Are Some Bad Habits Making You Fat? Correct them now, and you’ll be on your way to achieving your ideal weight and maintaining it for life.
Here are smart, real ways to lose weight and keep it off by breaking these 10 bad habits:
1. Skipping Meals
Skipping meals makes you crave for massive amounts of food and later you tend to overeat. Biggest mistake fat people make? It’s skipping breakfast. You should start the day with a healthy breakfast to ‘wake up’ your metabolism, nourish your brain as well as your muscles and help you face the challenges of the day with energy and a clear mind. Even if you think you’re not really hungry, get into the habit of eating a small, balanced breakfast if you want to lose weight and keep it off.
What to eat for breakfast? How about oatmeal with berries or plain yogurt and an apple or a slice of whole wheat toast or a whole wheat bagel with nut butter? They’re all nutritious, quick to prepare, easy to take on the go and great for meals or healthy snacks.
2. Not paying attention to what you eat
If you don’t pay attention to what’s going in your mouth, it’s easy to pile up calories and gain weight! Counteract this by keeping a food journal. Write in it what you ate, when, how much you ate and how you felt at that time. Review your eating patterns to know and you will find it easier to identify bad habits like skipping meals or snacking too much.
3. Ignoring the Scales
Don’t have a good set of bathroom scales? They are widely available and cheap at big box stores. Use these to lift your weights at least a few times a week to track your progress. Once you achieve your ideal weight loss, if you gain even a few pounds or kilograms, you will be able to immediately adjust your calorie intake and get rid of them.
4. Forgetting to Exercise
We all get too busy, or get caught up in life’s responsibilities or too lazy to exercise, but it is important for health as well as to maintain a healthy weight. Promise yourself that nothing is going to come between you and that at least half an hour of physical activity every day will keep you motivated and that in three months (with proper eating habits) you can lose 10 percent of your current weight and move toward, or achieve, your desired weight.
5. Not getting enough rest
Do you know that people who do not get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight or obese? This is true. You need about 8 hours of sleep each night, unless you are pregnant, sick, or a child or teenager, while 9 hours each night is better. Too much rest (including spending time on the couch) is also a bad habit if you want to lose weight and keep it off.
6. Eating too many packaged foods
Fast food isn’t the only high-salt, high-trans fat, high-sugar food that causes weight gain. Many canned and packaged foods also contain high amounts of these fat producers, as do almost all convenience foods and most restaurant meals. To lose weight, prepare most of your meals at home, use fresh ingredients, especially vegetables, fruits, lean meats, poultry, fish, and limit dairy, grains (choose whole grains) and nuts and you’ll feel better, live longer, and find it easier to manage your weight.
7. Snacking All Day
You’re especially prone to mindless snacking when you’re tired, bored, stressed or sad. To help break this bad habit, eat 5 or 6 small meals during the day, skip meals 3 hours before bedtime, and get rid of all crackers, chips, pretzels, roasted nuts, ice cream, cake, cookies, pies and other snack items in your fridge or on your food cabinets.
8. Relying on ‘will power’
Having willpower is a very good quality, but it is wise not to give in to temptation. Lose weight and keep it off by not buying those ‘bad for you’ dishes, because if they’re in your house, the time will come when they’ll be calling your name, and you won’t be able to resist.
9. Eating in front of the TV
Or that talking on the phone is a bad idea because it’s so easy to overeat when you’re concentrating on something else. Turn off the TV, sit down at the table, and eat a proper meal to help your brain get the message that you are well fed.
10. Gulping down your food
Stress, fewer lunch hours, no time for dinner – all cause us to overeat and rush, which can not only lead to health problems like chronic heartburn, but also make us eat more than we actually need. To lose weight, slow down! chew your food Put your fork or spoon down between bites. Give yourself permission to savor and enjoy every bite!
Source by JB Johnson
