SUMMER HOLIDAY WEIGHT LOSS!
Holidays are over; Schools are back, and it's time to get the daily routines in place! After 7 weeks with the kids at home, a trip to SA and a fantastic holiday in Zanzibar, with lots of downtime, sleep, early sunrises, beach runs and piles of fresh seafood and so much fresh fruit, I have 2kgs of holiday weight I need to lose!
So is it time to calorie count, eat salad leaves, go to the gym 5/days a week, and start a detox? Yes? No?
NO!
But many people will go about weight loss this way and then wonder why in 2 weeks, they can't stick to it. It's overwhelming to do everything at once; fundamentally, we are creatures of habit. Plus, our current society is built around dopamine hits of immediate gratification. We want to have what we want, NOW.
So activating dopamine (our reward and motivation hormone) through a concept called HABIT STACKING can be a great way to achieve small wins that will help you hit your health goals (not just weight loss!) over time.
WHAT IS HABIT STACKING?
Simply put, it's by taking one new lifestyle change and practising it for a week, two or maybe even three. Once you've mastered it, then add another change.
Here are some examples: Pick one change that will get you to your goal and focus on that till it's easy, like:
Reduce added sugar in your daily teas or coffees until they are sugar-free. Just a little change.
2 weeks later, swap your breakfast pain au chocolate with scrambled eggs and avocado. Just a little change...
Now add in some extra steps or walk around the block daily after eating. Just a little change!
Carry adding ... : Just a little change!
HOLIDAY WEIGHT LOSS PLAN
Here is my September “Stacking” Plan, treating myself as I would do clients and starting with the basics:
Meal Planning -> Filling my fridge, cupboards and snack boxes with healthy, nutrient-dense foods that work for me.
Scheduling my exercise -> always the Wellbyness mantra; planning your diary to ensure you get exercise (and sleep!) around your other daily to-do's is vital.
IF -> back to my more regular way of eating (which is my ideal of 2 meals & 1 snack a day)
Destressing -> Being super busy all the time doesn't help your hormones. Chronic stress triggers cortisol, leading to impaired weight loss and increased weight gain. After unplugging from the world for 2 weeks, I realised I HAVE to find "off" time in my real world too.
LongevityPotential: Picking a few additional researched metabolic support elements will help to optimise my mitochondria. I'm going for dihydroberberine (blood sugar regulator that works on optimising longevity pathways) plus 20mins of my redlight lamp in the early morning.
Stack it up! -> stacking multiple habit changes is essential to multiply the effects to help sustainably optimise LONGTERM results.
I'll be working on 1 & 2 this coming week as they are interrelated; plus, I know when I am in my routines, intermittent fasting happens naturally for me. And then I’ll add in the rest once I find my routine again.
How to get Healthy with Health Stacking:
Look at critical things in your lifestyle that need changing, and see them as individual goals (ie, break down a target like weight loss into eating healthy, moving more, sleeping better etc.) to create a healthy habit stack.
Place these things in order from the most straightforward/most impactful to the hardest/least impactful.
Choose the top one from your list and aim to do it every day or at every opportunity. Master it!
Create each habit as a mini-goal and check it off after a specific time. This will help you feel empowered and successful.
Now keep that habit and add on another one!
You've got this! Make a plan and start!
Working with a health coach can help you identify your critical habits and help you be accountable to the smaller goals