So it’s that time of year again! new year’s resolutions! and one of the most common new year’s resolutions is to lose weight and get into shape. In fact resolutions about losing weight makes up for about 35 percent of all new year’s resolutions which is not surprising.
The trouble is most don’t stick to those resolutions. It all sounds good in theory, people don’t worry about it in December and then as soon as the 1st of January comes around that’s when their plan goes into overdrive.
The below tips are aimed at helping you to achieve your fitness goals long term. Be persistent and then be consistent.
Top 10 Tips to Lose Weight this New Year!
- Keep to it
Be persistent, it takes time for new things to become habit, and even longer before it becomes part of our lifestyles. In time it will become apart of you, after enough time it will become a part of your personality. Read more on developing good habits.
- Make small targets
Be realistic about your goals. Achieving a small target will help to keep you motivated. Failing to achieve a big target will only lead to demoralization and you quitting completely.
- Be patient!
Change takes time, don’t go scanning your body or weighing yourself every day. It takes time to start seeing results. If you are going to weigh yourself, only jump on the scales once a week. Personally I don’t really like the scales, I much prefer to judge progress on appearance. Only relying on the scales to judge your progress can be counterproductive.
- Don’t take things to the extremes
Don’t say you are going to hit the gym everyday all day and plan to eat nothing but lettuce and carrots. That is just not going to happen, not for very long anyway. After a few days or weeks you are going to become miserable, and you will probably just quit until next January comes along.
- Don’t allow yourself to become too hungry
Often people skip meals, breakfast being the most common one. When we miss meals we can become very hungry, and it’s when we become very hungry that we become less picky about the things that we eat.
- Keep track of your daily calories
I can be difficult to keep track of our daily food intake, sometimes we even lie to ourselves about how much we are actually eating. Tracking your calories will help us to keep honest with ourselves and it will be a clear indicator of where we are going wrong or going right.
- Red, Orange and Green
This is the rule of making sure your meals have at least one food, Fruit or Vegetables (Not Sweets) that is Red, Orange or Green. This is key to maintaining a healthy fat burning body. Fruit and vegetable colors.
- Drink plenty of water
Drinking water is not only great for maintaining a healthy body. It also fills up our stomach and makes us feel fuller, so we are less likely to over eat.
- Think about the nutrients
Try to think a bit more about what you are eating, does what you eat actually provide your body with any nutrients? Giving our bodies the nutrients it needs can be very important in preventing over eating and snacking.
- Treat yourself
It’s okay to treat yourself to a food you love, even when trying to lose weight. You can use this idea to reward yourself for achieving a particular goal.
