Weight loss and healthy eating is what the new year is all about. Coming out of the holidays, most of us are ready to focus in improving our quality of life and changing our diet is one of the best ways to feel better and be healthier. If nutrition or especially weight loss is your goal this year, here are some helpful tips.
- Keep that stress under control. Increased stress, anxiety or even depression will change hormone levels in an unfavorable way for weight loss. Some people can make all of the right food choices, but still feel like they aren’t making progress. In these situations, stress can often be the reason why. There are many ways to help keep stress under control, but you will have to experiment to find the best option for you. Some of these could be worth a try: meditation, acupuncture, doing an enjoyable hobby or activity for 1 hour/day, journaling, accomplishing small goals and socializing in a positive environment.
- Get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Not getting an adequate amount of sleep makes us crave refined foods. We’re also usually more sluggish and fatigued overall and therefore are less likely to put effort into making healthy choices. For tips on how to get better sleep, check out my video here.
- Exercise. This is a duh tip, but it has to be mentioned. Exercise increases your metabolism and helps with stress. It has been said that if all of the benefits of exercise could be put into a pill, it would be the most widely prescribed medicine on the planet
- Avoid refined and processed foods. These foods load us up with calories (macronutrients) with minimal amounts of vitamins and minerals (micronutrients). Check out this blog post for more this topic
- Get a coach! Nutrition coaching is the best way to get get motivated, educated and held accountable. The amount of information on nutrition and dieting is overwhelming and it is easy to end up not taking any action (paralysis by analysis). A good coach creates an individualized plan for sustainable healthy eating habits. Click here for My vote of the best nutrition coach.