Drink More Water
We all know why water is good for us and that we would die without it, but do you know how it directly impacts your physical appearance?
Water helps your body move nutrients, blood, waste, etc., through your body. Drinking more of it will help your body remove waste faster! More bowel movements means less waste taking up space in your gut, which means you aren't as bloated in that "pooch" area we all have!
If you do this everyday, you will have very limited bloating, making your stomach look flatter! Bloat and fat are not the same thing, but waste has weight! And if that waste sits in your body for several days because there is not enough liquid to help move it through your gut, that could be an extra few pounds inside of you, just sitting there!
Getting all that waste out of your system will also strengthen your immune system, clear your skin, and help your skin look a little younger from the moisture!
How much water should you be drinking?
Take your weight and divide it in half. You should be drinking AT LEAST that much in ounces per day.
For example; I am 140lbs, half of 140 is 70, so I drink at least 70 ounces of water a day.
But I aim for 100 ounces!
Don't Eat Anything After Dinner, and Eat Dinner Before 7:00pm
Now I personally do not do this. I have tried to but for some reason (probably my high intensity workouts) I am STARVING all the time and especially at night. But the reason to do this is explained by some simple science!
-Your body starts burning your stored fat for energy whenever there are no more calories from food you've eaten left in your body.
-If you eat dinner at 5, your body should have that meal and the meals from earlier metabolized within 8 hours.
-During those next few hours of sleep, your body is having to tap into your stored fat to use for energy to continue the metabolic process. (This also explains why some people see intermediate fasting as a magic button for their fat-loss)
Side Note: Our metabolism has a tendency to also burn our muscle for fuel in times of caloric deficit, so make sure you take a BCAA/EAA with dinner if you are going to try this out! I linked mine HERE.
Fix Your Digestive System So Your Metabolism Can Do It's Job Faster
I know I say this all the time, but I cannot stress it enough! Take a daily probiotic and enzyme supplement!!!!!!!!!!!
Check out this older blog post I wrote on supplements and I go way in depth on what these do and why you need them.
But here is the condensed version:
Most people do not have a perfect digestive system because of all the fake crap that is added into our food, beauty products, air, etc. Our metabolism takes the food we eat, breaks it down and sends the molecules where they need to go in order to fuel all the little reactions in our body that keep us alive and give us energy.
SO- a probiotic and enzyme will help your body complete this process FASTER. Faster digestion means more time for your body to be in a caloric deficit, AKA the time your body is going to tap into your stored fat for fuel!!!!
Not all probiotics and enzymes are the same. I use SilverFern's Ultimate Probiotic and Enzymedica's Digest Gold with ATP+ and have for over a year now. They are the best. Period. Go buy them right now.
Probiotic is linked HERE
Enzyme is linked HERE
Getting 7-8 Hours of Sleep Every Night
Good sleep triggers a ton of hormones that directly impact your physical health and appearance like:
-stimulating muscle recovery/growth
-having healthy blood sugar levels
-tomorrow's mood and energy levels
-whether or not you will feel hungry, full, or have cravings
According to the National Heart Lung & Blood Institute,
"Sleep helps maintain a healthy balance of the hormones that make you feel hungry (ghrelin) or full (leptin). When you don't get enough sleep, your level of ghrelin goes up and your level of leptin goes down. This makes you feel hungrier than when you're well-rested."
Managing Your Stress
In order to explain HOW not stressing too much can help you lose weight, I need to first explain how stress can lead to weight gain in the first place!
Stress raises cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone released at times of stress. Not enough cortisol can lead to weight-loss and too much cortisol can lead to weight-gain.
We all stress! I don't want you to freak out and think every time you are going through a stressful situation or time that your metabolism magically shuts down and starts storing all your nutrients as fat- That is was the internet makes people think, but here are the facts:
- Stress does not cause weight gain. But it can lead to weight gain depending on the person's BMI, emotions, and other physiological conditions.
- Stress is more likely to lead to weight gain in people that are already relatively over weight. This is due to a ton of reasons like emotional eating, that person's eating habits, slower metabolism resulting from being overweight, etc.
- Stress has been proven to have a direct correlation to rapid weight gain, but not long term. (emotional eating) SOURCE
Ways I Manage Stress:
- Daily exercise! I feel more confident after I crush a workout. Exercise has been proven to be a great stress reliever.
- Making time to do something that makes me happy. I love to take my dogs on walks and I love to bake. When I am having a bad week, I make time to do at least one of these. Right now, my stress is pretty low, but I still walk the puppies everyday just because walking them makes me feel calm and content.
- Yoga. There are tons of studies that prove yoga's impact on stress management! Breathing exercises play a huge role in this. For me, I consider yoga a type of daily exercise, I just feel better about myself after doing it!
- SLEEP
- Pet a dog or cat (seriously, it has scientific evidence to support it as a stress reliever!)
- Take a bath!
There is so much more to losing weight than just diet and exercise. More importantly, there is so much more to being healthy than just losing weight! All 5 of these tips will help you with both.
xoxo Karrah
