By Brian Foley from Activate Fitness

Few people start focusing on their nutrition because they love counting calories. Weight loss might be a big reason. But wanting weight loss usually means more than the number on the scale.

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For most of us, we want to have greater energy, change our clothing size and become healthy. Doing things that won’t work for your lifestyle long term can cause you to quit because the effort doesn’t seem worth the reward.

To help, here are my five daily habits to make nutrition simple and low stress, and attain any weight loss goals you might have!

People don’t quit “diets” because they don’t produce results, people quit because they are too complicated, contain “rules” and are time consuming.

I’m going to let you in on some secrets our nutrition coaches at Activate use when coaching clients and it’s not all about calories, macros and quantities, it's often more about our relationship with food and our lifestyle habits.

Habit 1. Write down your WHY

If you are sluggish during the day, miserable in your clothes, or borderline pre-diabetic, your WHY might be to:

A. Wake up excited to start the day! Take the kids to the park, excel at work, get rid of that afternoon crash.

B. Change your medical "future” so it doesn’t match your medical history!

C. Feel sexy in your body again!

If you have a deep understanding of WHY you want to change, you can focus on that when the times get tough.

Habit 2. Drink Water

Water is key to a healthy body but can also help with weight loss. Not only does water make you feel fuller so you eat less, it also helps you replace calorie-containing drinks like fizzy and energy drinks.

Habit 3. Eat Protein

When you eat more protein you tend to feel full longer. How much do you need? It depends. If you’d like me to give you an estimate, send us an email at nutrition@activate.ie with “protein” in the subject line.

When you are in a calorie deficit (necessary for weight loss) eating protein can also help you maintain muscle mass which can help with your overall health, but also in achieving a more “toned” and defined look.

As you get older, you lose lean mass (both muscle and bone). This affects how long you live as well as how functional and healthy that life is. The more protein in your muscles, the stronger your muscles can get.

Habit 4. Daily Movement

Our new normal in life has become structured in a way that makes it very easy to avoid movement. We sit in cars, at our desks, come home and sit on the couch. However, because of our sedentary lifestyle, pain in knees and stiff backs have become the norm.

Start by moving 30 minutes a day and get in strength training three to five times a week. Intentional movement can help with weight loss, not just in calories, but in mindset.

Habit 5. Remember That You’re Driving the Bus

You’re in charge of the direction of your energy, clothing sizes, your medical future vs medical history. Out of all of these top five tactics, this one might be the most important. It’s up to you. I know that my best days are ones I have a plan for.

Following these five tactics will not be easy in the beginning but they can be simple, if you focus.

If you need help implementing strategies in your life to help with your weight loss goals, shoot me an email and I’ll get you moving in the right direction.