All of a sudden now, everyone wants to eat healthy, be fit and look like celebrities. We start off each year with a resolution to stay fit and healthy, join gyms and buy ourselves all the right fitness gear to get us into the the mode of healthy living. While we all start off well, most of us give up too soon. This is because, as always, life gets in the way- work, stress, family, busy lifestyle, lack of motivation and such other factors forbid you from achieving your 'healthy-living' goals.
A lot of us may have tried shortcuts and fad diets. If you have, you know that they simply do not work. In fact, they have a negative impact on our bodies. Our bodies can't adapt to drastic changes. Simple changes in life, though, could lead to big differences. By that I mean that we need to take little steps at a time, as even the littlest of change in our routine or lifestyle can be daunting to us and our bodies. What are those simple changes? How can we incorporate those changes into our everyday routine? It's fairly simple, but the key is make it work is to take it one step at a time. Here are some of the ways to incorporate those little but life-changing changes into your lifestyle:
1. Eating Healthy
If you want to burn off those extra calories, cutting down on your portion size is what can help the most during the initial stages. Following a new diet plan that doesn't include your most favourite dishes and desserts is certainly effective, but extremely daunting for the mind and body. So what do you do? At first, you do not completely give up on eating anything you like. Instead, you continue eating all that like as normal but you just eat a bit less than usual. Eating less means consuming fewer calories. To compensate for the missing calories, your body is left with no other option than to burn off the some of the accumulated fat. The process might be a bit slow but once you notice losing inches, you'll be automatically motivated to switch to healthier options with fewer calories.
2. Exercising
Exercising is a great way to burn off that extra fat from your bodies. The trouble is that once you start exercising, your entire body aches and since the changes are not seen immediately, you are not motivated enough to continue. What if we could bring little changes into our lives instead? If where you work isn't too far from home, why not cycle or walk to walk everyday instead of driving there each day? If it's at a distance from home, then you need to drive there obviously, but again, you could not park right outside your office. Instead, you can park your car a few blocks or streets away and then walk the rest of the distance to work. So whether you are driving to work, going shopping or doing a school run, you can try parking your car a little bit further from the shops. Imagine doing that everyday. Walking is a very simple and easy exercise that you can do everyday without wearing you off too much. Once your body gets accustomed to walking a certain distance, you could help it walk further or by walking at a faster pace as you progress.
If you work from home or are a stay at home parent, there are several options for you too. Let's just talk about doing your laundry. Imagine you carry all your laundry from your bedroom downstairs to the washing machine in your utility room. Instead of carrying it all in one go, you could try doing it in three or may be even four steps. Once your washing is done, you could again take the wet clothes out, a few at a time, to put them on the washing line to dry. Once dried, bring them back in, again only several of them at a time. It is more time consuming than usual of course, but what a simple and easy way to cut down on the body fat. Imagine how much you'll burn going up and down the stairs and in and out of the house, several times, and that too for only one chore. Talk about doing all the chores around the house!
3. Nipping a Bad Habit in the Bud
Whether it is giving up on smoking or stop eating junk food, giving it up all at once is certainly not the right thing to do. Depriving your body completely of something it is so accustomed to can be dangerous. Instead, making the right day-to-day choices will help you achieve realistic goals. If, for instance, you are a smoker and used to taking 7 cigarettes everyday, you could give up on smoking one cigarette at a time in the day...bring it down to 6, then to 5 next week and so on until you have gradually come down to smoking just one a day. Once you have done this, you could make a switch to e-cigarettes and may be give up on them too altogether one day. I am not saying it would be easy. It won't be but gradual changes like these are easier to make than sudden, drastic changes. Trust me, it is completely doable. You just need to train your brain to adapt to the change.
Likewise, if you are used to munching on unhealthy bits like sugary and biscuits and calorie-rich crisps, you can continue you munch but on healthier options like pieces of fruits, vegetable, dried fruits or nuts. These will still give you something to munch and snack upon but without compromising on your health.
The choices you tend to make everyday have a big influence on your health and body. I understand that with today's busy lifestyle, it is more difficult to maintain a perfectly active and healthy lifestyle, mind and body than it was ever before. Nothing is impossible though. Create simple strategies and set out achievable goals like we discussed above and you'll be able to generate life-changing, long-lasting changes in your lifestyle. These changes don’t have to be heavy on your pocket or be too time-consuming. However, every little positive change you make will help bring about big differences in your life and make it more meaningful for you.
