Discover the 7 daily habits to lose fat and KEEP it off long term! Say goodbye to yo-yo dieting and fad workouts with these sustainable strategies for lasting results.
Learn how to maintain your progress and ditch the cycle of gaining it back after the “8 week workout”.
1. Remove Trigger Foods!
The main one is DO NOT KEEP THE TRIGGER FOODS IN YOUR HOUSE and by trigger foods, I’m referring to foods/snacks that you find you have the least amount of control over to eat, the ones you tend to binge on. To limit this, stop buying multi-packs or stacking them in your house. For those of you who may be thinking “Isn’t this going to build a poor relationship with food?” Although, yes, this can be true, but it is also important to ensure you build discipline within yourself and have them in moderation.
‘Fairyland Thoughts’
In an ideal world, we would like to think that the foods that are classified as trigger foods everyone should be able to have a balanced approach and know when to stop. HOWEVER, many people don’t, and if they have a trigger food around them, they will tend to binge frequently, but it’s hard to binge on these foods if they are not in the house.
To help minimise this trait I’d recommend removing them from the household to stop temptation and easy access. If you do find that you’re craving them, have them… in moderation! For example, I love brownies, pancakes etc but I don’t keep them in my house instead i keep other sweet sources such as fruits or low calorie snacks like jelly in my house.
2. Beware of ‘Healthy’ Foods
Another huge tip is for those trying to get in shape, eat smarter and eat better, be aware of calories that are in these so-called “healthy” foods. There are some healthy foods that are quite high in calories, such as salmon, avocado, nuts, etc. so if you start filling your meals with these foods, it can be super calorie-dense, which can, in turn, make you gain weight. Choosing them over your classic junk foods is still a good thing, but I’d recommend that you be aware of the calories and portion sizes you consume of them.
Pro Tip
The lower your calories are, the more micronutrients you should pay attention to. The less you’re eating in a day, the fewer fruits/veggies you’re going to consume during the day too, thus having to think even smarter to achieve a balanced diet.
3. Drink Ice Cold Drinks
Try to drink ice cold drinks, preferably water. This doubles up as an appetite suppressant and also when you drinks that are cold your body has to work a little harder and burn calories to heat that cold liquid you consumed to maintain its body temperature. Side note – do not take this, as this alone will get you shredded because it most definitely wont but little things like this can potentially add up along side other daily habits.
4. Increase Your Daily Steps/Movement
Increasing your daily steps more, naturally., so not only when using a treadmill but when you go to a store or supermarket try not to do what we all tend to do and find a car park space near the entrance. The additional 4 or 5 minutes we use trying to find that nice, close parking space you could have used that time walking to the store. Try parking a little further away from the door and walking that extra bit.
Example
An example of this I used to always drive to a supermarket near me which is around 6 minutes drive but I now do a 20 minute walk to the store instead. A walk there and back is around 40 minutes! Not factoring in the walk around the store itself. Doing this has helped me increase my daily expenditure from 4 – 5k steps (on a good day) to now an average of 9 – 12k steps!
Those little additions add up over the course of the day if you keep doing that and contribute to maintaining and keeping the fat off!
Also increasing your daily expenditure will mean you won’t need to reduce your calories as much! You could benefit so much more by just moving more, If you find that your calories are super low but you’re not moving, simply try upping your calorie intake slightly but ensure you get yourself moving more. Monitor this physically in the mirror first and see if you can see any visible changes and then the scale.
5. Exercise When you Can
As this is pretty similar to the tip just mentioned above, I won’t go into too much depth but you should know by now exercise and resistant training is super beneficial as the more muscle mass you have the better your metabolic rate is and you’ll tend to be able to burn more calories. For those that think of exercise as a chore, you’ll need to change your mindset around that or find an activity or sport that you enjoy, it doesn’t HAVE to be the gym… (unless you main goal is to build muscle not just lose weight).
6. Eat More Fruits and Veggies
Fruits and vegetables that have more fibre and will; keep you fuller for longer, keep you more regular in going to the bathroom and they are also very nutrient dense.
Eating these types of foods tend to be lower in calorie which in turn leaves more calories for to consume during the day. For example, if you ate a chocolate bar that is maybe 150 – 250 calories for that same calorie amount you can switch that out for a larger amount of fruits/veggies which in the likelihood you probably be full before you hit anything close to those calories!
7. Ignore FAD DIETS!
Ignore the gimmick diets out there, anything that says “The *insert name here* Diet” whether this be Keto, paleo or caveman etc those type diets either tends to be super restrictive or a little bit of a scam as they make it seem as this is the only diet that can get you in shape. In reality they all work as they’re all working in a caloric deficit! Again, this also goes for the “8 Week Diets” or the “12 Week diets” they are all the same they are working a caloric deficit, they just just tends to be more restrictive usually demonising carbs.
The only way I’d recommend doing one of these type of diets and even then its not highly necessary, is if you have a close photoshoot, holiday, wedding etc and you already have the mindset of this is not an sustainable diet for after that time period.. then yes do so
If you are someone who thinks you can do these 8 week diets and then after that just stop and go back to your normal way of eating and still retain the result.. then NO! It won’t happen and you’ll gradually gain back the weight be back at square one.
Any diet you can’t see yourself maintaining for year round…it probably isn’t sustainable and you most likely know it!
Anyways, those are my 7 key tips that should help you maintain looking better in the long haul! Even if you can’t do all 7 try doing 5 of them and see how you improve, be sure to take a progress picture and do those tips consistently throughout the weeks and after 3-4 weeks take another picture and see how you feel!
Like always, below is a video for a more in depth talk on those 7 tips
