Morning Rituals that
Help You Lose Weight
We all have our own little morning
rituals. Some of us need a cup of strong coffee to get us started and others
need a plateful of food straightaway. And there are those, the most dedicated, who
start their days with a few push ups and sit-ups. While we can’t all jump out
of bed and exercise first thing (very few can), we can change a few small
things to our morning routine to help us start our day right and give us that
small and significant push towards getting rid of that unwanted belly fat.
You’d be surprised at how your morning
routine can affect the rate that you lose body fat, belly fat included. Belly
fat in particular is affected by these small things because the fat that’s deep
in your abdomen, the visceral fat, isn’t easily lost by just exercise. It is
influenced by the kind of lifestyle that you live and by when and how you eat,
not just what you eat. In this chapter, we’re going to talk about the small
steps that you can add to your morning routine that will make a difference and
other common morning rituals that you should actually avoid.
One
of the easiest things that you can do to jumpstart your body in the morning is
to stretch. This step doesn’t even require you to get out of bed. While you’re
still lying down, try stretching your arms straight up, work those joints, and work out the
kinks in your body. When we sleep, blood flow is less than when we’re awake and
your muscles are getting a lot less oxygen because they’ve been sitting still
for hours.
Even when you just stretch in place, you’ll notice that your heart
rate picks up and your drowsiness starts fading right away. That’s because
you’re getting your blood flow started and more oxygen is getting to those
muscles.
After you’ve stretched, the next thing
to add to your morning routine is two glasses of water. That’s two glasses of
water right after you wake up and get out of bed. We’ve mentioned it in the
earlier chapters but it bears repeating (because it’s that important). After
hours of zero intake, what your body needs more than anything is fluids. And it
can’t be coffee or soda or even juice; it has to be pure, hydrating water. By
giving your body the water that it needs first thing in the morning, your body
will be able to tell you just how much food it really needs without confusing
hunger with thirst. If you think eating a good breakfast is the cardinal rule
for a good morning routine that will help you lose weight, think again – it’s
drinking water.
Does that mean you should skip
breakfast? No, it doesn’t. Eating a good breakfast is important for any weight
loss program and it will give your body the energy to go through a morning of
activities. If you skip breakfast, your body will be longing for food by lunch
and you’ll probably end up eating more than what’s healthy for one meal. And
more than keeping us from overeating for the rest of the day, it also helps jumpstart
your metabolism. In fact, studies show that eating breakfast is a daily habit
for people who were most successful in losing unwanted fat, according to the
National Weight Control Registry.
Exercise is also a great addition to
your morning routine. If you have the time to exercise in the morning, you’re
going to want to do it in 15 to 20 minute spurts on a daily basis instead of a
long workout that lasts for an hour or more but on fewer occasions during the
week. The best time to exercise is after you’ve had a drink of water but before
you eat breakfast so that your metabolism is already wide awake before you even
take your first bite.
What these steps have in common is the
ability to get your body’s metabolism working. But what does metabolism have
anything to do with losing belly fat fast? When we say increase metabolism,
what we really mean is produce more enzymes that help metabolize fat and
convert it into energy. There are people who have faster metabolism which means
they can metabolize fat into energy faster, burning more fat than others while
doing less. With these steps, we’re trying to mimic those people with faster
metabolism so that we can also lose more fat with less effort.
Having a healthy metabolism is vital for
losing belly fat because it’s pretty much the only way you can get rid of
visceral fat. A healthy diet, keeping your body hydrated, and exercise all help
in making sure your metabolism is running well which means that it’s steadily
burning fat and turning it into energy that you can use. But if you can take
steps to encourage your body to burn more fat, are there things that you do that
actually hinder fat from being used up?
Unfortunately, a lot of the things that
we look forward to in the morning actually encourage fat build up instead of
the other way around. Here are a few things that you should avoid doing in the
morning to stop you from sabotaging yourself and slowing down your metabolism:
1. Drinking
coffee too early
Do you have to give up
morning coffee completely? No, you don’t, but what you can’t do is have coffee
before you eat or drink anything else. Drink coffee while you’re having
breakfast, after you’ve had those two glasses of water. It’s very important to
be properly hydrated when you’re starting your day and drinking coffee first
thing will do just the opposite. Don’t forget, coffee is a diuretic, which
means it will make you lose water content instead of gaining much needed
fluids.
2. Having
a low fat/high sugar breakfast
You’re determined to
have a good breakfast to get your day started so you grab a box of wheat
frosted corn flakes. While your heart might be in the right place, eating high
sugar breakfasts throws off our body’s insulin levels which in turn affect our
mood, our hormones, and how much fat we keep, especially around the
mid-section.
Avoid food with too
much added sugar but at the same time, don’t be afraid to be having a bit of
fat for breakfast and maybe balance it off with some carbohydrates and protein.
A good way to go is to just avoid pre-prepared food like microwavables and
store-bought muffins and try to prepare your breakfast yourself. Scrambled
eggs, beef tapa, and buttered boiled potato doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
3. Checking
your email first thing
When you wake up in the
morning, prioritize your health and leave work for later or at least for after
breakfast. Stress and your moods might not seem like they affect your weight
and your fat build-up too much but it does and in a big way too. By managing
your stress levels and your mental health, you’ll be promoting chemical and
hormonal balance and your body will respond in an awesome way.
This is an excerpt from the book: The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast
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