Who doesn’t want to get in the right shape without any sweat? In the extremely busy schedules of our daily lives, if only simple everyday activities could help us in losing weight! The truth is that many activities can help. It’s not mandatory to always hit the gym or the running ground to shed off the extra inches. You can tone up while performing your daily errands too. Food lovers who find it hard to adhere to a strict diet plan can also maintain themselves. Here’s how –
1. Get Sufficient Sleep and Wake Up Fresh Every Morning
Lack of proper sleep directly affects our metabolism rate, which further leads to weight gain. Insufficient sleep escalates the risk of obesity and diabetes. When a person does not sleep, insulin sensitivity decreases rapidly and can elevate the likelihood of weight gain. Also, when you are sleepy at work you tend to reach out for a cup of coffee (or several cups) or a quick bite of energy bars to make your mind work faster. Later in the evening, the weariness prevents you from taking a walk or engage in any other kind of physical activity. At night, the knackered body cannot wait for the dinner to digest properly before sneaking into the bed, which automatically leads to weight gain.
“When you have sleep deprivation and are running on low energy, you automatically go for a bag of potato chips or other comfort foods,” says Susan Zafarlotfi, PhD, clinical director of the Institute for Sleep and Wake Disorders at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. So you need to aim for at least seven to eight hours of good sleep to keep a check on weight and lead a healthy lifestyle.
2. Say Hello to Fruits and Vegetables
Increasing the daily intake of healthy food items will leave less space for junk to get inside your stomach. Consuming more fibers helps in speeding up the metabolism rate, which helps in promoting weight loss. Another benefit of eating fruits and vegetables is that they contain water. The high water content is good for our digestive systems and also proves to be a healthy snack to munch on, sans the calories, cholesterol, fat, salt or sugar like other fried snacks.
3. Chew Your Food 32 Times
One thing which many people neglect as they attempt to lose weight is to chew their food in the right manner. It’s not something most of us really think about, but it’s actually one of the best weight loss techniques. Chewing helps in proper digestion and doesn’t let food accumulate as fat in our body. When we eat slower, our hunger gets quenched faster than usual, hence, we eat less than what we otherwise would have eaten. This ultimately leads to weight loss. When you are chewing properly you are also benefiting your body in other ways. While chewing your salivary glands secrete saliva which works towards removing harmful bacteria from your food.
Furthermore, your saliva contains the enzymes which aid in digestion and help to access your food’s nutrients. Chewing more will mix more enzymes through the food, releasing more nutrients.
4. Say No to Elevators
Don’t let the laziness conquer your will to stay active and reduce that extra weight. We often tend to choose the easier path to any task at hand. How many of us actually choose staircases over the comfortable elevators? It’s time to become more active and follow some daily activities for easy weight loss. Using the stairs will help in digestion and burn extra calories.
5. Eat Home More Often
Eating out on a regular basis can have harmful repercussions. Most often we tend to overeat, indulge in oily and greasy food, and deviate from following a balanced diet. In the fit of hunger we hardly think about calories. Whereas eating at home helps us in consuming a healthier meal made using less oil, fresh ingredients and simple cooking method.
6. Follow the 1 Mile Rule
Stepping out of our comfortable lifestyle is a tough task indeed. But the least we can do to keep out body fit is by avoiding transports for a mile or two. Leaving home ten minutes prior to walk down to our destination won’t waste much of our time and help us burn calories as well as save money. Also we will contribute to our environment by creating less pollution.
7. Buy and Use a Pedometer
Pedometer is an instrument for estimating the distance travelled on foot by recording the number of steps taken. They are a constant source of motivation and prove to be goal setters. It is a fantastic tool for someone who is trying to become more motivated about staying fit. There is something inherently encouraging about seeing the number of steps that you have taken in a day or the number of steps you need to take in order to reach your goal. Studies have shown that sedentary individuals who start wearing a pedometer for weight loss increase their daily activity by an average of 2000 steps per day. That’s nearly an extra mile walked every day. That translates to approximately 100 extra calories burned daily, which is a total of 36,500 per year or almost 10.5 pounds lost.
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