Behavior modification is crucial when it comes to attaining your exercise and diet goals. Taking off weight and attaining a certain level of fitness requires long term habits. Avoiding certain foods, planning meals, exercising regularly and staying hydrated are some of the habits which will help you maintain an ideal weight and remain fit.

Drinking Water

One simple habit you need to establish is to drink sufficient water every day. This is a habit that many people ignore. Staying hydrated helps maintain your ideal weight while also keeping you healthy. At times, you may feel hungry while in reality, you are really just thirsty. Drinking eight or more glasses of water every day will help carry nutrients to your body’s cells, make you feel full more often, and also keep you energized. Read more here to learn The Importance of Water and how to make it taste better if you are not a big water drinker already. 

Exercising Regularly

Everyone needs to exercise, whether slim or overweight, young or old. When you begin your exercise and diet regime, select fitness activities that you are able to implement and sustain long after attaining your weight loss goal. Your muscles need strengthening and stretching. Your heart requires cardiovascular exercise to remain healthy. Select enjoyable activities which incorporate all these elements. These could include long brisk walks, stretching, cycling daily, taking aerobics classes and hiking in scenic environments. For best results, make sure you exercise at least three times per week for thirty minutes or more each time. Finding the motivation can be hard, check out Ways to Stay Motivated to Run on the Treadmill or Seven Tips to Make Exercise Stick to help you find ways to stay committed.

Eating Healthy Meals

When dieting, eating healthy foods is a must. It is always advisable to eat well-balanced meals. Don’t skip breakfast. Avoid snacking. If you choose to snack, go for snacks low in calories and fats, such as these low fat/low calorie foods. Avoid fast food since it is usually high in calories and fat and low in nutrition. For many people, all these suggestions will require establishing a new way of doing things. For instance, behavior modification would require awareness of the type and quantity of food you are eating while watching television. Maintaining a food journal will enable you to keep track of these foods. You could start slowly replacing some of the more fattening and unhealthy foods with healthier snacks.

Skipping meals is another bad habit that leads to failure in many people’s weight loss plans. You might avoid calories in the short term, but many people are likely to overeat later when they skip meals. To sustain your dieting plan in the long term, you need to pay special attention to this behavior. If you realize that you have skipped a meal, find out why that happened and try setting a healthier pattern.

Behavior modification is important with exercise and dieting since without it, it will be very difficult to keep weight off and remain fit in the long run. Work at establishing one habit at a time, and you will begin to feel good about yourself as you enjoy fitness and health in the long term.

 

Charles Mburugu is a professional writer who often blogs about dieting and weight loss programs. He also writes for TechBlogKe, a technology blog.