Diet & Fat Loss

My position is that you should be focused on manipulating your body to burn fat. This is a very different focus than calorie-counting and is based on the scientific explanations of Dr. Jason Fung (and our own experience running diet studies and supporting fat loss coaches).

To manipulate your body to be in fat-burning mode, most people will have two options: reduce carbs or increase fasting time.

Try both at once if you want to burn fat quickly, but also know that for long-term health you should be looking for a permanent change. In our experience as behavior designers, the 16:8 intermittent fasting option — where you skip breakfast everyday — is a much easier permanent lifestyle change than avoiding carbs for the rest of your life.

There are a couple of caveats. We haven’t covered diet changes for people with significant pre-existing health issues. If this is you, trust your doctor, not us. Also, many women have told us anecdotally that they experience low carb and fasting differently than it is described by men. I feel like this is a blind spot in our coverage, and I’m sorry.

Last, a huge amount of diet writing comes with a heavy dose of fat shaming. We’ve tried to avoid that, but if you have arrived here feeling like you’ve been fat-shamed in the past, please read Ragen Chastain’s piece about Leaving Toxic Diet Culture Behind.

Intermittent fasting:

We don’t have an intro to fasting article yet. If we did, it would be focused on eating windows. That form of fasting is commonly called 16:8 and refers to an 8-hour eating window: say, noon to 8pm. You do all of your eating in that window, and then fast for the remaining 16 hours.

• Science: Does Fasting Burn Muscle? ~Dr. Jason Fung
• Case Study: Tracking Ketones and Energy During Intermittent Fasting ~Mark Moschel
• Case Study: I lost 50lbs on a 5:2 Intermittent Fast ~Dave Wentworth

Low Carb:

There are a lot of variants of Low Carb that are mostly on the spectrum of how aggressively you will avoid carbs. Keto is the most aggressive.

Tim Ferriss’ Slow Carb uses a weekly cheat day to make the diet change easier to follow.

• A Blueprint for Fat Loss with Slow Carb, Low Carb & Keto Diets ~Dorothy Stainbrook
• How to Eat According to Your Carb Tolerance ~John Fawkes
• How to Check if a Food Label is Keto ~Abigail Roaquin

Comparison of Diet Approaches:

In 2014, we ran a weight loss experiment using control groups and randomized assignment. Our goal was to compare popular diet approaches and what we found was that they all led to weight loss (even as compared to the control group). As part of that experiment we wrote up helpful diet cheat sheets that you can use now as quick guides to different approaches:

Slow Carb | Paleo | Whole Foods | Vegetarian | DASH

Skills:

The importance of these articles is in the behavior change. It’s easy to know how you should eat, but much harder to follow through. Hopefully, these skills will help.

• How to Use Mindfulness Meditation to Overcome Emotional Eating ~Stefy Uotani
• How to Conquer Food Cravings ~Dr. Jason Fung
• How to Meal Prep Like a Champ ~Jen
• If You’re Going to Count Calories, Make Sure You Also Count Macros ~Serdar Tuncali

Case studies:

• Case study: How I Lost 40 Pounds in my 50s by Combining Strategies ~Steve Spring
• Case study: How I Lost 12 Pounds During My Month of Whole 30 ~Steve Spring
• Case study: Lose Weight and Get Fit After 40 ~Larry Cornett, Ph.D.
• Case study: How I Lost 65 Pounds and Reversed Pre-diabetes ~Abigail Roaquin

Fasting vs. caloric restriction:

So many people are unhelpfully locked into caloric restriction as the way they view fat loss, so here are some ways of looking at it. The TL;DR is that yes, you do end up in a caloric deficit with any fat loss, but that’s a side effect that you can ignore and instead focus on hormonal manipulation.

• Obesity is a Hormonal Imbalance, Not a Caloric Imbalance ~Dr. Jason Fung
• What is the Difference Between Fasting & Caloric Restriction ~Dr. Jason Fung
• The Science of Why Caloric Restriction Fails ~Dr. Jason Fung
• Why Fasting Succeeds Where Caloric Restriction Fails ~Dr. Jason Fung

Exercise

Just seven articles — obviously there’s a much bigger world that we haven’t covered yet.

