If you’re a mom looking to lose weight, you don’t want to forget about your morning routine! In this article, I’m sharing the best morning habits for weight loss.
We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but what about how we start our days? With a lot of work and family commitments on top of trying to lose weight, it can be hard to stay on track.
That’s why it’s so important to start your day off right! These simple habits will help you feel energized, reduce stress levels, and boost your metabolism so you’ll be ready to make healthy decisions all day.
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Contents
9 of the Best Morning Habits for Weight Loss
Do you ever wonder how your day gets so off track? You know you want to lose weight and that means you need to eat healthy and exercise.
You spend hours on Pinterest in the evening looking up healthy recipes and workouts once the kids are in bed. But the next day you wake up and get totally sucked into daily life.
Trying to get the kids dressed, fed, and out the door… Worrying about an upcoming meeting or project at work… And then you’re husband reminds you at the last minute that the repair guy is coming by that afternoon. 😒
Next thing you know, you’re hitting the drive-through for lunch, you didn’t work out, and your diet is already blown for the day. It can be rough trying to make time to exercise and stick to a diet as a mom.
If you’re anything like me, you’re always scrambling to find time to take care of your family, work, and everything else on the never-ending to-do list.
That’s why having a good morning routine can make all the difference! How you start your morning sets the tone for the rest of your day.
Let’s dive into 9 morning habits for weight loss that will help set you up for success all day long.
1. Wake up early
The first habit you want to add to your mornings is to wake up a little earlier. Now, before you roll your eyes and completely skip past this one, hear me out.
Waking up early gives you that extra bit of time to get yourself organized for the day.
Before the kids wake up you can make time to exercise, maybe meditate, or even just drink a cup of coffee all by yourself. Imagine a little time in the morning with no one asking for a snack, trying to climb into your lap, or tell you the same Minecraft story for the 56th time.
Sounds kind of amazing right??
One of the ways waking up early has helped me with my weight loss is that I finally have the extra time I need to actually think about what I need to do to lose weight.
I plan out healthy recipes I want to cook, get my workout in, and spend some time journaling about my weight loss. All things that become a whole lot more difficult once my kids wake up.
If you’re more of a night owl like me, try just waking up an extra 15-20 minutes earlier to do some of the habits on this list. I bet you will be surprised at how much of a difference it makes with your weight loss.
2. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning
Another important habit to do first thing in the morning if you’re focused on weight loss is to drink a glass of water. According to an article from Johns Hopkins University:
Science suggests that water can help with weight loss in a variety of ways. It may suppress your appetite, boost your metabolism, and make exercise easier and more efficient, all of which could contribute to results on the scale.
Drinking a glass of water first thing takes just a few minutes, but it can help start your day off on the right foot. I like to keep a water bottle on my nightstand so that I have it right there next to me as soon as I wake up.
Since I added this into my list of morning habits for weight loss, I’ve noticed that I can go longer before I eat breakfast and I perform better in my workouts. both of which have helped me lose weight and keep it off.
3. Get 6-8 hours of sleep at night
Next on the list of morning habits for weight loss is getting enough sleep at night. If you’re focused on weight loss, you NEED to make sure you’re getting 6-8 hours of sleep a night.
Getting enough sleep at night does 2 things:
- Cuts down on cravings and overeating.
- Helps your body burn more fat.
When our bodies are tired and sleep-deprived, we’re more likely to reach for sugary or carb-heavy snacks to help get us through. Not only do we feel like we need the energy from that morning donut, but we’re also looking to reward ourselves because we’re so tired.
I can tell you for a fact, all I’m craving after a sleepless night is pancakes, cookies, and pizza.
And if that weren’t bad enough, according to an article on WebMD:
Too little sleep triggers a cortisol spike. This stress hormone signals your body to conserve energy to fuel your waking hours.
Translation: You’re more apt to hang on to fat.
So not only are we craving a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal because we’re exhausted and deserve it after staying up with the baby half the night, but our bodies are in stress mode and holding onto fat.
This makes sleep a huge priority when you’re trying to lose weight. I know life isn’t perfect and we can’t always get as much sleep as we want.
But if you make an effort to get as much sleep as you can and you will definitely see results on the scale.
4. Exercise
Exercise is an important (and possibly my favorite) morning habit for weight loss. Exercise sets your whole day up for success.
Exercise helps:
- Boost your metabolism
- Burn calories
- Reduce stress
- Increase your energy levels
- Help you sleep better at night
I mean honestly, there are hardly any ways that exercising doesn’t help with weight loss. Not only does it help with the obvious effort of burning more calories than you eat, but it helps reduce stress.
Which, as we just discussed with our sleep, can really affect our weight loss. Exercising in the morning can also help set the tone for your entire day.
