6 Things Preventing You from Staying in Shape

When it comes to health and fitness, adding new habits to your busy life can be a real challenge. The good news is that sometimes, getting in the best shape of your life is less about what you should do and more about what you shouldn’t do.

1. Staying up late

Lack of sleep can cause unnecessary cravings, negatively affect your metabolism, increase stress, and make you feel less motivated to get your body moving for the next day. Sleep should be a priority. It is important you try establishing a bedtime routine, such as having a cup of tea or reading a book, and aim for the same lights-out time each night.

2. Drinking Much alcohol

Drinking too much alcohol can negatively affect your health in multiple ways. Alcohol is dehydrating and we’re all familiar with that lack of motivation or a craving for breakfast sandwiches and pastries after a night out. If you’re sober-curious or know you are your best without alcohol in your life, swap your next wine with one of the non-alcoholic spirits. Create boundaries around your drinking that help you feel your best. By setting parameters around your drinking, you’ll be saving your body from some serious stress.

3. Eating processed foods

Whether you call it “snack food” or “junk food,” you probably already know that processed foods should be a treat that’s occasionally enjoyed, and whole foods should make up a most of your diet. If every meal is built around something processed, frozen, or with an ingredients list full of words you can’t pronounce, you could probably afford to add a little more veggies, healthy fats, and clean protein to your meals. When you eat more whole foods and less processed foods, you can notice a difference in mood, gut health, digestion, sleep quality and general health.

4. Over-Stressing

Reducing stress has been shown to have many benefits to your overall health. The stress hormone cortisol might cause you to overeat and affect sleep quality which can negatively impact the health of your body. If getting into the best shape of your life is a priority, managing your stress is paramount.

5. Staying sedentary

If you’re really looking to maximize your time to become more fit, add in movement wherever and whenever you can throughout the day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, add movement breaks in your work day and walk or bike instead of hopping in your car. As small as these might seem, they all really add up.

6. Comparing yourself to anyone else

Social media can make it easy to play the comparison game, but it’s important to remember that even if we all ate the same things and exercised the exact same way for the same amount of time, we’d all still look very different because no two bodies operate the same way. The most confident people know that they don’t need to be perfect in order to be worth celebrating, so stop trying to look like everyone else and start celebrating exactly who you are.