• The Complete Guide to Overcoming Gymtimidation ~Ragen Chastain
• How to Prevent Injuries Even if You Work a Desk Job ~Carol Moynham
• The 1,000 Calorie Protein Shake ~Jesse Warren Tevelow
• How to Stick to Your Fitness Habits ~John Fawkes
• How to Overcome Resistance to Running ~Odille Remmert
• Grease the Groove — The Russian Military Secret to Strength Endurance ~John Fawkes
• How I Squatted 100 Kilograms After Just 37 Hours of Training ~Reinoud Schuijers

Sleep

Sleep is the ultimate brain training and health habit. You get more done when you’re rested and so it’s almost always worth the trade-off of giving yourself a full night of rest.

Of course, getting to sleep and staying asleep isn’t always easy:

• How to Fall Asleep Quickly and Wake Up With Energy ~Melissa Chu
• The Complete Guide to Curing Insomnia ~John Fawkes
• How to Power Through Sleep Deprivation When You Have No Other Choice ~K. Markle

Your morning routine:

• How to Stop Struggling By Building Your Own Morning Routine ~Jason Gutierrez
• How to Wake Up Early ~George Halachev

Tracking:

• Case study: What I Learned From Six Months of Obsessive Sleep Hacking ~Chris Davidson

Give Up Caffeine

The benefits of doing this are often for sleep, but also to save a small amount of money, and, counterintuitively, for productivity.

• A Very Thorough Guide to Quitting Coffee & Caffeine ~John Fawkes
• How to Kick a Caffeine Addiction in 5 days ~John Fawkes
• Case Study: The Effects of Caffeine, Alcohol, and Exercise on Sleep: Analyzing the Surprising Results ~Max Frenzel
• Case Study: What I Learned From Quitting Coffee After 15 Years Of Daily Consumption ~Angelo Belardi

Give Up Alcohol

A lot of people develop unhealthy habits around alcohol that turn into a drag on their health, their sleep, and their productivity. Here are some ways to turn those habits around.

• How One Year Without Beer Unlocked My Performance in Business and Life ~Andy Ramage
• What Happened to Me After Giving Up Alcohol for One Year ~Malcolm Bedell

A common excuse is lack of time. We tend to get lost in the bustle of everyday life and start complaining that we never have enough time to eat fruits. If you are someone who feels the same, this article is the perfect fit for you. It discusses some easy steps you can apply to your life right away so you can start eating more fruits and embrace a healthier lifestyle.

1. Build a plan

Before you dive right into your new habit of eating fruit every day, build a plan for the week ahead. When you go grocery shopping the next time, buy several different varieties of fruits and plan which fruit you are going to eat when. 

You can even print the chart out and paste it to your refrigerator. This will help you have a concrete vision of exactly what you need to consume and will make sticking to your goal easier.

2. Keep track

When you have your plan for the week printed and stuck in a place you can see it daily, mark each day you successfully managed to stick to it off the calendar.

You can also get a habit tracker and mark each day on the calendar where you successfully stuck to your new goal of eating fruit daily. Gamifying your habits can be a helpful way to get the most of this challenge and adopting a healthier lifestyle.

3. Try frozen

If the reason why you never get to have enough fruit is that you don’t find enough fruit in your local grocery store, you can try frozen. Nutrition-wise, frozen fruits have the same health benefits as fresh fruits. They are picked at the peak season and then frozen, so all of their goodness is preserved.

This can also be a great way of reducing spoilage as fresh fruits tend to go bad if you forget to eat them on time. But frozen fruits don’t have that same issue. You can keep a few cans of frozen fruit in your home and eat them as and when you wish without worrying they might go bad if you neglect them for long.

4. Explore the seasonal varieties  

Frozen fruit might not offer much variety. But if you stick to fresh fruits, every season brings with it a brand new fruit, which in turn implies a brand new flavor you can savor and enjoy.

You can make it a weekly habit of visiting a local farmer’s market, picking the fruits of your choice, and then loading your refrigerator with them. You can then fit these new and interesting varieties of local produce into your weekly plan and enjoy your way to good health.

5. Make it tastier by exploring different options

You can cut up all your fruits into small chunks and prepare a fruit salad you can consume every day. To spice it up and add that extra zing of flavor, you can also add the following additives to make your fruit salad even tastier:

• olives or sesame oil
• nuts and dried fruits: chopped or toasted 
• Any variety of cheese, but parmesan or feta cheese taste the best
• fresh herbs: minced or diced
• dried herb and a tasty spice blend.

