You should look to take every action you can to be a little bit better today than you were yesterday. These small steps, when executed consistently, offer you the pathway to endless opportunities for self-improvement and with that comes a leaner, healthier body.
Take a moment to consider how this healthier you might look and feel.
You’d feel lighter.
You’d be more positive.
You’d improve every aspect of your life from your appearance to relationships to your finances. All of this starts with a micro-change to some of your daily habits. To help you along, we’ve kept on top of the latest scientific advances in the fields of health and fat-burning. You can use them every day to make sure each day brings you closer to your target weight while optimizing your health.
Change Up 1: Drink Coffee Pre Workout
Coffee has always given the gift of energy, but it has more to offer. New research found drinking coffee 30 minutes before your workout can increase the levels of fat oxidization during your session. If you usually drink it when you wake up and then train later in the day, try switching up the order of your daily brew so it sets you up to burn more fat.
Change Up 2: Eat After Training
If you’re stepping on the treadmill in the morning to get leaner, then save breakfast until after your workout is done. A paper in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found people who did cardio before eating their first meal, doubled the amount of fat they burned compared to those who ate prior to training. You’ll feel lighter, faster and better prepared to train at maximum intensity. That cereal can wait.
Change Up 3: Write It Down
A mere 14.6 minutes is how long it will take each day to write down what you’ve eaten, says a paper at the University of Vermont. Keeping a food diary is also the best predictor of weight-loss success, found the same researchers. However, it was the frequency of the monitoring, not the time spent doing it that created the most success. This keeps you accountable and helps you own what you’ve eaten so you’re more in tune with the steps towards success or failure you’re taking each day.
Change Up 4: Count How Many Times A Day You’re Eating Out
People who ate two meals out each day were more likely to die from all cause, cancer-related and cardiovascular mortality compared to those who seldom ate out, found a paper in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Unsurprisingly, those life-threatening diseases are very closely linked to obesity and unhealthy body fat levels.
By preparing your meals at home, planning ahead or using a meal prep company, you can make sure you’re always getting high quality nutritious food which leaves you feeling satisfyingly full and leaner each week. This means you’re giving your body and brain the fuel it needs to be perform optimally.
Deploying small adjustments such as these each day probably won’t even feature on your radar of change. However, it’s these little things when executed over time that will change your life for the better.
Photo by Karolis Milišauskas on Unsplash.
