Whether you’re trying to lose weight, feel better or just eat healthier, my health and wellness tips will help. If you’re like many people, weight loss is your goal for the new year. That’s great, but did you know that the majority of people fail at this goal? They fail because they set unrealistic expectations and they are doing it all wrong. Check out my post “Ditch the Fad Diets for Good” where I go into all the reasons why dieting doesn’t work. It’s worth the read and will change your outlook on dieting once and for all!
Weight Loss and/or Healthy Living Tips from Nutritiously Rooted
[1] Eat real food.
This means eating plenty of high quality protein, healthy fats and quality carbohydrates. It’s not about cutting food groups and starving yourself. You must eat to lose weight and get healthy, it’s just about what you put in your body that’s important. Quality is key. Choose organic animal products and produce whenever possible, eat your veggies and read your food labels! Those ingredient labels can tell you so much. Don’t recognize several of the ingredients? Chances are it’s not good for you. You need to start eating real food that your body can use to enhance health, rather than eating “food” from packages that is engineered to taste good and that barely even resembles food. This brings me to my next point.
Check out my Whole Food Guide that goes through everything you need to know about nutrition, including:
- What you should be eating
- How much
- What you should be avoiding
- How to choose high quality foods
- What to look for on food labels
- How to choose organic
- Plus a sample grocery shopping guide
[2] Cut most of the junk.
I realize that we live in a world where junk food like chips, cookies, packaged foods, etc. constantly surround us. It’s inevitable that we will eat junk food once in a while, but it needs to be much less than what we’re eating now. Take a look at the grocery store. How many items in the store are in packages and contain questionable ingredients, added sugar, are GMO, etc. The answer? Most of them. Sadly. Stick with fresh, whole foods and skip the junk. Your body and your waist line with thank you!
[3] Eat breakfast.
Eating breakfast is key to revving up your metabolism and getting you burning calories from the get go. Skipping breakfast can not only lead to a slowed metabolism, it can decrease concentration and productivity at work or in school and can make you hungrier the rest of the day. Just make sure you are eating balanced breakfast. This means including protein, healthy fats and quality carbs. Check out my healthy breakfast recipes here. My favorites are my Super Green Smoothie and Super Green Overnight Oats [because they’ve got veggies!].
[4] Cook.
We live in a generation where much of the food we eat is already prepared, packaged and processed. Few people cook anymore and it’s contributing to the decreasing health status of our nation. If we all focused on purchasing more real food and the grocery store [fruits, veggies, whole grains, clean animal protein, etc.] we would be in a much different place. But people don’t like to cook, or they don’t know how. That’s not an excuse anymore. If you want to change your health, lose weight and feel better, you must cook. I’m not talking about having to whip up an extravagant meal that takes hours, I’m taking about cooking more simply with high quality ingredients and making something that tastes great and is great for you! I have so many recipes on the blog that are worth a try!
[5] Drink water.
Water should be your drink of choice and you should drink lots of it. First thing in the morning grab a big glass of water and down it. And have a water bottle with you throughout the day so you have no excuse not to drink water. Being dehydrated can increase your appetite and cause you to over consume foods when your body was just trying to signal that you’re thirsty. It’s important to watch what you’re drinking because many beverages contain tons and tons of added sugar! Added sugar is one of the things that making us sick and overweight. If you can cut the soda, the sweetened lattes and teas and the juice, you will be doing yourself the biggest favor! Replace those sugary beverages with water, or add a squeeze of lemon to plain water or sparking water for a little extra flavor.
[6] Move more.
Whether exercise is a goal in 2016 or not, there’s no denying that we need to be moving more. Get up and take a walk at work when you get a break, walk on your lunch break, take the stairs instead of the elevator, park further away from the entrance of a store. All of these things can increase your movement and help you lose weight in the long run. If exercise is a goal of yours, exercise smarter. Choose high intensity interval training [HIIT] which burns tons of calories in a short amount of time. Don’t forget about weight training in addition to cardio, both are important.
[7] Get your sleep.
This is huge. Sleep is restorative, healing and ridiculously important for overall health and even weight loss! The average person needs about 8 hours of sleep a night. So that may mean getting to bed earlier, shutting off the TV and electronics an hour or so before bed so you can wind down, investing in some black out shades to keep your room nice and dark, and keeping your room at 68 degrees or less. These things have been shown to enhance sleep. And did you know that just one day of too little sleep can increase your appetite and decrease your metabolism? It’s true, because of two hormones. Leptin is responsible for telling your body that you’re satisfied, don’t need to eat anymore and also helps regulate metabolism. Ghrelin is your hunger hormone and tells your body that it’s time to eat. Lack of sleep can make these hormone function opposite of how they should, meaning that you have an increased appetite and slower metabolism just because you’re tired. Crazy, huh? Now get to sleep.
[8] Stress less.
We all know that stress negatively impacts our bodies, but do we really know how much? I’ll tell you, it’s a lot! Chronic stress from our jobs, commuting, family, etc. can all have a significant negative impact on health and weight loss. Cortisol which is your stress hormone has an effect on weight, sleep, appetite, etc. which is why it’s so important to manage stress. For some, daily meditation or deep breathing can help. For others, working out can be a great stress relief. Whatever that is for you, do more of it because stress is slowly but surely leading us down the path of poor health.
There you have it! My tips for getting healthier in 2016. If you need or want individualized help, or just need some accountability, I’m here for you. I coach clients one-on-one to help reach their health goals. Or do you know someone who could use my help? Send them my way, I’m happy to help! Check out what I offer here, or shoot me an email: angela@nutritiouslyrooted.com. Make 2016 your best yet! Invest in your health and you are doing one of the best things you can for yourself and your family.
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