It’s not easy when you want to start with something new in your life, no matter what it is. We rarely think about it, but where should you start with something that you have no idea about?
If you want to start making changes when it comes to weight problems you are definitely to ask yourself this question. Truth is – nowadays, it is not that hard to find information. Acting the right way and persisting in the changes you’ve made is the difficult part.
Here we will try to give some answers as to what you can do to start changing your life for the better. We believe in making small changes in your day-to-day activities. These will leave a bigger impact in the long run and teach you about patience. With a little effort from your side, the steps we gave here will bring you towards a healthier lifestyle.
Let us start with dieting. There are several changes that you might benefit from. First, we will say a few words about which drinks to introduce to your diet and later on we shall focus on food.
Beverage
Drinking more water daily has shown to make an impact when it comes to your metabolism.[1] This is a simple trick you can implement with ease and is convenient to follow. A few other beverages that might help you with obesity are coffee and tea. However, not any kind. You should drink green tea and black coffee more than other sorts.[2][3]
Be careful when drinking juice, sugary drinks, and sodas. They usually have high sugar content which means they contain more calories than you need. Say goodbye to them.
Food
Choosing the right food is crucial when it comes to losing pounds. If you continue with poor nutritional choices you will struggle when trying to lose weight. Therefore, slowly start considering what you put on your plate every day.
Unfortunately for the majority of people, simple and processed sugar has to go off your menu. Forget about sweets, cakes, and similar food. These will only hold you back when trying to lose weight. That doesn’t mean you can’t any of those. You can find substitutions anywhere you look. Find something with a sweetener, or with low sugar content. There are plenty of healthy sweet foods out there, you just have to give them a chance.
Food filled with excess fat won’t do you good either. Consider eating food which you would usually fry in some other fashion or switch it with a completely different dish. Too much fat in food will simply go to your fat reserves, something you do not need.
What you should look for when going to the supermarket are veggies and fruits. Fibrous food of any kind is really good when trying to fight obesity.[4] However, be careful not to eat too much of these either! You can enter a caloric surplus with any type of food. Just because you are eating something healthy by definition does not mean you can eat as much as you want of it.
Think about slowly making changes in your eating habits. Diets that make a huge difference in your life abruptly rarely lead to a positive change. Rather, a slow and steady approach might be more suitable. If you start introducing healthier meals gradually you won’t need to “diet” because your eating habits will already be completely different in a matter of weeks or months.
In general, you might also want to consider eating more protein-based food. They have a lower caloric value since one gram of protein has fewer calories than one gram of fat. It’s a rule of thumb that you might find useful especially with eating something for the first time.
Let us move on from the nutrition ideas to some lifestyle changes you ought to start with.
Lifestyle
Consider moving more in general. Just go somewhere, anywhere, as much as possible! Go for walks in the park, hiking in the hills, jog every morning. All of these will help you out to a certain extent. Why? Because they will start using up some of the adipose tissue you have stored. From there on it is only a matter of time before you start noticing a change.
An interesting life hack you could give a shot is walking or perhaps riding a bicycle to your workplace, school, or any other facility you need to pay a visit to. Just walking to your office, if you have that possibility, might result in an hour (or more) of walking every day. That is a big change in comparison to driving to your workplace, but you will be thankful later.
Pick up some kind of sport if you can. That does not necessarily mean going to the gym by yourself. There are plenty of other options for you to choose from. Start taking classes of something you’ve always loved but rarely had time for.
Running and swimming are phenomenal examples because they will not only test your endurance, but they will also activate your whole body. While performing these activities your body uses up almost every single muscle in the body which will inevitably burn a lot of calories.
Try forming a routine. Once you get into a state of routine you will rarely skip any workout or exercise that you have prepared. You will simply feel empty and out of shape if you decide to skip it. It won’t become such a big problem to go for a bicycle ride in the evening or soccer practice with your buddies after you have already done it several times.
Conclusion
There you have it. We hope some of the ideas we’ve put in the article might help you out with manifesting a positive change in your life. Surely, the advice given here isn’t extremely hard to follow. Just keep a positive attitude and try out different things. Never giving up is what matters most when changing daily habits. Lastly, keeping things fun and simple might help you out on the journey.
Sources
- Boschmann M. et al. (2003). Water-induced thermogenesis. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14671205
- R Hursel, W Viechtbauer & M S Westerterp-Plantenga(2009). The effects of green tea on weight loss and weight maintenance: a meta-analysis. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2009135
- Ellen Scott (2019). Drinking coffee could help you lose weight. Retrieved from https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/25/drinking-coffee-help-lose-weight-says-study-10054617/
- Clark MJ & Slavin JL. (2013). The effect of fiber on satiety and food intake: a systematic review. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23885994
- Ledoux TA1, Hingle MD, Baranowski T. (2011). Relationship of fruit and vegetable intake with adiposity: a systematic review. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2010.00786.x
