Epsom, Sutton, Surrey based Weight Loss Hypnotherapist, Maria Furtek shares with you 5 habit changes to your eating strategy and behaviour around food, that will help you lose weight more quickly, without the pain of dieting.
1) Planning is the key – if you are someone who grabs snacks on the go, or always hurries to the vending machine at work to top up on sugar, then this is clearly hindering your weight loss. It is ok to snack, but it is what you snack on that is important. If you are leaving your snacking to chance, the chance is that you are then limited in choice to what is available and usually the quickest most convenient food available then, is something like chocolate, biscuits or sweets. If you know that you are out and about or that you get peckish at work, then pack some healthy snacks for your day ahead: fresh fruit, healthy bars like Naked bars, low calorie humus and raw veggies are all good options.
2) Check your thirst levels – some people eat because they believe that they need something, even if they don’t feel hungry. This can actually be more about them not drinking enough water! Before you grab for the snack, have a big glass of water and wait for 5 minutes and then see how you feel. You may find that the desire to have a biscuit or whatever, passes as you satiate your thirst. In general, it is recommended that we drink 2 litres of water a day.
3)No time for exercise – yes I know that it is often hard to fit in the gym, a swim or a formal class. However, just moving a bit more every day will help speed up your weight loss. Go walking at lunchtime, use the stairs, walk to work. get of the bus one stop earlier, use a pedometer to track your steps and increase by 50 each week – all of this will get your body moving and burning up more calories.
4) Ready Meals for dinner – occasionally, through lack of time we may need to rely on a ready meal, but if this is becoming a habit, it needs to change. It is far healthier to cook and back freeze an extra portion for a later date. When you cook yourself using healthy ingredients, you have the joy of creating something lovely and your own meals probably have less nasties in them, such as salt, sugar etc.
5) Skipping meals – this is definitely not a good idea. Our bodies need fuel to help them function effectively. Would you be able to run your car with no fuel? No, of course not. Skipping meals is not going to help you lose weight, as your body will think it’s starving and then the next time you put food in, the likelihood is that you will overindulge to make up for the missed meal. Eat regularly- 3 meals a day and you will train your body and it will process the fuel you are putting in, knowing that another meal will be coming in a few hours time.
Just implementing these 5 simple habit changes – tweaks to your eating strategy – will leave you feeling healthier and will speed up weight loss.
Remember: If you always do, what you have always done, you will always get what you always got!