5 Realistic Health Tips To Get You In The Best Shape Of Your Life

Are you trying to be healthy? Are you frustrated because it’s hard to maintain a diet or exercise regularly? You are not alone, of course. Most people who try to lose weight face these issues and eventually end up abandoning their fitness regimen.

Sure Hollywood stars make getting in shape look easy. But not everyone can survive on boiled vegetables and broiled chicken, especially if you have to hold down a job and maintain a family simultaneously. But weight loss doesn’t have to be this difficult.

The key is to design a routine you can stick to and set goals you can realistically achieve. Losing weight isn’t about crash diets. It is about persistence.

Maintain A Diet You Can Follow

There’s a lot of conflicting information about what constitutes a healthy diet, but the truth is that no one kind of diet is right for everyone. What works for you may not work for your best friend or even your partner. That said, some common principles can help you make sense of the madness.

As you might know, diet is much more important for weight loss than exercise. If you don’t check what you eat, all your exercise will be in vain. Eat more fresh produce and lean proteins than processed foods. You can find a variety of recipes on the internet for healthy cooking. You don’t have to sacrifice taste to make your diet healthy. Simply switch to healthier ingredients.

Other than the caloric value of the ingredients, look at their Glycaemic Index (GI). A higher GI indicates that glucose is released at a faster rate from the food. If glucose is released faster, you have to burn it off more rapidly. Otherwise, it turns into fat. Lower GI food, on the other hand, causes our blood sugar to rise and fall slower and gives us the feeling of being full for longer.

However, a low GI isn’t everything. It is the total nutritional value of food, along with its GI, that matters. According to Harvard Health Publishing, chocolate (40) has a lower GI than a banana (53). See the problem?

Some other foods with a low GI that you can eat for a healthy diet are lentils (24), soya beans (16), apples (36), muesli (57), corn tortillas (46), and specialty grain bread (53).

Before making any significant changes to your diet, try consulting a Nutritionist Southlake, or a doctor. But then fix a diet that you will enjoy eating. Otherwise, it would be hard to stick to it. Change it up every once in a while just to keep your taste buds interested. It is better to maintain a 2,000-calorie diet for a year than a 1,500-calorie diet for two months.

Pro tip: allow yourself the occasional indulgence. We all need a break every once in a while.

Make Exercise A Part Of Your Daily Activities

You need to exercise properly to maintain a healthy lifestyle. But it can be difficult to drag yourself to the gym after a full day of work. Many people also find working out in a gym boring and restrictive.

A good alternative would be to incorporate your workout into a fun activity. If your goal is to primarily lose weight, you Don’t necessarily have to lift dumbbells. Don’t make a mistake. It definitely helps, but if you don’t want to or don’t have the time to do that, you can make some simple adjustments to your life to try and compensate for that.

You can try biking to work or going on hikes if you have trails near your house. According to Timothy Burnett, Ph.D., an instructor of kinesiology at Oregon State University, an easy estimate of how many calories the average person burns is 100 calories per mile, irrespective of whether you’re running a marathon or taking a nice leisurely stroll.

Therefore, you see that you don’t have to dive head-first into a rigorous fitness routine if you don’t want to. You can start by going for a walk with your dog or a loved one (the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive) and kick it up a notch from there if you want to.

Consider Weight Loss Surgery

When it comes to weight loss, surgery is rare. In most cases, it is recommended that you lose weight with a combination of diet and exercise. But, if for medical or any other reason, the situation becomes so serious that normal fitness routines will not produce the desired results, doctors can recommend weight loss surgeries. Remember that surgery is the last resort and should only be used if absolutely necessary.

There are different surgery options available for different levels of obesity. One of the most potent surgeries offered is loop duodenal switch surgery. To simplify a pretty complex medical procedure, it reduces the size of your stomach and reroutes the way food passes through your small intestine. As a result, you eat less, and your body absorbs less fat from the food that you eat too.

Weight loss surgeries are only recommended for people who need to lose a lot of weight quickly, usually for medical reasons. It is unlikely that your doctor will recommend this to you, but there is no harm in knowing, so you can ask her about it if you want to.

Get Enough Sleep

Getting enough sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Sleep is so critical to our bodies and mental well-being that research has shown that it’s just as important as diet and exercise when it comes to preventing disease, managing weight, and improving cognitive function.

It is recommended that we get 7-9 hours of sleep every night to be fit and active the next day. Many of us who don’t do it often don’t feel the effects either. But it does take a toll on our bodies.

UChicago Medicine reports that people who managed to increase their sleep duration from less than 6.5 hours per night to around 8.5 hours per night managed to reduce their daily caloric intake by 270 Kcal. Over 3 years, that translates to a 12 kg or 26 lbs weight loss.

Do not underestimate the power of a good night’s sleep when it comes to weight loss.

Drink More Water

Your body may be made up of 60% water, but if you’re not getting enough of it throughout the day, you can experience several unpleasant symptoms. Other than the tons of medical problems it causes, drinking an insufficient amount of water can also affect how many calories you burn.

Studies have shown that the human body’s resting energy expenditure can increase by 24-30% after drinking 0.5 liters of water. This effect rises and falls in intensity but lasts for about an hour in total.

This does not mean you should keep drinking as much as possible. Drinking too much water can cause its own set of serious problems. It is generally recommended that you drink around 8 glasses or 3 liters of water a day. Of course, you can drink a little more if you want.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. You now have all the tools you need to take on your weight loss goals and make them a reality. But remember, there is only one quality that separates a successful weight loss endeavor from a failed one. Perseverance.

If you can stick to the routine you set even when you find it inconvenient, you will see results. Remember to give yourself the time you need because consistency is the key.