trans fats and refined sugars, in favor of cleaner eating, might be all you need to lose some excess pounds. - Count your macros
If you’re interested in learning more about nutrition, counting macros, or macronutrients, might be the key to your weight loss. This involves working out the fat, protein, and carbohydrate content in each meal to make sure they are balanced according to goals such as losing weight or building muscle. It might seem complicated at first, but can ultimately lead to more flexibility in your diet as no food type is banned. A dietician will be able to help you come up with a plan that can meet your needs. - Get a buddy to motivate each other
Motivation is always the first step in any weight loss story. If yours is in need of a boost, then consider teaming up with a friend to cheer you on through the hard times and remind you of your ‘why’. - Get into food prepping
With a packed schedule and a full life to live, it’s no wonder so many of us pick up unhealthy eating habits and end up putting on excess weight. Food prepping will make sure you always have healthy food on hand and don’t need to resort to take-out or sugar-filled snacks for a quick fix, no matter how hectic life gets.
Here’s my essential toolkit for successful meal prep
Day Of The Week Food Labels
These color-coded days of the week food labels make staying organized easier than ever
Freezer Tape and Sharpie Set
Keep things organized with clever tape that won't fall off in the freezer
Bag Stabilizer Stand
These sturdy food bag holders will give you an extra pair of hands when you need them
Ziploc Twist’n’Loc Food Containers
These handy boxes come in all shapes and sizes and are BPA-free - Try weight training
Forget sweating out calories on a treadmill; by building muscle, weight training has been shown to burn fat more effectively than cardio workouts. Strength exercises with weights increase your resting metabolic rate, meaning that you’ll burn more calories, even at rest. – Yes, you heard that right – weight training can help you burn more calories even when you’re sitting on the couch later on. Compare this to cardio, where you stop burning calories at a higher rate as soon as you take your foot off the gas, and it becomes clear where you should be spending your time at the gym.
RELATED: The Best Budget Home Gym Equipment - Ditch Alcohol
Steering clear of booze might be the way to shifting those last few stubborn pounds. If you must indulge, then stick to low-calorie drinks. How do you know what’s the best choice? – If in doubt, stick to clear drinks; think vodka and soda, spritzers and slimline gin and tonics with no flavoring. - Visualizing
Sometimes it’s hard to make a change just because you’ve been a certain way, or have eaten a certain way for so long. But if you start imagining a different way of living, with a healthier, leaner bod, then it might be the kickstart you need to succeed. Take a few minutes every day to vividly imagine a slimmer you who’s making more nourishing choices, and you’ll realize that you don’t have to be ‘stuck this way’ forever. You have the power to make your life exactly what you want it to be.
With the ketogenic diet dominating every weight loss article, it can be easy to forget that there are other worthwhile ways to shed the pounds. If you’re not a Keto devotee, then give one of these other methods a try to help you shift the weight and keep it off.
