What are some things that are in your control to help you lose weight outside of the gym?
Well mindfulness is a good one. Mindfulness is described as, “the basic human ability to be fully present of where we are, what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”
Understanding that we are all under an insane amount of stress from, school, work, family, traffic to the stress you are putting your body through in your respective routine. How does stress affect our weight loss goals? Well put simply, if our body is in constant fight or flight state (stress) or body is never going to be in a place of “reserve” in order to lose weight.
How can we combat this stress and improve weight loss goals or performance based goals?
Based on some studies about mindfulness, here is some evidence 🙂
- Mindfulness interventions helped with managing negative emotions, perceived stress and improved overall well-being (Petterson, Olson, 2016).
- Practicing mindfulness over a 5-week period helped a men’s Division I NCAA team with achieving less perceived stress than before the intervention (Goodman, Fallon, et.al, 2014).
How can we learn this skill to help us combat stress for our weight loss goals?
Here are some of the basics of Mindfulness Practice:
- Choose to set aside some time (either in the morning or before your workout)
- Sit and observe the present moment as is, the aim is not to quiet the mind but rather to be attentive to the present moment, working towards a judgment free zone
- No Judgments, what we mean by this is to be aware of the judgments, and make a mental note of them, and then let them pass.
- Observe the present moment, our minds can get carried away with a laundry list of things to do, try to focus on the present, focus on your breaths, center your mind so that when you go into your day or the gym you feel clear headed and ready to take on your task or workout.
- Add in a box style breathing technique, taking a 4 second inhale, holding for 4 seconds, exhaling that same breath for 4 seconds and the holding that same breath for another 4 seconds. (if 4 seconds is to hard, start with 3!)
If you need some accountability to reach your goals then it may be time to book a 1:1 free consultation
https://www.integral-wellness.ca/fitness/wellness-assessment/
