When it comes to living your healthiest life, skinny doesn’t have to be the goal.
But—in the interest of “real deal” candor—staying within the ideal body weight for your age, gender and height is one way to ensure you’re being kind to your body. And—let’s face it—being toned and trim certainly feels great.
With that in mind, we’ve been looking closely at the habits of our healthiest members to extract some key tricks of the trade. What are the essential eating and fitness habits of our most toned and trim trackers? Here, some from the top of our list:
1.) Always Be Prepared
In one of our most recent surveys, we asked the members who identified themselves as exceptional eaters to share their best practices when it comes to mealtime. Not surprisingly, a vast majority pointed to the importance of pre-preparing meals. Some of our healthiest members plan their weekly meals in advance; heading to the grocery store or market to select unprocessed foods from which they can create delicious recipes to last through the week. And the best bet for getting a healthy start each day? You guessed it—a balanced breakfast. Our Nutrition Advisor, Alyse Levine, recommends setting aside time in the morning to create a well-balanced breakfast that includes unprocessed carbs, lean proteins and healthy fats. "Doing so will give you extra energy and jump start your metabolism," notes Levine.
2.) Snack When You’re Hungry
Denying yourself food when you’re hungry is rarely a reliable long-term strategy. It can lead to major overeating and, not to mention, drag you down throughout the day. Many of our members who’ve experienced weight loss success swear by snacking between meals. Of course, they opt for healthy, balanced snacks in small, sensible portions. Pre-preparing snacks to get you through your workday—avoid that office vending machine—is one strategy for success. Levine recommends always keeping a "snack survival kit" at your workplace or in your car. "Have an assortment of sweet, salty, smooth and crunchy foods for variety," says Levine. "Snacks will prevent you from going into your next meal starving which can lead to overeating."
3.) Be Calorie Conscious
In addition to snacking, our fittest users watch their calories. Of course, MyPlate makes being calorie cognizant easy—the tool will do all the work for you and MyPlate mobile offers tracking on-the-go. Knowing your calorie goal based on your weight loss or maintenance goal is essential. It allows you to make smart meal choices to get to where you want to be.
4.) Indulge & Then Get Back on Track
Staying slim doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself. In fact, a majority of successful eating plans include daily or weekly indulgences. So go ahead, treat yourself to something especially tasty when you’re feeling the urge—then do what our trimmest trackers do and get back on track. Healthy members across the board make a point to eat a healthier meal or meal(s) post-indulgence. Levine challenges you to rethink, in general, the "good food, bad food" mentality when you do indulge--noting the importance of mindfully enjoying foods that might be a deviation from your regular eating plan.
5.) Do Something Daily
Don’t overwhelm yourself with impractical fitness goals. Think simple. Or rather, think “doable” and “consistent.” Look to power members partaking in the latest LIVESTRONG.COM Fitness Challenge. They’ve committed to just 30 minutes of cardio a day but that act alone creates powerful habits that keep them feeling and looking their healthiest. Notes Levine, "Find an activity that actually brings you joy and you'll have a much greater chance of sticking to it."
6.) Stay the Course
One of the most common philosophical cornerstones we see in our success stories submissions? “Stay the course.” Reaching your healthiest, best-looking self is a work in progress and one that often comes with plateaus. Our most successful members acknowledge roadblocks and plateaus and then power through them with a reaffirmation of healthy habits.
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