Living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t necessarily mean having to hit the gym every day and living off a diet of steam vegetables and swearing off drink forever. Living a healthy lifestyle is all about making the little changes that over time just become instinct and here are the top things you need to do:
Eat Breakfast.
We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day but one of the most common mistakes people trying to lose weight make is skipping breakfast entirely. You never normally feel very hungry when you first wake up so skipping it seems so easy until you get to 10:30am and you’re snacking on whatever you can get your hands on. When you got more than five hours without eating your body goes into starvation mode which means that when you do eat your body holds on to as much as possible to stores as fat. Skipping breakfast will leave you with less energy throughout the day and will hinder any weight loss.
Eat little and often
As we’ve already established starving yourself is not only very unhealthy it’s also going to damage any attempt to lose weight. Rather than eating three main meals in the day try and have five to six smaller meals. After you’ve had breakfast have a handful of nuts or some fruit around mid morning and do the same in the afternoon. Instead of having your main meal of the day in the evening try and have it at lunch time so you’re only eating something small at night. This means your body isn’t trying to digest a large meal when you’re at your most inactive.
Stay away from bad carbs
We all need carbohydrates to give us energy but try and get as much of your daily carb intake as possible from green vegetables rather than white pasta and white bread. If you are eating pasta and bread make sure you’re eating whole meal bread and pasta and if you’re eating potato try sweet potato instead. Ideally you need to be filling up on vegetables though.
Junk food is not your friend
We all need that little energy boost mid afternoon, the office is boring and the cookies are being passed around with the afternoon coffee break but you need to resist. This is the one rule everyone remembers until they forget it. You know you’re not meant to eat junk but before you know you’re finishing your kids snacks so they don’t go to waste of you’re having a quick chocolate bar on your way to the gym. Always make sure you have healthy food to snack on, keep some dried fruit in your office desk and a little pot of snacking seeds in your hand bag for when you do get tempted.
Give yourself a day off
The second you say you’re not eating your favourite food ever again is the day everything falls apart. You can’t start denying yourself anything so instead tell yourself if you’re good all week you get one day off. Try not to go too crazy on this day as you don’t want to undo all the hard work you’ve done over the past week but having something to look forward to that’s within easy reach could be just what you need to make you stick to your healthy lifestyle.
No healthy lifestyle is going to be complete without some form of exercise. This doesn’t mean you’ve got to kill yourself down the gym every night but just try taking the stairs instead of the lift and try going to an exercise class one night after work. If you like spending your evenings chilling out at home do some yoga in front of the television. A gym membership can be expensive especially if the novelty is going to ware off before the second payment has come out your account so don’t go spending lots of money on gyms and workout clothes unless you’re sure you can stick to it.
Sleep
This is the one thing everyone really wants to stick to but it’s easier said than done. Even if you manage to get everything done you needed to get done that day it doesn’t mean you’re going to get a good nights sleep. Make sure you don’t watch TV right before you go to bed and if anything is worrying you write it down with a pen and paper so you’re physically putting it our your mind. Make sure your room isn’t too hot or too cold and have a nice hot shower or bath to relax you before you go to bed.
Most of these things have to be a lifestyle choice and there’s no point just doing a few of these points then getting bored after a couple of weeks. If you really can’t stick to these points figure out why and figure out a way around it.
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Related articles
- Is The Mediterranean Diet Worth a Try? (dietcleanse.org)
- How to Eat Whatever You Like and Stay Healthy (detoxcleansing.org)