6. Get an accountability partner

Get help from people who have experience dealing with your new goal of eating fruit every day and embracing a healthier lifestyle. You can hire an accountability coach who will share helpful tips and tricks and also hold you accountable for your promise of eating more fruit. They can act as your cheerleaders and help you get back on track if you ever fall off the wagon for some reason.

So, what are you waiting for? Find a life coach from the world’s best coaching directory to unlock the next level in your life today!

• Dancing helps you age gracefully and boosts your memory. It can also reduce the chances of dementia as you grow older.
• It improves flexibility and reduces stiffness. Dancing also eases joint pain and post-exercise soreness.
• It reduces stress and helps you feel more relaxed.
• Dancing has been shown to lift the spirits of people suffering from depression.
• It is a great cardiovascular exercise and helps reduce the chances of heart disease and keeps your heart safe.
• It increases your energy, improves your balance, and helps you lose weight.

Now that you know the multiple health benefits of dance, how can you go about building a habit of dancing every day? This post discusses some effective tips you can incorporate into your schedule right away to build a habit of dancing daily.

1. Dance in the car

When you are driving to work, to get groceries, or going around town with your family, play some uplifting music in the car and start dancing in your seat. This is an incredible way of lifting your spirits and making you smile. 

If you are traveling with your family, friends, or partner, dancing in the car can also help you in bonding and becoming even closer to the other person.

2. Dance while making dinner 

When you’re preparing meals for your family, ask everyone else to come and help you, while you play some old favorite songs in the background and sway your body as you cook.

If this feels too much of a task gathering everyone around every single day, you can make this a ritual on the weekends. Over time, it can become a family tradition every member will grow to love and cherish, even after they grow old and leave home. 

3. Dance while doing menial chores

Whether you are doing the dishes, folding the laundry, doing the dishes, or hanging out the clothes to dry, you can play some upbeat tracks and dance as your body eases into the practiced motions of the chores you perform daily anyway.

You can also play the music in your headphones and dance like no one is watching. This is a great way to make daily chores less tedious while also getting some workout done.

4. Have a spontaneous dance party

Whether you are having a regular family discussion or you invited some friends over, whether you live alone or with roommates, whether you are in your own place or somebody else’s, having a spontaneous dance party is an incredible way of getting in your daily exercise while also having a lot of fun.

Dancing has tremendous potential to make people bond over it, and when you incorporate it into social situations, it helps you break the ice and become closer friends with the people around you.

5. Get a habit tracker

Download a free habit tracker where you mark each day on the calendar when you successfully managed to dance during the day. Seeing an unbroken streak of adhering to your new habit can be an incredible motivator to keep pushing you ahead on this endeavor of dancing every day.

6. Get an accountability partner

Talk to someone about your goals of dancing every day. This can be a friend, a roommate, a partner, a sibling, or a parent. Roping someone in on your journey and having them hold you accountable can be a way to make sure you’re not alone on this journey.

You can also hire an accountability coach. These are trained professionals who will help you build a new habit. Having a compassionate, professionally-trained expert by your side can be a wonderful way to make sure you don’t fall off the wagon while trying to build this habit of dancing every day.

So, what are you waiting for? Find a life coach from the world’s best coaching directory to unlock the next level in your life today!

An important part of embracing a healthy lifestyle is by being active and keeping your body moving throughout the day. And what easier way to accomplish this than by walking?

There’s been no research to suggest that 10,000 steps is the magical number, but research published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activityestablishes that healthy adults typically take between 4,000 and 18,000 steps/day and that 10,000 steps/day is reasonable number for healthy human adults.

So how can one go about making sure that they walk 10,000+ steps every day? This post discusses some unique and creative ways you can go about embracing this new habit into your life.

1. Walk a pet

Walking a pet is an effective way of getting some time off from your phone, spending some rare cherished moments with nature, and also spending time with pets, which is, as suggested by scientists over the years, an excellent way to boost your mood.

If you don’t own a pet, you can volunteer to be a pet sitter. This will not only help you get your daily step count in, it will also make an excellent source of extra income.

2. Take the stairs

This is a no-brainer but incredibly effective. Avoid elevators and always take the stairs, especially if you have to climb upstairs as this acts as an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise.

