10 tiny habits to speed up weight loss

We all know what habits are, especially if we have bad ones. While we’re often quite aware of our bad habits, we probably don’t pay much attention to our good habits.

Brushing your teeth every morning and night is a good habit.

Checking that the doors are locked when you leave the house is a good habit.

Getting up without fail every morning to do your 6am workout is a good habit.

When it comes to reaching your goals and keeping that positive momentum going, good habits are key and good habits work.

When it comes to reaching your goals, it’s the micro-habits that count and lead to big results. Micro-habits are small actions that don’t require much motivation or even much effort to complete.

The trick here is that over time, constant repetition of these micro-habits will result in something bigger.

The real beauty of micro-habits is that they’re simple. You won’t need to make an excuse to not do them or decide they’re too hard. Just like brushing your teeth or making a cup of tea.

So, you’re probably wondering how you can add some micro-habits into your day-to-day life.

Here are some simple suggestions for how to make micro-habits part of your daily routine:

1. Need to go up a level? Use the stairs, not the lift.
2. Making a phone call, waiting for an appointment or watching TV? Stand, don’t sit.
3. Remove or reduce one unhealthy item in your diet each week. For example: if you have sugar in your coffee, reduce this from one teaspoon of sugar to half a teaspoon, then only have it half the time until you don’t need to have sugar at all.
4. Have a big glass of water before every meal.
5. Take the car park the furthest away from your destination.
6. Walk or cycle to work one day a week.
7. Stand up and stretch every hour on the hour.
8. Go phone free for 30 minutes before bed.
9. Get your workout clothes out the night before.
10. Take a daily walk at work, even if it’s just a lap of the block.

You don’t need to incorporate all of these micro-habits at once. Try this:

1. Write down a list of micro-habits you want to start doing.
2. Pick ONE.
3. Write this down somewhere you’ll see it every day (on your fridge, on a post-it note on your desk, or even your phone background).
4. Do it every day until it becomes something you do automatically.
5. Repeat.
6. So there you have it – a not-so-secret strategy to speed up your weight loss or break through that dreaded plateau.

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