When you take a look at the weight management tips below, they’re going to seem a little strange. They are not all focused on eating less and/or exercising more.
So why are we pushing tips for things that aren’t directly related to weight loss? Because most of the standard approaches to weight loss don’t work very well. Making huge changes to your diet, depriving your body of food energy and nutrition, and/or maintaining strenuous workout programs, is at the very least difficult or impossible to accomplish.
At worst, they are dangerous to your physical and mental health and well-being.
Healthy Habits That Make it Easier to Manage Your Weight
Healthy, sustained weight management doesn’t happen by cutting calories or trying to burn more by doing something that you’re just not into. It happens by transforming your eating habits and relationship with food. Except that’s not much easier than cutting calories.
But the habits listed here are all relatively easy to adopt if you want to. And when you manage to adopt one or more of them, it can put you in the mindset you need to make bigger transitions. Like having a healthier, more rewarding relationship with food.
1. Try to Improve Your Posture
What does working at desks, being self-conscious, and carrying extra weight have in common? They can all contribute to poor posture. And if you can imagine what would happen to a tall building if its structure wasn’t properly aligned, you’ll get an idea of how bad poor posture can be for your overall health.
Improving your posture with proper spine and joint alignment reduces the stress on your body. It can relieve muscle and joint pain, and improve your circulation, energy levels and range of motion. All of which actually makes it easier for you to be more active.
2. Get Up & Move Around Regularly
By regularly, we mean at least once an hour. If you can’t do that, try once every hour and a half—or whatever time interval works for you. Your body really likes to move. That’s why, if you sit too long, getting up can be a little painful. Try to get up throughout the day, even when you’re online or watching TV. Just a few minutes of standing and doing some stretches and or walking around every hour will keep your joints lubricated, keep your blood circulating, and give you more energy.
3. Use a Skin Moisturizer with SPF
There’s nothing wrong with pampering yourself, especially when it helps in so many ways. Applying a quality whole-body moisturizer once a day will not only help your skin look better but rubbing it on helps increase your circulation and the SPF helps protect you against skin cancer, which up to one in every five people may experience in their lifetimes.
4. Breathe
You already got this one, right?! But we all experience a range of emotions every day. Whether it’s anxiety, fear, anger anger, they can all get the better of you and prevent you from functioning normally. And part of that is the interruption to your normal breathing patterns that they can cause.
By learning to recognize when you are being overcome by emotions, and taking steps to consciously breathe properly, not only will you minimize the effect of the emotion, but you’ll be able to stay focused, feel better and have more energy.
5. Be Mindful of Chewing Your Food
Even if you ate the healthiest foods, if you eat them too quickly, it can cause many problems. Bloating, indigestion, even poor nutrient absorption can all be caused or made worse by eating too quickly.
Try to be more conscious of every bite you take, and chew your food for longer. It will help you enjoy the food more, improve your digestion, and help you eat less, while still feeling satisfied.
If you would like to learn healthy eating habits to help you healthily lose weight, visit your nearest Herbal One Centre and speak to one of our nutrition counsellors.
For more tips, check out our article ‘Healthy Eating Tips for Your 20s‘.