When we talk about the weight loss process, our minds quickly jump to pictures of struggles with sit ups, panting, heavy breathing and gasping for air along with a complete change of our eating and sleeping habits. But does it have to be only about those things? If your answer to that is YES, you’re neglecting one very important aspect, having fun! Weight loss and fun are hardly ever used together in the same sentence but they should be. Intrigued? Let’s make it way more fun, read on for Losing Weight: 5 Ways to Have Fun while Dropping Pounds!
1. Do What You Love
You don’t have to follow one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout routines in order to lose weight or gain muscle. All you need to do is something that you love to do and enjoy doing. Be it Zumba, dancing, walking, aerobics, gymnastics, calisthenics, hiking, running, swimming, playing team sports or playing with the kids in the backyard or the park.
When you do something that you really love doing, it doesn’t become a chore and make you feel bogged down when you have to wake up early in the morning or do it late in the evening after you come back from work. Rather, you’ll look forward to it.
2. Short Workouts & Variety
Even though the workouts that you’re going to do are ones that you really enjoy, keep it short. Nothing wears you down and bores you faster than a drudgery that lasts 2-3 hours.
That’s when your chances of burning out become really high, plus you‘ll become completely demotivated (to the point where you might totally quit altogether!) into the bargain. Instead, aim for 30–45 minutes of higher intensity exercises.
Also, vary your exercises from time to time to overcome staleness and boredom from the same repetitive exercises. Change ‘shocks’ your muscles giving them renewed stimulus to overcome plateaus!
3. Baby Steps
I always emphasize breaking down your goals into smaller targets. Take baby steps towards each small goal. Challenge yourself every 3-4 weeks, beat your own record and most importantly, be consistent with your exercises and nutritional habit programme.
4. Treat Yourself
Be disciplined and regular regarding your exercises and nutrition. But, don’t starve or overwork (overtain) yourself thinking that this will help you reach your goal quicker. Instead, this will result in burnout and a dire falling out of love with the process. Instead, give yourself 2-3 days’ rest and recovery out of every 7 days.
Treat yourself to a favourite meal during the weekend, be it a delicious vegetarian pizza or pasta dish, chocolate brownie or peanut butter with frozen yogurt ice cream, yummy! Let yourself know that you are not cheating but rather thanking yourself for all the hard work.
5. Positive Mindset
From the get go, you should have a positive approach and be clear in your mind about why you’re doing this. Then you’ll clearly be able to see what your end goals are and can start approaching the process with a reverse- engineered, ‘can do’ attitude whilst also allowing yourself to plan properly. Have a checklist and tick things off so you can measure your progress by all means.
Even when you do encounter not-so-good days, you’ll be able to think positively and understand that such things happen only temporarily. With a positive mind, you’ll be able to gain strength through the ‘struggle’, rise above plateaus and push yourself forward – have fun thinking about the superhero you really are, why not! In any case, someone in your life is counting on you to perform, right?