3. Take ‘active’ breaks

When you take a break in between work, don’t spend that sitting down and scrolling through your phone. Instead, you can walk around the room, go to the balcony and stare outside for a while, or simply stretch a bit and work your muscles.

You can also combine this with the Pomodoro technique to boost your productivity while making sure you aren’t compromising on your health.

4. Get a treadmill desk

Working while you’re walking might seem like a bit of a stretch. but it’s an excellent way to increase your daily step count while also making sure you have a lot f creativity juices flowing inside your body.

You can also watch this talk by our in-house expert Sarah Milstein

5. Park away from the office

No matter where you are headed, park your vehicle a few blocks away from your destination. If you use cab services, ask the cab to stop a few miles away from wherever you’re headed.

This way, you can get in a few steps and also use that time on the road to organize your thoughts and prepare yourself for whatever is coming next.

6. Walk after meals

Science has proven that taking a 15-minute walk after dinner can help you digest your food better. So, after every meal, simply put your walking shoes on and go on a short walk to sid your digestion and get some me-time to declutter your brain.

7. Walk while you talk

Never take a phone call sitting. Whenever you see your phone buzzing, grab it, get off your desk, and start walking as you have the conversation.

8. Go on walk-meetings

This might sound like a new concept, but when a friend comes to you saying they need to talk about something important, ask them if they would like to have the discussion as you walk.

This is an excellent way to add more steps to your daily count and also bond better with your friends over this shared activity you two commence together.

9. Get a habit tracker

If you’re trying to build this new habit of walking 10,000 steps or more every day, you can turn to technology for help if you ever feel you’re struggling or faltering. Simply download a habit tracker that lets you mark each day on the calendar when you successfully stuck to your new habit. Seeing an unbroken streak will serve as the biggest motivator and keep pushing you on this new journey.

10. Have an accountability partner

You can also hire an accountability coach to help keep you on track. These are trained professionals who will hold you accountable for your new habit of using the Pomodoro technique and help you get back on track if you ever fall off the wagon.

So, what are you waiting for? Find a life coach from the world’s best coaching directory to unlock the next level in your life today!

Many months later, when you are cleaning your closets, you find the barely-finished pack of vitamins — now expired — and you feel a pang of guilt. You feel a rush of motivation to start taking them again.

And so, you purchase a new packet, set some alarms for yourself, but before you know it, you’ve slipped back into your old routine. The pack of vitamins lies crumbling in the darkest corner of your closet, forgotten until the next spring cleaning session.

How does one get out of this vicious cycle? How does one make sure never to forget their vitamins even for a day? This article discusses five creative ways you can apply right now to remember to take your vitamins every day.

1. Write a note

If setting a reminder on your phone didn’t work the first time around, you can take it to the next level and write yourself a note. Take some multi-colored pieces of sticky notes and place them on your mirror, on the bathroom wall, on your kitchen closet, on the refrigerator — place as many of them as you need, and make sure each one pops out in a different burst of color.

Having these little reminders strewn all over the house would be a great way to make sure you don’t forget your daily dose of vitamins.

2. Get a pillbox

As mentioned in a previous article about how to remember to take your medication daily, pillboxes are a sure-fire way to make sure you never miss your vitamins for the day.

Get a pillbox, sort through your vitamins, and store them in separate compartments. You can also add a sticky note to each compartment, and take it off after you’ve had them. This will make sure you don’t miss a dose and will serve as a motivator to remind you to stick to the schedule.

3. Create a trigger

A trigger is any activity you perform daily without fail. The trick here is to tie your habit of taking your daily vitamin dose to an activity you would anyway perform. This way, when you do the triggering activity, say, for example, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, or preparing your breakfast, your brain will remind you to take your vitamins.

The choice of the trigger is personal and might vary from person to person. The only thing you need to remember is that associate your need to take vitamins with the triggering activity.

4. Consider it a form of self-care

Don’t think of your vitamins as a necessary chore. Instead, think of it as part of your daily self-care routine. When you make this perspective shift, you’ll find it easier to have them at the set time every day. You won’t feel the need to keep extensive reminders for yourself.

5. Turn to technology

Get help from people who have experience dealing with your problem of not taking your vitamins on time. You can hire an accountability coach who will share helpful tips and tricks and also hold you accountable for your promise of taking your vitamins every day.

