Love Yourself this summer holiday
We caught up with healthy diets delivery company Love Yourself. The team have given us some great pointers to reaching our weight goals this summer!
Firtly, there are different ways to lose weight and there are different dimensions to weight-loss. When it comes to eating patterns and lifestyle, one size does not fit all. The best way to lose weight is the way that works best for you. A way of life that you actually aspire to; not a punishment to overcome. Desire must be the main driving force here, not willpower. Willpower can only take us so far, before temptation inevitably prevails. Willpower implies a longing for the way we did things before. It implies a lack of aspiration. We must truly desire the change we envisage in our lives. Our new habits must be enjoyed, not endured! That’s where tasty, nutritious and healthy diets come in.
No doubt many of us will have packed on a few extra pounds in the last month or so. With summer fast approaching and social distancing restrictions likely to ease in the near future, many of us are now looking to shed that added weight as quickly as possible. For many of us, this might actually be an opportunity to do more concrete exercise than we’ve ever done before. Throughout the various weight-loss methods, the common denominator is regular exercise.
Exercise
Needless to say, use your outdoor time for cardiovascular exercise. To really boost metabolism, and calorie-burning, follow this up with resistance training when you get home. Resistance training is the ultimate way to burn calories fast. Resistance exercises also increase your resting metabolic rate, which is the number of calories you burn whilst doing (literally) nothing. It also gives your metabolism an added boost after you exercise, staying in overdrive for up to two hours later. If you don’t have any weights at home, and can’t buy any right now, just use your own body-weight instead.
Try these simple exercises: squats, step-ups, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and planks. To push it further, throw some interval training in the mix too. Try also doing more in less time by adding bursts of high-intensity moves at periodic intervals. If you usually jog at a constant pace, try adding a 30-second to one-minute sprint every five minutes. It’ll give your metabolism a huge boost and you’ll burn calories even faster than you did before.
Carbs
When it comes to healthy diets, for those looking to shed weight fastest, the low-carb diet has no rival. Its most popular form is the Keto (Ketogenic) Diet. The Keto Diet aims to achieve weight loss by increasing the level of fat consumed and, in-turn, the level of fat burnt. Fighting fat with fat; if you will. The combination of high-fat, substantial protein, and low carbohydrate levels induces a metabolic state called ketosis. Ketosis is a process that occurs when the body lacks carbohydrates to burn for energy and turns to burning fat instead.
Calories
If fighting fat with fat isn’t for you, then why not opt for a calorie-controlled approach? Setting a daily calorie limit can be more restrictive in some ways, but it can also be much more liberating in others. Your calorie count may be fixed, but your dietary range doesn’t have to be; limiting the quantity of food consumed rather than the variety. As a result, you can achieve your desired target with a combination of cuisines and eating patterns to suit your palette and lifestyle. If you are partial to the guidance of specialist chefs and dietitians, then take a look at Love Yourself’s selection of calorie-controlled diets to suit your preferences.
For lower-fat proteins, like chicken and fish, why not check out Love Yourself’s Balanced Diet, Performance Diet, and Pescatarian Diet in particular. And of course, their diversely-dished Vegetarian Diet is there for those going on this journey without meat; another highly efficient method of losing weight.
Habits
As well as exercise routines and set diets, Love Yourself highlights that there are smaller habits and practices that can go a long way towards bringing about noticeable weight loss; and maintaining it in the long-term. Eating whole foods and avoiding most processed junk foods and sugary drinks, in general, is a great way. Whole foods tend to be very filling, and make it easier to eat fewer calories without getting too hungry; this can make all the difference in sticking to new eating regimes.
Another essential element for burning calories is water; drinking throughout the day and with meals too. When the body is dehydrated, the metabolism drags; which means slower weight loss. A final good habit is eating slowly. Eating slowly helps us eat less by giving the body time to realise that it’s full. For those of us who eat quickly, this can be a difficult habit to master. Mainly due to the fact that eating quickly is a reflex that happens without us even realising it; often catching ourselves only when it’s too late. One effective technique for curbing this tendency is to eat with only a fork and no secondary utensil; whenever possible.
For the majority of us currently operating from home, this is actually a great time to implement new practices and carry them through to the summer. New regimes often crumble in their infancy amidst our hectic everyday lives. Right now, however, we can seize the moment and use this sheltered time to set ourselves up for the summer with the right habits. We can hard wire the new healthy diets regime into our daily routines and kick-start our weight loss journey with a momentum that drives us beyond summer, towards sustainable lifelong change.
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