6 habits for weight loss success

Losing weight can be hard – but embracing better eating habits is easier.

What if we told you that you could lose weight while continuing to eat all your favorite foods? You’d call us crazy, but we’d tell you it’s the best way. Think about your last diet – what did you try to cut out? How long did it last until you caved in? We’d bet it was much sooner than you’d like to admit. And that’s because you’re trying to change what you eat rather than trying to adopt healthier eating habits.

The reason many of us find losing weight so difficult is because the majority of weight-loss strategies begin by eliminating foods from your diet. While that certainly makes sense, stacking up major diet change on top of major diet change is overwhelming, and can also make you feel deprived and disheartened. As a result, you might lose weight initially, but it will just as easily come right back.

Nutritionist Emma says: “We have to repeat actions in order to make them become true habits. All our habits are formed under the same principles – stimulus, response and reward. And the end reward is usually the thing that prompts us to repeat the action. Recognising this ‘stimulus, response, reward, repeat’ process can be really helpful to us when we want to develop new ‘good’ habits and potentially break old ‘bad’ habits.

“So, rather than changing what you eat, focus on thinking about how and when you eat. As you’ll find out, these minor adjustments can actually pay off and keep off the pounds in the long run.

“We make more than 200 food decisions a day, and most of these appear to be automatic or habitual, which means we unconsciously eat without reflection, deliberation or any sense of awareness of what or how much food we select and consume. So often our habitual behaviours override our best intentions – but we can change that.”

6 habits to help with weight loss

1. Drink plenty of water – at least 2 litres a day
2. Control portion sizes – most of us simply serve too much
3. Plan meals in advance – takes away guesswork
4. Eat more fruits and vegetables – prepping makes this easy
5. Take regular exercise – just 10 minutes a day is a good start
6. Track what you eat to monitor calorie intake – (and stick to it!)

How to make these actions habits

Firstly, it's important to want to develop these habits. Secondly, you need to make them as easy as possible for yourself, so set reminders or place things in convenient spots. Thirdly, you may need to choose a reward for yourself if there isn't an instant automatic one – these should be something that you truly view as a treat/reward.

Here are some examples of how you might turn an action into a habit.

1 Drinking plenty of water

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2 Controlling portion sizes

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3 Planning meals in advance

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4 Eating more fruits and vegetables

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5 Taking regular exercising

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6 Keeping an accurate food diary every day.

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REPEAT! With all of these habits, the most important thing is to repeat them regularly as that is the only way to truly turn an action into a habit. When you do something automatically without thinking, you've made it a habit. So make life easy for yourself and take steps to make each action as easy as possible – set reminders, place things in convenient places and give yourself a true reward each time. Good luck!