You can also get a habit tracker and mark each day on the calendar where you successfully took your vitamins on time. Gamifying your habits can be a helpful way to get the most of this challenge and adopting a healthier lifestyle.

When you start working out and tracking your diet, it becomes second nature of weighing yourself daily. This is a great habit that can give you an honest look at how far you’ve come on your fitness journey and what’s still left to achieve. Studies have found that people who adopt this habit and weigh in daily tend to lose more weight compared to those who check their weight less often. 

If nothing else, weighing in daily will push you to stick to your fitness goals. Every small change will act like a motivator and help you get back on track if you ever fall off the wagon. It might actually motivate you to consume less calories and hit the gym more often.

This post discusses practical ways you can adopt in your life right now to build a habit of checking your weight daily:

1. Keep the weighing scales in your gym so you can check them daily after working out.
2. Tie this habit to a trigger. Every time you perform the trigger activity, you’ll remember to check your weight as well.
3. Set an alarm on your phone for a specific time every day.
4. Find a way to reward yourself each time to weigh in, so this craving for the reward can also become a cue for you to check your weight.
5. Get a habit tracker and mark each day on the calendar when you manage to stick to this new habit of yours.
6. Find an accountability partner — someone to check on you every day whether or not you have accomplished your goal.
7. If you can’t find a friend or colleague to hold you accountable, you can hire an accountability coach. These are trained professionals who will help you stick to your goal and support you on your journey.

The key to maintaining a healthy diet is to consume the right number of calories to keep you active and feeling productive throughout the day, as well as eat balanced foods so as to not have any deficiency or disease in your body. It’s recommended that men have around 2,500 calories a day while women should have around 2,000 calories a day. 

If you eat more calories than you require, you’ll end up gaining weight and welcoming several obesity-related health risks into your life. This post discusses some important tips to incorporate a healthy diet into your life.

1. Have high fiber carbohydrates as your base

Try to include at least one starchy food with every meal. Choose higher fiber or wholegrain varieties of carbohydrates. This can include wholewheat pasta, brown rice, or potatoes without removing their skins.

2. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables

You should aim to eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables each day. It’s best to have fresh fruits and vegetables, but they can also be frozen, canned, dried, or juiced. Scientists often advise to juice your vegetables and chew your fruits.

3. Eat more fish

Fish is a great source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids which prevent heart disease. Keep an aim to eat at least two portions of fish every week. You can have fresh fish as well as canned varieties. But some dishes like smoked fish have a lot of salt, so keep that in mind before incorporating it into your diet.

4. Cut down on sugar

Sugar has no nutrients. It only makes you gain weight and those extra inches, and also weakens your immune system. It’s important that you stop having sweet, sugary foods immediately. Here’s how you can do it:7 Simple Strategies to Cut Sugar Out of Your Life — HabitHacks
Sugar has been proved to have several negative effects on health. You can gain excess fat, feel full without adding any…blog.lift.do

5. Eat less salt

Too much salt can increase your blood pressure and make you more vulnerable to heart disease or stroke. Even if you add less salt to your meals, processed food like bread, cookies, cereal, etc. have a lot of salt in them. Be mindful while consuming processed food and only take them in limited quantities.

6. Get active and maintain a healthy weight

It’s important to incorporate exercise into your daily routine so you can have a healthy metabolism and make it easier for your body to digest your food. Here are some tips how you can do it.8 Simple Tips to Make Exercise A Part of Your Daily Routine – HabitHacks
1. Find a workout you enjoy Not all exercises are for all body types. Some people enjoy Yoga and Pilates, while some…blog.lift.do

7. Try intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting can be a great way to consume the required number of calories while only having healthy food. Here’s how you can adopt this habit in your life:A Step-by-Step Guide to Start Intermittent Fasting – HabitHacks
Intermittent Fasting is one of the most popular trends to emerge in the diet and health industry. It has powerful…blog.lift.do

8. Drink more water

Water is the most natural and healthiest way to detoxify your body and help it fight all the disease-causing miscreants. Here are some tips on how you can drink more water every day.8 Ways To Drink More Water – HabitHacks
1. Add more spice to your meals While a spicy meal is always delightful, an unexpected benefit is that it makes you…blog.lift.do

9. Avoid fast food

Junk food or fast food has very less nutrients. They are made from processed food that already has a high amount of salt. They are fattening, have no health benefits, and can cause indigestion, stomach ulcers, and various other diseases. Here are some ways you can cut junk food out of your life.7 Tips to Stop Having Fast Food – HabitHacks
Junk food is addictive. The delicious flavors and the savory texture make it almost impossible to stop munching on the…blog.lift.do

10. Get an accountability partner

Get help from people who have experience dealing with your problem of eating too much fast food. You can hire an accountability coach who will share helpful tips and tricks and also hold you accountable for your promise of eating less junk food.

