To start losing weight immediately is more about a lifestyle change it’s more important than a diet. After many years of trying to lose weight, slim down, tone up — it suddenly happened — my clothes started fitting the way I’d always wanted them to. What surprised me was how effortless it was, but looking back I realised I’d made a few small but meaningful changes to how I lived.
The secret? Being kinder to myself. These are the habits that changed my life instantly.
Reduce Sugar Intake Incrementally
My sugar intake is not set in stone. I take one teaspoon of brown sugar in my coffee. Sometimes I swap it out for sweetener. If you like three teaspoons of sugar or sweetener in your coffee, try bringing it down to two, then one every other day. Swap a sugary drink out for water occasionally.
Reward Yourself For Losing Weight
The trick is to bundle a reward into every boring thing you need to do. Gym session + sauna. Healthy meal + health bar. Walk + amazing Spotify playlist. The more you associate health with fun, the easier it is to adopt it as a lifelong habit.
Feed Your Muscles
Muscles need protein, period. If you are trying to tone up and look fitter, start switching up your ratios. Next time you prep a meal, try increasing the protein by a third and reducing carbs by a third. This should mean that you feel similarly full whilst affecting what your body is taking in as fuel. Still hungry? Increase your veg intake. Drink a glass of water. And eat bananas. Lots of bananas.
I used to be very strict about my gym attendance. But that just led to burnout.
Work Out When You Can
Emphasis on “can”. I used to be very strict about my gym attendance. But that just led to burnout. Then I started to be a little more easy-going about the whole thing. Do it when you can. Always have your gym bag in the car. On your way home from a coffee date? Pop into the gym for 45 minutes. Ran out of Netflix series to watch? Swap it out for an hour learning that HIIT routine you found on Instagram. Don’t feel like driving 10 minutes to the neighbourhood gym? There’s an home workout app for that — literally dozens.
Walk
Take a ten minute walk at least once a day.
Try Not to Eat after 9PM
This does not mean that you should skip meals. Just that you should eat all of them before 9PM. This gives your body a big enough break from digesting so that it can then focus on repairing and resting.
Sleep
Lastly, try to get as much sleep as possible. If you need seven hours of sleep for instance, make that a minimum. Your body will thank you.
Doing the above consistently has left me feeling lighter, lifted my mood and increased my stamina and it will do the same for you.
