Small But Super Helpful Habits

ellen_couliez wrote: »

no patatos/bread/pasta and rice

I find all of those foods fit well into a healthy, balanced, calorie-appropriate diet, so that would not have been a helpful hint for me.

What a great collection of helpful tips! I love them! I have not read all the pages yet, so I hope my helpful tips are not all redundant.

I have a system to get all 8 glasses of water easily every day. I use 2 large plastic cups I saved from convenience store when I bought fountain drinks that are each 32 oz cups. I fill them both up with filtered water from my Britta filter pitcher each morning. I leave one out on the counter to drink from first and put the second in the refrigerator. I have a cup of coffee with breakfast but after that I will not drink anything else until those cups are empty. They do fit in the cup holders in my car and I take them with me when I go out. It has gotten so easy to finish the water when the cup is right there where you can see it.

Secondly, there are very few things I love that I have eliminated completely. Tracking really has helped a lot with this. I do stay very tight to my calorie allowance, weigh food, and log everything, but I will still eat things I like ice cream, have an occasional beer, dessert, or even potato chips..... however, I do eat a smaller portion when I do. I measure out 1/3 cup of ice cream, always eat half a restaurant meal and take the rest for the next day, refrain from drinking a second beer, share a cookie with my grandson. If I want more than 1/3 cup of ice cream, I tell myself, I can have it tomorrow if I want it then. Sometimes I actually say that out loud. For some reason that helps.

Yes, eat a lot of vegetables! I view a few of MFP member's diaries and notice that many of them do not eat vegetables at all. They are so good for you and low calorie. Try some new ones and you will probably find you like some you have never tried before.

Don't leave the house without some type of healthy snack pre-portioned out. My favorites are string cheese, grapes or apples, greek yogurt, and nuts.

It makes eating right a lot easier when you are ready for battle.[/quote]

What a great idea!

What a fantastic idea!

Flookbird wrote: »

Since I got my fitbit I'm moving a lot more when I'm chilling out at home. Right now I'm on holiday from work so wrapped in a blanket watching TV and messing around on my iPad. Every time the adverts come on I get up and jog on the spot, do some star jumps or some dancing etc. I can get an extra couple of thousand steps in during an hour of watching TV.

This is an excellent idea. Some of these commercial breaks go on forever, one after another after another after... ugh. Especially when watching things like cheesy sci fi movies on the SyFy channel. lol. I bet I could get in an entire workout during some of those commercials. I'm going to start doing this today.

I'm only done reading up to page 3 so probably I'll be repeating what others have said...But my favorite little tips (which I used to do a lot when I was on WW and need to re-start now that I'm back on track again) are:
-- park in the far corner of the parking lot. Added bonus from this is that everyone else is circling like vultures near the close-in spots so you'll just pull in casually, walk calmly to the entrance and not have to fight with anyone. (this is my Costco parking lot, omg...)
-- stairs instead of elevator, if you can.
-- weigh everything in grams, then set the serving size to 1 gram and you can enter your food absolutely accurately (just got this great tip from someone here a few days ago)
-- if you're going out to eat look at the menu online before you go so you can look over everything ahead of time. That way you can choose something that fits into your calorie goal rather than choosing quickly because you don't want to keep everyone waiting while you try to decide.
-- get some sort of step tracker that measures how far you are from whatever goal you set up. I'm using a Nike Fuelband at the moment, and it shows progress to goal by a series of dots along the side. They start red and gradually move in shade towards green at the end. When you push the button it shows you where you are toward the goal and it shows the green dot that represents the end goal. I find that if I'm pretty close to the goal I'll walk around the house or even go outside and around a few blocks just to get those last few dots. lol
-- if you hate exercising (I do!) try to find someone to go with at least some of the time. I find that walking or that darned elliptical go SO MUCH faster if I have someone to talk to.
-- eat protein for breakfast rather than cold cereal with skim milk. Okay, this one is *my* little tweak which may or may not work for you. But for me that cold cereal would wear off suddenly mid-morning, causing me to get that shaky must-eat-everything-in-sight low blood sugar hunger. But if I have protein for breakfast I can go till lunch, and at lunch I'm hungry but it's just an ordinary kind of hunger.

Off now to keep reading from page 4. lol

Undertwo wrote: »

I've taken to doing twelve bodyweight squats each time I use the bathroom at home. Two weeks ago I could barely keep my balance with arms extended now I do deep squats with arms folded against my chest.

Small steps in a greater journey toward fitness.

Thanks for the reminder, this might seem strange but it works.

I look for one healthy new recipe to try each week. I also am trying to do one new physical activity a week (or on really bad weather days break out the Just Dance 4 game on Play Station). Great thread!

paperpudding wrote: »

epf82061 wrote: »

I have a problem with drive thrus, especially if I'm on a trip. Now, I put my purse in the trunk. Problem solved.

Now that is a handy hint.

Further to this, don't take money to work if you don't need it. Take your lunch from home and you can't buy anything else if you don't have money.
Or if you need money,take only the largest note - that way it is there for emergencies but you won't want to break into it just to buy a chocolate bar.

Love this idea! Thanks!

When I start to feel hungry, I drink a glass of water and wait 10 minutes to sees if I was actual hungry or just thirsty or bored.
I always keep my water bottle next to me. You're more likely to drink it if it's there and you see it.
Drink coffee and tea plain with nothing added.
Meal prep or at least prep snacks and easy grab and go food for when you are in a rush.
Don't keep food you can't control yourself around in the house.
Just say no thank you. If someone asks you if you want something and you second guess yourself about it, say no thank you and the temptation is gone because the offer is gone.
Eat looooooots of veggies: volume eating for the win, never hungry.
Skip the salad dressing, my secret is mustard and some kind of hot sauce (hey don't knock it til you try it )

Every little decision you make every day counts and soon it will just become a habit and you won't even have to think about it.

1. Take a couple of dumbells to work with you and leave them under your desk. When no one is looking do a couple of sets.
2. I've been cutting back on the amount of TV I watch. If I'm watching TV I am now on the treadmill. It makes the time go much faster and I'm not sitting around snacking.
3. After work when i get home at 5:30 I sit down to eat dinner at 6:00pm. I start my workout by 7:30 and done by 8:30pm. Then shower and go to bed. Keep your daily routine busy. No time for snacking.

I love this thread/topic!
My biggest things have already been mentioned; water, bringing snacks with me, etc.
But, when I was at my most successful, I found that adding an evening walk with my husband and the dog helped a lot. I would exercise some time during the day (unless it was a rest day) and then walk in the evening. I wasn't speed walking, my heart rate wasn't high, but just getting in that movement before bed helped with my digestion and ultimately weight loss. Plus, I just felt better, and it was quality family time.

A lot of water.... If you don't like the taste of water, try adding some fruits and herbs to it. My favorite is making an entire pitcher of water with sliced cucumbers (1 whole cucumber), sliced lemon (1 whole lemon), 1/3 of a ginger root shaved, and some mint leavs. Leave it in the fridge over night and by morning, the water is infused with a great taste!

I do low carbs...eat only 100-150 grams of potatoes, rice, pasta, sugar, and white bread.

What helps me a lot is drinking cinnamon water in the morning. Before eating anything in the morning I drink my water. In the beggining it was nasty but now I'm used to it ! I just infuse cinnamon sticks in a teapot with water. Cinnamon makes you lose weight

Another thing is walking. Walk as much as you can! It makes a big difference in the end. I live a 10 min bus ride from the subway, but I walk instead of taking the bus and it takes me just 10-15min more. Even if the distance seems HUGE, often it's not so you might just try and walk (:
Good luck!