With summer just around the corner, everyone is starting to think of ways to get the body they want.
Fad diets and crazy workout regimens are making their way across the Internet; promising results in just days if you take this pill while eating this bar and stand on your head for six hours.
Unfortunately, if these fads work at all, they only work in the short term. The only way to truly get the body you want and maintain your health is to make changes to your overall lifestyle.
Adding a reputable workout routine and cutting out calories are obvious steps, but the following eleven tips will help you not only get the body you want but keep it too.
1. Commit
The first step to successfully getting the body you desire is committing to changing your lifestyle.
If you achieve your goal, just to fall back on old habits, you’ll end up right back where you started.
There will be days where you’re sick, or you’re tired, or you really just want that cookie, and that’s okay, just don’t let it derail all of your work.
Tell people about your journey, write it down, make a promise, do whatever it takes to keep yourself accountable to the new plan.
2. Set a Goal
One of the worst mistakes you can make when trying to get the body you want does not know exactly what it is that you want.
Different workout regimens and diets do different things for your body.
Are you interested in gaining muscle or losing weight? Write these goals down with your promises to yourself, and stick with them!
3. Progress, Not Perfection
Yes, it’s difficult to not compare yourself to that woman with the perfect bikini body or the man next door who’s a personal trainer.
Keep in mind; it is a journey not the destiny.
There are goals you want to reach, but they shouldn’t always be your focus.
Keep track of where you came from, and when you feel like you aren’t making progress, look back at how far you’ve come. Before and after pictures are a great way to stay motivated and track progress.
4. Fix Your Posture
It’s amazing what the simple trick can do for your body. Right away, this makes you look slimmer without putting in any work.
On top of that, it engages your entire core and can help you to slim and tone your abdominal area over time. As an added bonus, when you stand up straight you look more confident.
5. Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep is one of those things that we’re told to do, but ignore because there never seems to be enough time. The importance of this is twofold for achieving your dream body.
Sleeping properly allows you to have the energy to stay focused and active each day.
On the flip side, when you don’t sleep enough, your blood sugar levels rise, and the body stores this as fat, meaning your lack of sleep could be causing weight gain.
6. Understand Your Hunger
Just because you feel hungry doesn’t mean you actually are.
Often, boredom manifests itself as hunger. When you find yourself hankering for some potato chips in the middle of the afternoon, have a big glass of water.
If, after fifteen minutes, you notice you aren’t hungry anymore, you were never hungry in the first place.
If you do still feel hungry, grab a piece of fruit or some vegetables for a healthy snack.
7. Drink Water
Your body does not need any beverage besides water.
Skip the juice, soda, and booze which are all full of empty calories that you don’t need.
Your body needs water to function properly.
A good rule of thumb is to multiply your weight by 2/3 and drink that many ounces of water each day. Ex. 120lbs x 2/3 = 80oz of water each day.
Coffee and tea are also okay in moderation, but remember, caffeine is a diuretic, which means it’s going to pull out all of the water you’ve been working so hard to drink.
8. Meal Plan/Meal Prep
You had a long day at work and just had an exhausting workout and the last thing you’re thinking about is making dinner, so you stop for a burger.
Without meaning to, you just completely derailed your progress for the day.
Meal planning on a regular basis is an important step in achieving your goals because it makes you less likely to stop for fast food.
In addition, if you do weekly meal prepping, your meals are already made, you just have to heat them up or cook them.
9. Eat Breakfast
This is another bit of advice that we’re told over and over again just to ignore it.
Eating a healthy breakfast (keyword: healthy, skip the dough nuts and add some whole grain and lean protein) increases energy and reduces hunger throughout the day.
This means, that even though you’re adding calories in the morning, you’re losing calories by not snacking as much or eating a huge lunch due to hunger.
10. Take the Stairs
Try to add calorie burning activities to all of the things you’re already doing.
You have to get to the third floor for work, you may as well take the stairs and burn some calories while you’re at it.
The kids want to go to the park because it’s a nice day? Walk or ride bikes instead of bustling everyone into the car.
Even getting up to change the channel or volume on the TV adds extra movement and exercise to your daily routine.
11. There’s Always Time to Exercise
Nearly everything we do in our life has some kind of down time to it.
Why not take advantage of this extra time? Do crunches during commercials or do some jumping jacks while you wait for the copier at work.
It’s true that not everyone has time to do a formal workout, but everyone has opportunities in their daily lives to add exercise.
So there you have it – 11 tips for getting the body you want. Of course, it’s not going to be easy – this is something you will have to work hard at achieving, but the results are well worth it.
Photo credit: Smemon
