5 Easy Ways To Automate Your Choices And Maintain Your Weight Loss

One of the hardest parts of weight loss isn’t actually the losing but the maintaining that progress after you’ve reached your goals. It can be really hard to continually make good choices that support your goals when you’re tired, stressed, or just plain burnt out.

We are faced with so many choices everyday and it can be hard to keep our best interests in mind. This is why it is important to build healthy habits into your lifestyle until they become automatic.

Automation of your choices and behaviors can help you to bypass the need to summon up motivation to make it to the gym after work or cook dinner at home. By building certain choices into habits, they become part of your routine rather than a task you battle with yourself over in order to get started.

Just Automate It!

Here are a few simple examples of how you can build a healthy lifestyle by taking the guesswork out of certain habits. If you decide to adopt one or more, I suggest that you add them into your life one by one, so that you don’t get burnt out by introducing too much to your routine all at once.

1. Carry a water bottle.

We’ve all heard it before- one of the best ways to improve your health is by staying hydrated. Despite the many benefits, it can be difficult to drink enough water if you aren’t used to it. An easy way to remember to drink more water is to keep it nearby.

Whether you work in an office or at home, invest in a larger water bottle or use a big cup (aim for 32oz or larger). Keep your water on your desk where you can see it easily. If that’s not enough, set a reminder on your phone at the top of every hour and take a big sip.

It may be tedious at first, but eventually hydration will become automatic and your body will thank you for it!

2. Keep exercise gear accessible.

Just like seeing your water bottle will trigger you to take a sip, leaving your exercise equipment in a visible spot will increase the likelihood that you actually use it.

If you workout at home, leave your mat and equipment where you can see them and lay out your clothes ahead of time. If you work in an office, keep that gym bag stocked and in your car. If walking is your exercise of choice, leave your shoes right by your front door.

Each time you see your equipment and follow through on your workout, you are reaffirming and strengthening those neural pathways in your brain, turning a simple action into a habit.

3. Schedule your workouts.

If you can, go a step further than keeping your equipment out and actually schedule your workouts. You can do this by signing up for a class at the gym or hiring a trainer. If this is beyond your means, try to think of someone in your life who has a good routine and ask if you can join them for their workouts.

Whatever you choose to do, find a way to hold yourself accountable for the time you’ve set aside for your health. It can be easy to skip the gym after a hard day, but if someone is counting on you, you are accountable to more than just yourself.

4. Keep healthy foods stocked.

I have a major snacking problem. If there is junk food in my house, I will find it. More than that, I’ll clear the whole bag of chips in one sitting if the right reality show is on. While there is definitely a time and place for indulging on your favorite less-than-healthy snacks, if you have a problem with controlling your snack tooth, don’t keep them stocked in your cupboard!

Instead of playing the game of resistance, add more healthy and convenient options to your fridge and pantry. If you are a snacker, honor that! If you have fresh foods available like berries or cut fruit, veggies and dip, yogurt, nuts and seeds, and other snackable items, you can snack your heart out while still supporting your health.

5. Meal prep.

Meal prep doesn’t always have to mean eating the same thing everyday or spending your entire Sunday afternoon in the kitchen preparing for the week. If that’s your thing, more power to you! For the rest of us, there are habits you can borrow from this lifestyle to make your day-to-day meal prep much easier.

For example, when you do your shopping, take a minute to wash your produce all at once instead of washing a handful each time you need it. You can even chop certain items like strawberries or apples, and sprinkle lemon juice on top to keep it fresh. This means that rather than prepping your fruit each time you want a snack, it’s already ready and waiting for you.

You can also process and chop things like onion, garlic, peppers, and more to make it easier to add to a quick dinner after work. By doing a little bit ahead of time, you make it that much easier to make good choices when you’re tired or unmotivated.

Create Healthy Habits for Life

While a lot of these habits can seem daunting when you’re first starting out, by repeating them over and over when you are motivated to make a change, you are setting yourself up for success when life happens and making good choices becomes harder.

Like I said, take it slow and introduce habits one at a time so that you don’t get burnt out. The goal is to curate a lifestyle not just to meet your goals, but to maintain them for life.