While it’s definitely important to make healthy choices throughout the entire day in order to lose or maintain weight, starting the day off right sets you up for a day of success. If you want to see results on the scale, or if you just want to maintain a healthy lifestyle, then these 8 common morning habits might make it more difficult to achieve your weight-related goals.
Oversleeping
It’s important to make sure that you’re getting enough sleep at night, but it’s also important to make sure that you’re not sleeping too much. Oversleeping has been linked to diseases such as depression, diabetes, and heart disease. Plus, oversleeping makes it more difficult to work healthy habits, such as making breakfast or exercising, into your routine.
Turning on the Lights
Getting ready for the day in the dark or turning on the lights means that you’re missing out on one of nature’s greatest health benefits: the sun. Exposure to the sun lifts the mood and energizes the body. Start your day off right by opening the curtains instead, or even try exercising or meditating outside for added benefits.
Drinking Coffee First
If the first thing you do after getting out of bed is head for the coffee maker, you might be missing out on water, one of the most important keys to weight loss success. Drinking a glass of cold water in the morning, rather than a cup of coffee, will boost your energy, fill your stomach, flush toxins from the body, and help keep all of the body’s systems in harmony.
Skipping Breakfast
It’s tempting to skip breakfast in the morning when you’re in a rush, but not taking the time to eat in the morning sabotages your weight loss goals. Skipping breakfast has been linked to obesity, difficulty in losing weight, diabetes, and heart disease, and may cause binge eating, decreased energy, or mood swings short-term.
Eating the Wrong Kind of Breakfast
Eating a healthy breakfast in the morning is key, so avoid a fast food breakfast sandwich or the donuts your co-worker brought to the office. Make time for a homemade breakfast full of protein to keep you feeling full throughout the day.
Skipping the Scale
If you’re in a rush in the morning, it may be tempting to skip weighing yourself every day. However, studies have shown that people who weigh themselves every day have better weight loss success overall.
Skipping Exercise
Getting exercise in at any time of the day is beneficial to losing weight and to your overall health, but exercising in the morning has added benefits. Exercising in the morning has shown to raise the metabolism, lower the blood pressure, and combat cravings.
Skipping Meditation
Meditation is probably the last thing on your mind when you’re getting ready for the day, but meditating in the morning may actually help you lose weight. Meditating lowers the blood pressure and reduces levels of cortisol, a hormone linked to weight gain, in the body.
There are many different morning habits that can cause someone to gain weight, which can be frustrating if you want to lose weight. By making several small changes to your morning routine, you can set yourself up for weight loss success.
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Sources: [Huffington Post, Livestrong, Mind Body Green, PubMed, Remedy Daily, Science Daily, WebMD, Women’s Health]