A lot of us may have tried shortcuts and fad diets. If you have, you know that they simply do not work. In fact, they have a negative impact on our bodies. Our bodies can't adapt to drastic changes. Simple changes in life, though, could lead to big differences. By that I mean that we need to take little steps at a time, as even the littlest of change in our routine or lifestyle can be daunting to us and our bodies. What are those simple changes? How can we incorporate those changes into our everyday routine? It's fairly simple, but the key is make it work is to take it one step at a time. Here are some of the ways to incorporate those little but life-changing changes into your lifestyle:
1. Eating Healthy
If you want to burn off those extra calories, cutting down on your portion size is what can help the most during the initial stages. Following a new diet plan that doesn't include your most favourite dishes and desserts is certainly effective, but extremely daunting for the mind and body. So what do you do? At first, you do not completely give up on eating anything you like. Instead, you continue eating all that like as normal but you just eat a bit less than usual. Eating less means consuming fewer calories. To compensate for the missing calories, your body is left with no other option than to burn off the some of the accumulated fat. The process might be a bit slow but once you notice losing inches, you'll be automatically motivated to switch to healthier options with fewer calories.
2. Exercising
Exercising is a great way to burn off that extra fat from your bodies. The trouble is that once you start exercising, your entire body aches and since the changes are not seen immediately, you are not motivated enough to continue. What if we could bring little changes into our lives instead? If where you work isn't too far from home, why not cycle or walk to walk everyday instead of driving there each day? If it's at a distance from home, then you need to drive there obviously, but again, you could not park right outside your office. Instead, you can park your car a few blocks or streets away and then walk the rest of the distance to work. So whether you are driving to work, going shopping or doing a school run, you can try parking your car a little bit further from the shops. Imagine doing that everyday. Walking is a very simple and easy exercise that you can do everyday without wearing you off too much. Once your body gets accustomed to walking a certain distance, you could help it walk further or by walking at a faster pace as you progress.
If you work from home or are a stay at home parent, there are several options for you too. Let's just talk about doing your laundry. Imagine you carry all your laundry from your bedroom downstairs to the washing machine in your utility room. Instead of carrying it all in one go, you could try doing it in three or may be even four steps. Once your washing is done, you could again take the wet clothes out, a few at a time, to put them on the washing line to dry. Once dried, bring them back in, again only several of them at a time. It is more time consuming than usual of course, but what a simple and easy way to cut down on the body fat. Imagine how much you'll burn going up and down the stairs and in and out of the house, several times, and that too for only one chore. Talk about doing all the chores around the house!
3. Nipping a Bad Habit in the Bud
Whether it is giving up on smoking or stop eating junk food, giving it up all at once is certainly not the right thing to do. Depriving your body completely of something it is so accustomed to can be dangerous. Instead, making the right day-to-day choices will help you achieve realistic goals. If, for instance, you are a smoker and used to taking 7 cigarettes everyday, you could give up on smoking one cigarette at a time in the day...bring it down to 6, then to 5 next week and so on until you have gradually come down to smoking just one a day. Once you have done this, you could make a switch to e-cigarettes and may be give up on them too altogether one day. I am not saying it would be easy. It won't be but gradual changes like these are easier to make than sudden, drastic changes. Trust me, it is completely doable. You just need to train your brain to adapt to the change.
Likewise, if you are used to munching on unhealthy bits like sugary and biscuits and calorie-rich crisps, you can continue you munch but on healthier options like pieces of fruits, vegetable, dried fruits or nuts. These will still give you something to munch and snack upon but without compromising on your health.
The choices you tend to make everyday have a big influence on your health and body. I understand that with today's busy lifestyle, it is more difficult to maintain a perfectly active and healthy lifestyle, mind and body than it was ever before. Nothing is impossible though. Create simple strategies and set out achievable goals like we discussed above and you'll be able to generate life-changing, long-lasting changes in your lifestyle. These changes don’t have to be heavy on your pocket or be too time-consuming. However, every little positive change you make will help bring about big differences in your life and make it more meaningful for you.
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