1. Take the stairs: You have no idea how much daily cardio you miss out on by taking elevators and escalators. Always take the stairs if possible. 2. Drink water: My general rule of thumb is if you aren't drinking water at any given moment, you should be. Free and always accessible, this is probably the easiest thing to do that the most people don't take advantage of. 3. Stop drinking: anything that's not water. Soda, alcohol, and energy drinks, are all packed with sugar and calories. Even diet drinks will make a huge negative difference in your weight loss goals. Quit cold turkey it wont be as hard as you think, and once you go a a few days to a few weeks (depending on the person) without them, they wont even seem appealing anymore. Exceptions: Tea and coffee without sugar or heavy creamers 4. Get to the gym : Even if you only have a little bit of time to kill, go for it. Working out for short periods of time or not as intensely as you should won't hurt, but not exercising at all will. Even if you're not feeling 100%, you can only feel better afterward. 5. If you can't get to the gym....: Work out for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening or before you go to bed. There are so many online resources, just Google or Youtube "10 minute workouts" and millions of options will be at your fingertips. If you work out for ten minutes twice a day, that's a total of 20 minutes, which is not a bad start. Also committing to ten minutes is quick and easy, even the busiest people have time to do a few reps of jumping jacks, wall sits, squats, and stretching. 6. Start your day off right: Always, always, focus your will power on early in the day. Why? Because if you start your day eating right, you'll be less likely to throw it all away later. If you eat a healthy breakfast, snack, and lunch, you're more likely to want something equally as healthy for dinner. 7. Begin your weight loss journey with making one or two substitutions a day: Everybody has habits that would make even a small difference if they could quit. Pick a weakness but not a vice (for example: someone who gets a headache after a day without coffee shouldn't begin by dropping their daily cups immediately), rather a habit that you know you can change with relative ease (such as substituting a side of fries for a salad, or not snacking late at night). These changes are easy to make, and will encourage you to make more and bigger changes once you feel and see the difference. 8. Don't eat unless you're hungry: Eating out of boredom or in social settings is a habit that almost everyone has to some degree and is one of the hardest to break. A good way to start is to identify the time where you snack out of boredom the most, and make sure you have healthy snacks on hand for that time. Bottom line though is recognizing the problem and changing it with willpower and commitment. 9. Don't let a mistake derail your whole day: As I said earlier, it's very difficult to get back on track after indulging, but the ability to shake it off is crucial to making a change. Almost nobody is perfect all the time, and letting it ruin any future choices will only make losing weight impossible. 10. Build on your progress: Beginning by making small changes and building upon them to eventually lead a healthy life and lose weight is the ultimate goal. Little steps will make changes fit into your life, instead of seeming difficult and overwhelming. Start going to the gym once a week, take the stairs as often as you can, bring a water bottle with you, eat a yogurt instead of a cookie, and the healthy choices will start to feel good. In time, these good choices will encourage you to make more good choices until you get to the place that you want to be. Source