You can also get a habit tracker and mark each day on the calendar where you successfully refrained from eating fast food. Gamifying your habits can be a helpful way to get the most of this challenge and adopting a healthier lifestyle.

If you work out, you can stretch right before you start to exercise to prevent joint and muscle injury. And even when you don’t work out daily, you can incorporate stretching into your daily routine. This post discusses some helpful steps you can apply right now to incorporate stretching into your daily routine.

1. Do it in the morning

Stretching right after you wake up helps the blood flow into your extremities and makes you more awake, alive, and ready to seize the day. It can also help you achieve better breathing control and leave you with more energy to have a productive day ahead.

2. Do it during breaks

This routine helps especially if you have a job that requires you to sit in one place and stare at a computer screen all day long, Each time you take a break to drink water and go to the washroom, stand up and do a few stretches. Reach your arms all the way up over your head, bend down to reach your toes, and rotate your torso from side to side. This will help you feel invigorated and return to work with renewed vigor.

3. Do it after you reach home

If your job involves going out of your house and working in an office, stretching right after you reach home can be a good way to reconnect with your body. It will also help ease the stress of a tough day. It can be your small act of self-love, your way of reclaiming control over your time, attention, mind, and body.

4. Do it when you brush your teeth

Every morning and right before you go to bed, stretching when you brush your teeth can be a great and effective way of getting your heartbeat up and burning some quick calories while spending minimal effort. Stand on your toes and feel the stretch in your calves. You can also lift your leg, bend it at the knee, and stretch it behind your back. This not only helps you achieve better balance, but it can also be a great way to stretch without actively thinking about it.

5. Get a habit tracker

You can also download a habit tracker where you check off the days on the calendar when you managed to stick to your goal of stretching each day. You’ll soon start craving for an unbroken streak. This can act as a great trigger and a cue for your body and mind to start your habit immediately. Soon, the idea of not stretching at all and spending your day in a sedentary manner will no longer look so attractive.

6. Get an accountability partner

No matter how hard you’re pushing yourself, doing something so big and challenging all by yourself can get tough at times. To make sure you don’t lose motivation midway, have a friend who is working on the same goals of stretching even for a bit each day. If you stay with a friend or roommate, try and get them on board. This is a great way to ensure you don’t miss out on your stretches and take care of your body as well.

If you aren’t able to find a friend working towards the same daily stretching goals, you can hire an accountability coach to help you keep on track. They are trained professionals who will hold you accountable each day and make sure you don’t fall off the wagon even if you are demotivated.

Before we go into how to build a habit of doing daily push-ups, let’s take a few moments to discuss what benefits push-ups can have on the body and how frequently should one do them.

As Healthline puts it, “Traditional pushups are beneficial for building upper body strength. They work the triceps, pectoral muscles, and shoulders. When done with proper form, they can also strengthen the lower back and core by engaging (pulling in) the abdominal muscles.”

This is what makes push-ups such a great exercise. They are a super fast and insanely effective exercise for building strength. The best part is that they can be done from virtually anywhere and don’t require any equipment. 

This post discusses some tips and tricks you can implement right now to build a habit of doing daily push-ups.

1. Focus on form 

Taking time to watch YouTube videos or employ a personal trainer to teach you to apply the perfect form will go a long way in ensuring that you don’t injure yourself while making certain you get the maximum benefits from your workout.

There are many ways to do a push-up. Pick one that suits your body type and stamina, and give it your hundred percent.

2. Rest for at least one day

You can’t work your chest and shoulder muscles all days of the week. Take one day off each week and designate it to self-care, rest, and healing. This will give your body ample time to build muscles and become stronger than before.

3. Train the opposing muscle group

Push-ups don’t just work out your chest muscles, they train your shoulders too. Your shoulders are unstable and fragile and you need to train them harder to balance your strength and improve stability. For that, it’s important that you should include some upper back and rotator cuff work in your exercise regimen.

