So much of the focus, when it comes to fat loss and getting in better shape, revolves around training, nutrition, and activity levels. This is for good reason, as they are going to be the key components to your fitness journey and helping you get to where to you want.
However, there are several other key areas that people underestimate during their fat loss journey. These are areas that are going to have a direct correlation to your consistency, enjoyment, success and overall health. Therefore, it is important to become more aware of them, to identify if these are areas you struggle with and then work out how you can improve on them.
So, these are some important areas, which you may not have considered before, to focus on that will help you improve your chances of reaching your goals of fat loss, toning and improving your body shape.
Change Your Mindset
One of the most important battles starts before you even get into a regular routine with your training and nutrition. You may have come from a number of different diets and exercise routines that have not worked for you in the past and you, therefore, lack the belief that you can lose fat, lose weight and change your body. As a result, you can very often enter your goals with a fixed, negative mindset.
After seeking out a professional who can help you with your goals, it is then vital to change your mindset into positive one that revolves around progress and improvement. It is okay to be apprehensive and nervous, but approaching every session and every day with a poor frame of mind is only going to lead to failure. So, believe you can do it, seek that right help, and always go in with the attitude of improvement. Once you start to see progress, you will not want to look back.
Build Better Habits
One of the most important areas you will have to nail down to achieve success is consistency. Progress and results do not happen overnight, and it requires doing the required tasks well every day, over a sustained period of time to notice changes in your body shape. But how do you achieve such consistency? It requires several skills, but one of the most important is forming good, enjoyable habits that you can maintain, not just during your fitness journey, but for life.
In the initial stages, this may require some experimentation, especially if you are someone who has got out of shape due to months or even years of previous bad habits. So, finding a routine it vital, which means working out what times work best for you when it comes to training, exercise and sleep, and how to structure your meals throughout the day. Once you work this out, things become much easier and manageable, but forming good daily habits that you can stick to is going to be essential to your progress.
Lower Inflammation Levels
Another great way of improving your chances of reaching your fat loss goals is lowering serious inflammation in the body. Internal inflammation is caused by eating too much food of poor quality, such as those with trans fats, high sugar and low nutrients. As a result, your body then holds a lot of water, which can make you feel more bloated and even that you have more body fat than you actually have.
A great way of reducing inflammation in the body is to simply clean up your diet. This includes reducing intolerant food groups and consuming higher-quality foods, such as wild meat and fish, nuts, seeds, grains, and lots of vegetables. Supplement this with spices such as curcumin, turmeric and cinnamon, as well as omega-3, and you will notice less water retention in the body, as well as less bloating, more energy, and even clearer skin.
Lower Stress Levels
This is another area that can affect many people’s progress. High stress levels can be caused by several things, such as lifestyle, poor sleep, poor emotional health, work, and a poor diet. The issue with increased stress is that it releases high cortisol levels, which can trigger a glucose intolerance in the body, which can encourage inflammation – something that is harmful to progression and overall health. Some of the areas that stress can affect include your immune system, neuroendocrine system (sex hormones), blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and the increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome.
So, it is very important that you manage stress levels so that you can stay calm and positive throughout challenging life situations. There are certain supplements you can use to support lower stress levels, such as Rhodiola, Ashwaganda, Magnesium Glycinate and L’Theanine, but one of the best things you can do for your stress is work on your personal development. Find out what inspires you, what motivates you, and decide to enjoy life as much as you can. Once you do that, you will be able to deal with challenges much better, leading to a healthier body and more progression towards your goals.
Improve Your Sleep
This is an area that is crucial, not only to your fat loss progress, but also to your overall health. A high-quality night’s sleep of 7-9 hours gives your body much-needed rest and recovery from your daily exercise and tasks, which is also vital to progression. Furthermore, you produce a large portion of your growth hormone when you sleep, particularly in the first two hours. In order to build lean muscle tissue and burn fat efficiently, we need growth hormones, and as your growth hormone levels decrease gradually in your late 20’s, the importance of sleep then increases.
Sleep also produces Melatonin in the pineal gland and is involved in energy metabolism. It also balances your cortisol levels (the stress hormone that is part of our survival mechanism), and your levels of your insulin (the major hormone that controls your blood sugar levels), which is vital for your body to be able to rest and recover from your activity during the day. So, make sure that you are prioritising consistent, high-quality sleep – it is a gamechanger to your progression and health.
Digesting Food Better
Often overlooked by many people, digestion is vital to the body’s overall health and wellness. A good digestive system allows our body to function properly without irritations, but problems can occur for a number of reasons, such astraining stress, life stress, and inflammation. As a result, symptoms such as bloating, gas, diarrhoea, constipation and bad breath can take place, which affects your health and your body’s ability to burn fat on a consistent basis.
To develop or maintain and healthy digestive system, there are several easy methods to integrate into your life, such as having a diet full of nutrition and including fibre, hydrating regularly managing your stress levels, chewing your food well, dividing your meals up and using helpful supplements. All of this will help your digestive system function well and, in turn, aid your health, wellness, and progress with your fitness goals.
Summary
So, while training, nutrition, and exercise play a big part in achieving your fat loss goals, they should not be the only things you should be focusing on. Work at improving your mindset, develop good daily habits, lowering your levels of inflammation, decreasing and managing your stress levels, improving the quantity and quality of your sleep, and including foods that are going to lead to better digestive health. All these areas will be crucial to your progression during your fat loss journey.
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