Does Doing Less Actually Aid in Weight Loss?

Most people think that the best way to lose weight is to count calories and work out every day. However, while it is true that eating better and increasing exercise are important to living a healthier life, engaging in big changes requires dedication and perseverance.

Before you can lead a healthy lifestyle, the first thing you need to do establish the habit of committing and showing up.

Understand?

It’s not that confusing, let us explain. If you have been thinking about losing weight for a long time, you need to step up and start doing it already!
Most people will start eating a low-calorie diet and plan to go to the gym as much as possible. While things may go great for a while and you might even lose some weight, at the first sign of stress or upset, you will probably fall right back into bad habits again.

When things happen that make you want to stress eat, you will quit dieting and immediately turn to food again. Losing all the progress you’ve made and falling off the wagon.

Maybe you feel tired and overwhelmed with all the changes going on, you’ll probably start making excuses to stop going to the gym and the weight will begin to creep back on again. You get discouraged and maybe depressed because you’re right back where you were before!

Does this sound familiar?

The main problem with the all in approach is that it may be a quick and simple method to losing weight, it’s not realistic because life doesn’t work that way.

Despite what the weight loss industry tells us about quick tips, extreme diets, supplements and pills—none of it is true! You can’t just leap into a healthier lifestyle, it is something you must incorporate slowly and it is a process.

If you wish to lose weight and keep it off, it requires you to make a long-term plan and then sticking with it. You need to take smaller steps before you can get to the bigger ones.

The trick to making lasting lifestyle changes is to start by doing less than what you actually believe you are capable of doing.

Let’s say you want to do hot yoga or Pilates to start losing weight. Instead of jumping head first into a program, start smaller.

Begin your new exercise program by rolling out your mat and laying on it before you go to bed at night. This will become a “trigger” for you.

Then when you wake up in the morning, dress in your workout clothes, unroll your mat and sit down for a while. Take a deep breath, get back up and go about your normal routine. That’s all you need to do!
Just sitting on the yoga mat isn’t going to result in weight loss, but it will help you build the foundation you need to get going and be successful. Once you’ve done this every day for a few weeks, go out and buy yourself a reward.

The next week instead of just sitting on the mat, take ten deep and mindful breaths. The next week, start to add some novice poses and add some new ones each week.

Finally…Results

Once you’ve built up your routine and become used to yoga or Pilates, you will notice you’re used to it. It takes 30 days to build a new habit, so start slowly and stick with it. If you fall off your program, it’s not the end of the world-you can start over the next day, but whatever you do, don’t give up and quit. Soon, you’ll reach your goals and notice all your hard work is paying off!