Have you tried every diet imaginable only to find yourself even more frustrated than you were before hopping on the hype train? You’re not alone. While I’m not going to say that diets don’t work, but for the majority of people out there, the results are lackluster, and you end up having a horrible relationship with food. If you’re looking for permanent weight loss, there are a few key habits that you’ll want to learn.
In this article, you will find seven key habits that you need to understand and start implementing into your life to help achieve permanent weight loss. These invaluable practices can become second nature, and before you know it, you won’t even need to think about them as you’ll be on cruise control with your life and weight loss.
Disclaimer: It is recommended you speak with your doctor before engaging in a workout program, diet, or introducing a new supplement into your routine. You should also consider speaking with a dietician if you are trying to lose weight.
1. Keep Moving
One of the worst things you can do if you want to achieve permanent weight loss is to become stagnant. If you stop moving and become lazy, so will your metabolism. When the demand put on your body to create energy diminishes, your metabolism thinks it can take a vacation and slows things down. Don’t allow it.
Get up and move more throughout the day. Park in the back of the parking lot and walk into the office or store. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. All the little things you do throughout the day when you move more can equate to some serious weight loss over time.
2. Change Your Mindset
The negative and unhealthy behaviors you’re currently engaged in did not happen overnight. You didn’t do them once, and now you can’t break free of them. Those habits were formed over time and repetition. So, just like how they were formed, new and healthier habits need to be formed in their place. But you need to stay headstrong if you want to achieve permanent weight loss.
Results and weight loss can come when you are consistent and committed. You can’t be good for one day and bad for the next and expect to see any sort of real changes in your weight and physique. A key is to enjoy the process and remind yourself of why you’re making the changes that you are. It should be noted that your energy levels may be up and down during the transition from old habits to new, healthier ones as your body adjusts to what you’re putting it through. Shift your mindset to a place of understanding versus “Why is this happening? I don’t like it.”
3. Make “YOU” Time a Priority
One of the worst things you can do is never take time for yourself to have fun, relax, and unwind. The constant hustle and bustle of life can take a toll on all of us, and as our stress levels rise and stay elevated, a stress hormone known as cortisol is released. This causes a domino effect where cortisol can cause the body to more easily hold onto body fat as well as cause ghrelin (a hunger hormone) levels to go up, which can lead to overeating.
Stress and not finding enough time for yourself and self-care can have major consequences. While you may be the type to think you need to keep pushing, keep grinding, a don’t stop mentality — you’ll never achieve permanent weight loss with that strategy. You need balance. Make an effort to schedule “you” time daily, and you’ll be surprised at how much energy you can maintain throughout the day, as well as the ability to watch the numbers on the scale going down.
4. Prep Your Meals
If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s that simple. People who are caught off-guard tend to make poor choices. When a decision needs to be made in a hurry, it’s generally not the best solution to the problem. When it comes to permanent weight loss, you need to plan ahead. That means prep your meals ahead of time.
To simplify things, most people will take one day each week (such as a Sunday) to prep all their food in bulk. That means they may grill all their protein for the week, steam all their vegetables, etc. When done, everything either goes into a Tupperware container based on its contents, or some people will even make up full meals and put each in a Tupperware container, so all they need to do is pull out a container, and their entire meal is ready to go.
If you don’t prep your meals, you risk running into the issue where you need something, and out of convenience, you’re always ordering greasy fast food or huge meals from restaurants that are two times the portion you actually need. This habit is 100% necessary if you truly want to achieve permanent weight loss.
5. Everything in Moderation
Have you tried a diet that forced you to completely remove fat or carbohydrates from your nutrition plan? How did that make you feel? You probably can’t say it out loud without swearing like a sailor, right? You’re not alone. Those diets (to put it bluntly) SUCK. They aren’t a lifestyle diet. They aren’t easily able to be maintained for a long duration. Even after 24 hours, you’re probably left with some MASSIVE cravings. Is that how you want to live the rest of your life? Can you swear yourself off of pizza or ice cream? What about donuts? Mmmmm… donuts.
But in all seriousness, who in their right mind would want to go through that kind of torture to achieve permanent weight loss? It’s insanity! Move towards the habit of having everything in moderation. You can keep your protein intake at a moderate or high level but don’t give up your carbohydrates or fats. Heck, don’t even give up your sweets and desserts — simply have a smaller portion of them and in moderation (not every day).
6. Schedule Your Workouts
If you have an important meeting that could be huge for your business or employer, you put that in your calendar because it’s a priority, right? What happens to things you want to do that you don’t put in your calendar? They are probably either forgotten about or never get done, no? If your health and permanent weight loss are a priority, it needs to go in your calendar so you don’t forget it and always fit it in.
Related Article: Is Research Saying to Smoke Marijuana Before Exercise?
Weekdays, weekends, it doesn’t matter — if permanent weight loss is your goal, you need to schedule it. That means blocking off an hour or so where you can hit the gym and get in your resistance training as well as your cardio. Some people will focus on one or the other, but if you want the best results possible, you need to combine both to help preserve and build lean muscle mass while stripping away stubborn body fat.
7. Get More Sleep
Some people are proud that they stay up all night working, playing video games, or watching Netflix. But what I want you to do is look at those individuals. Do they look to be healthy, or are they holding onto a bit of weight? Don’t judge or call them out for it, just take a mental note.
A lack of sleep (just like with stress) can cause cortisol and ghrelin levels to rise. This will cause you to see an increase in weight, you’ll store more body fat, your muscles may not fully recover from your workouts, and therefore, you have issues building quality muscle tissue, and worse of all, you’re exhausted all day long.
If you want to get the most benefit from your time in bed, ensure you get a minimum of seven hours of sleep per night. And no, that doesn’t mean to lay in bed all night scrolling through your social media feeds until you eventually doze off, only to find a short time later that your alarm is already going off and you need to start your day.
The bottom line is to get to bed early, shut off the electronics, and prioritize your sleep if you truly want to achieve permanent weight loss.
BONUS WEIGHT LOSS TIP!
Many people look for stimulants to help them achieve permanent weight loss. If you’re sensitive to stimulants, workout at night, or simply don’t want to add stimulants to your regimen, MuscleSport CarniShredcan help ignite your fat-burning potential.
CarniShred utilizes two forms of carnitine (L-Carnitine Tartrate and L-Carnitine Fumarate) along with powerful ingredients like Grains of Paradise, patented Lean GBB®, and Capistra™. This potent matrix of ingredients helps your body naturally metabolize and utilize fat as energy to help fuel your intense training sessions as well as your day.
If you’re looking for permanent weight loss, add MuscleSport CarniShred into your plan to help support your weight loss and fat loss goals!