“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” –Anonymous
A lot of times, the biggest obstacle we have in weight loss is our own thinking…or stinkin’ thinkin’, to be more precise. We want the magic pill, a quick cure, any kind of shortcut we can find that will make this whole weight loss thing a little bit easier.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there’s no substitute for doing the work. But being the stubborn, bull-headed person that I am, I am constantly looking for tricks. Anything little thing I can do to sneak in a healthy habit without my bad attitude catching on always works for me. Here are 5 tricks I play on myself to get those healthy habits in.
- Shake your groove thing – There are days when I just don’t feel like moving. At all. So I crank the tunes and dance while I’m doing my chores. Bepopping while I’m getting things done puts me in a better mood and makes the day fun…which means I’m more likely to tackle the bigger things in my day, like the 4 mile treadmill run.
- Bowl of Fruit – This is one is pretty easy, but I am much more likely to eat fruit and veggies if I have no choice but to stare at them every day. I fill a bowl up with the stuff and put it on my counter. When I’m feeling a snack attack coming on, it’s much easier to grab an apple off the counter than go and count out 16 crackers…and who really stops at 16?
- Water – I know a lot of people have trouble drinking their water. It’s just not very exciting and you have to drink so much of it! But it is so important to get that water in. Instead of thinking I have to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, I went out and got myself a 24 oz water bottle. If I drink just 2 of those a day, then I have met my daily requirement. And I have found that I’m more likely to sip on the water bottle continuously throughout the day then to sit down and drink a glass of water. Another tip is to chug 8 oz before each meal. If you do that, then you are already half way to your daily water intake (plus you’ll feel full before you even start to eat)!
- Find a substitute – If you learn nothing else about me, know this: I am an absolutely sucker for a Butterfinger Blizzard from Dairy Queen. Seriously, I would do anything to get my hands on one of these things…well, almost anything. What I’ve learned to do is make that at home and cut the portion size. If you love something and really don’t want to completely cut it out, see if you can find a workable substitute that you can do at home.
- Journal it, just don’t eat it – For those of you who food journal, this one helped me immensely when I was a stay at home mom to 2 preschoolers. There were a lot of mornings where I would be rushing around to get everyone out the door and I would get my breakfast ready and write down everything…and then only have time to eat half of it. I would forget about something and then go back an hour or two later and realize I had never finished my breakfast. It was like a gift. I felt like it was a bonus because it was food that I had already accounted for. All I had to do was eat it. I now sometimes work that in to my day. I’ll plan myself a big lunch, but only eat part of it and then go back an hour or two later and eat the rest knowing that it was O.K.
Just play with you routine. Is there something you dread doing that you can trick yourself into? Do you already have a few tricks up your own sleeve? Let us know!!
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