4. Do a proper warmup

This is true for any exercise you’re planning to do. Without a proper warmup, you risk the chance for injuries and not properly working out the target muscles. 

Before you start your daily push-ups, stretch your body properly. This might seem like too much work, or even unnecessary. But if you don’t take care of your body properly and take preventive measures against injury, you might wake up one day in too much pain and unable to continue your exercise regime.

5. Reward yourself 

Once you complete your daily push-ups, reward yourself with something that you really enjoy. This could be some uninterrupted time with your dog, a bite of your favorite meal, an episode of a sitcom you love, and so much more. 

Get creative with your rewards so your brain and body are trained in a way that they know what needs to be done before they can get what they so strongly desire.

6. Get an accountability partner

No matter how hard you’re pushing yourself, doing something so big and challenging all by yourself can get tough at times. To make sure you don’t lose motivation midway, have a friend who is working on the same body goals. Working on a shared goal is a great way to ensure that you don’t lose hope even if you don’t immediately see results.

If you aren’t able to find a friend working towards the same goals, you can hire an accountability coach to help you keep on track. They are trained professionals who will hold you accountable each day and make sure you don’t fall off the wagon even if you are demotivated.

You can also download a habit tracker where you check off the days on the calendar when you managed to stick to your goal of daily push-ups. You’ll soon start craving for an unbroken streak. This can act as a great trigger and a cue for your body and mind to start your habit immediately. 

It’s almost as if we know how important it is, but we can’t muster up the courage and determination to stick to this and make it a habit. So what is it that’s stopping us and how can we combat that? This post discusses some hands-on tips you can apply right away to make a habit out of going regularly to the gym and maintaining your health. As we all know, the more consistent an action is, the more likely it is to be a habit. And here’s how you can be consistent with your habit of going to the gym.

1. Set a time

Decide whether you want to go to the gym in the morning or afternoon, and based on your preference, decide a time. Stick to it without fail every day. 

If you don’t set a time, you’re more likely to give up and keep postponing. But when you have a fixed time for going to the gym, it keeps coming up at you like a reminder for your accountability.

2. Set a reminder

The next step to setting a fixed time is to set yourself a reminder. You can do it in two ways:

• Either set a reminder on your phone in the form of a blaring alarm tone.
• Or you can tie your habit of going to the gym with another habit you perform regularly. This could be making tea for yourself in the morning or taking the dog for a run. 
• When you tie two habits together, your brain is triggered that it needs to start the latter habit immediately. 
• So, the next time you take your dog for a run, your brain and body will scream at you for going to the gym. It will be very hard to say no to a call like that.

3. Start small

This is true for any habit you’re trying to build. If you try to do a lot of work at once, you’ll feel tired and demotivated. But if you break your goal down into small countable steps, it will keep you motivated for a longer time.

Try and break it down to the most minute of details — like wearing your gym clothes, putting on your gym shoes, turning on your gym music, walking down the road to the gym, etc.

4. Enjoy the process

Don’t be fixated on the results. Think of yourself undergoing a transformation and enjoy the process. The pain is the price you pay for a healthier and happier lifestyle.

5. Control your diet

Only working out doesn’t give you the perfect body (and the enthusiasm to keep pushing yourself to turn up at the gym day after day), you need to watch what you eat too.

So, stop eating those potato wedges, drinking those sugary shakes, and filling your stomach with unhealthy, processed, and fatty food. Switch to a healthy, home-cooked diet. If you travel frequently, find healthy places to order from and build a morning routine of 15–20 mins of HIIT workout.

6. Make your convenience a priority

The easier it is to slip into “workout mode,” the more conveniently the new habit fits into your routine.

Don’t make it harder on yourself by choosing a gym that’s far away from your home. Pick something that’s within walking distance, so you don’t have to convince yourself hard to get there.

Better still, start with home workouts. These literally take the least effort as all you have to do is roll your Yoga mat on the floor and start exercising. For many home workouts, you don’t even need to change clothes.

7. Get an accountability partner

When you’re starting a new habit, it becomes much easier if you have someone to keep you accountable. This can be a friend with whom you’ve started the habit together or a certified coach who can help you identify your excuses and make sure you don’t give up on yourself.

You can find yourself a certified coach from this directory of accountability coaches.