Lose the fat without the restriction.

Drink More Water:  The average person does not drink enough water during the day.  Aim for half your body weight in ounces of water to start.  For example, if you weigh 150lbs, then your goal should be 75oz of water.  Drinking water is not only important for your health, but if one of your goals is to lose weight, this can be a simple way to speed up that process.

When you consume enough water, then your body no longer holds onto excess water.  So if you are someone who struggles to drink enough, try setting a goal for yourself, and stay accountable!

Increase Daily Movement: Movement can be anything, it does not have to be going to the gym.  Going on walks, gardening, cutting the grass, anything that gets your body up and moving counts.  Many of us have long commutes, sedentary jobs, or work from home at a computer all day, and our bodies are suffering.   We were not made to sit still.  Focus on adding movement into your day. 
Try setting a 5-minute timer, ideally every hour, to get up from your desk and move.  If you work in an office setting, go use a bathroom on a different floor, fill up your water, go up and down the stairs.  If you work from home, go make your bed, start some laundry, wipe down the counters.  You will be amazed at how much adding in these movement breaks add up!

Focus on Quality Foods: When in doubt focus on QUALITY food over calories.  Whole, natural, unprocessed foods will never steer you wrong.  Eat the orange instead of a glass of orange juice, and have the potatoes instead of the low-carb wrap.  By eating mostly whole foods your body is going to get MORE nutrients and FEEL better.  Keep your meals simple, think PROTEIN, VEGGIE, CARBOHYDRATE.
Here are some easy meals that are easy to put together, focusing on whole foods.

Eat More Protein: 90% of the clients that come to me wanting to lose weight do not consume enough protein on a daily basis.  This can be hard to do without planning in advance.  You know I am not someone who preaches protein shakes, so here are some tips on how to get enough protein in your diet.

Add protein to every meal and snack.

Have some ready-made protein options available to you (deli meat, tuna packets, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt)

Plan ahead.  I know it sounds silly, but thinking about protein sources, MOST of them require some form of cooking or prep work, they are not as readily available as carbs and fat.  By planning ahead, you can ensure that you have a game plan on HOW to achieve your goals.

Want to know how much protein you should be eating?

(YOU CAN FIND THAT INFORMATION HERE)

Track Your Food: We manage what we measure.  Tracking your food IS NOT for everyone, but there are some benefits.  Tracking your food can be a great way to see what you are eating and if you are getting enough nutrients every day.  Tracking even just your protein intake can be very eye-opening for my clients and helps them see where they can make improvements to meet their daily protein requirements.
Tracking is NOT meant to be long-term, but instead 1 tool of many to help us guide the choices we make on a daily basis to improve our health and get the results we are looking for.

Improve Your Sleep: Sleep and stress management go hand in hand with not only weight loss but your overall health.  How much sleep do you get on average? Is it restful sleep?  Without good quality sleep, your body does not get adequate recovery.  This is when your body is regulating and repairing itself.  If you are someone who doesn't get great sleep, I challenge you to focus on this FIRST.

Add in Resistance Training: THIS is where I mean workouts :)  Resistance training is so important for health and wellness.  It helps our bones stay strong, but it also helps us improve our metabolism.  Lifting weights and adding muscle to our bodies helps us burn more calories during the day, which improves our metabolism.  If you are someone who is wanting to lose weight then you are going to have to add in some resistance training.  Ideally 3 days a week.

Plan Ahead: Planning your meals ahead of time helps you stay successful with your food for the day.  This also helps to ensure you have protein sources on hand.  We are all busy and have chaotic schedules it seems, so taking some time before the craziness of the week starts to sketch out some meals will be so helpful.  You can batch cook some protein at the start of the week to use in meals without having to start from scratch.  Wash and chop fruits and veggies to make them easier to grab when you need to.
If you only have 30 minutes and you are debating about working out or cooking.  I encourage you to choose cooking.  It will do MORE for you during the week, than a 30-minute workout.

Take Control of Your Mindset: This is one of the harder pieces to accomplish.  We tend to be our own worst enemy when it comes to acknowledging progress, we expect perfection.  Moving forward, think of your journey as a LIFESTYLE, and not a DIET.  Diets tend to have a negative impact on mental health, often making us feel restricted, and like we are missing out.  When we can shift the focus to looking at this as a lifestyle we are able to look at the bigger picture.  We can acknowledge that I may have “messed up” but I can choose to make a good choice the next time.  We understand that a LIFESTYLE INCLUDES FUN FOODS.

What happens when we tell ourselves that we CANT have something? We want it more.  Or that's all we think about.

I tell my clients to HAVE THE CUPCAKE, eat the ice cream, enjoy memories with their families, but eat something good for their bodies too. 

Surround Yourself with a Like-Minded Community: My Health First community is full of women who want to take control of their health, master their nutrition, and LEARN to live a healthy SUSTAINABLE lifestyle.  One where there are NO FOODS that are off-limits.

If you want in on this community to be supported by not only Coach Krista, but the other member of the community, you can learn more here.

 -Coach Krista