On the days that I exercise in the morning, I make healthier decisions all day. I’m more energized, so I’m less likely to want to snack on junk food for energy.
I also feel overall healthier. After getting my workout done, I usually want to follow it up with a healthy breakfast.
Which then helps me want to eat a healthy lunch. After making one healthy decision, I feel a whole lot more motivated to make another, and then another, and so on.
5. Eat a healthy breakfast
Another healthy morning habit that helps you lose weight is eating a healthy breakfast. Like I mentioned with exercising, eating a healthy breakfast helps set the tone for eating healthy throughout the rest of the day.
According to another article on WebMD, “The best breakfasts have carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, and fiber.”
This could mean eating something as simple as some oatmeal, breakfast burritos, or healthy breakfast bowls. Here are a few of my go-to healthy breakfast ideas:
Beyond what you eat for breakfast, there are also a few others things you need to keep in mind. Read on for some tips I use to help make my first meal of the day a healthy one.
Don’t overeat
While eating breakfast, work on portion control and not overeating. It can be very tempting to get caught up in finishing your plate.
Maybe you’re worried about wasting food, it just tastes so good, or you’re so distracted you don’t realize how much you’ve eaten until the food is gone.
I used to be notorious for rushing through my breakfast and cleaning my plate just so we could be ready to head out the door. However, this wasn’t doing my weight loss efforts any good.
When you overeat, you often feel sluggish and less motivated to work out or be active during the day. It also sets a precedent for eating that you’ll likely carry into your other meals throughout the day.
If you overeat breakfast you’re more likely to overeat lunch, dinner, and any snacks throughout the day.
Two of my favorite ways to avoid overeating are to wait to eat breakfast until I feel hungry and work on mindful eating.
Wait for hunger
Make sure that you wait for physical hunger before you eat breakfast. When you eat breakfast is just as important as what you eat.
Often we can get caught up in eating at a certain time of day. We try to eat before we leave the house or because we’re afraid we might get hungry later.
Some people also believe that you have to eat first thing in the morning to boost your metabolism. A six-week University of Bath study proved that “… breakfast eaters burned about 11 more calories per day.”
Buring a mere 11 extra calories a day isn’t worth potentially consuming 400-600 calories when you’re not even hungry. Even when it’s healthy, eating before your hungry is overeating and you’re body will have to store those extra calories as fat.
I often won’t eat breakfast until 10:00-11:00 in the morning and it has helped with my weight loss significantly. Simply wait until you get physically hungry and then enjoy that healthy breakfast you were planning.
Eat mindfully
Another important morning habit for weight loss is to eat mindfully. Pay attention to your food while you’re eating it.
If your morning gets a little hectic, it’s easy to scarf down your food without even paying attention to it. That makes it super easy to overeat and consume more calories than your body needs.
Here are some easy ways to practice eating mindfully:
- Chew more slowly
- Eat without distractions (no book, phone, tv, etc.)
- Eat sitting down in a chair
- Pause between bites
When I started practicing mindful eating, I was shocked at how little food I actually needed to feel satisfied. This helped a lot with portion control and is one of the best strategies I tried to help me lose weight.
Even if you struggle to eat mindfully throughout the rest of the day, practicing it during breakfast can help significantly with your weight loss.
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6. Make a daily meal plan
The next thing you need to do when practicing good morning habits for weight loss is to make a meal plan for the day. Spend a few minutes writing down what you’re going to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks you might have.
This is one of my absolute favorite tips for losing weight. We all know that eating a healthy diet is important for weight loss.
The trouble comes in with actually trying to stick to said diet. That’s where meal planning comes in.
Writing down your intentions makes you 42% more likely to follow through on them. 42%!!
When you write down that you’re going to have a salad for lunch instead of a burger and fries, you’re 42% more likely to actually do it. If you write down that you’re going to come home and cook the tacos you planned for dinner instead of popping in a frozen pizza, you’re 42% more likely to do it!
Can you think of any other habit that takes so little time but increases your chances of following through on it by that much?? Yeah, me neither.
This is why I practice this habit faithfully. Every day, I write down what I’m going to eat for every meal.
If you want to stick to your diet more successfully add meal planning into your morning routine.
Track your food
Another good habit that helps with weight loss and sticking to your diet is tracking your food. This is a habit you would do more throughout the day than just in the morning, but it’s definitely worth mentioning.
Tracking your food helps you:
- Identify unhealthy eating habits and patterns
- Learn what types of food work for your body
- Learn what types of food don’t work for your body
- Hold yourself more accountable
All of this information is invaluable for losing weight and improving your diet. Learn how I keep a food journal for weight loss here.
7. Pack a healthy lunch and snacks for the day
Another small but effective morning habit for weight loss is to pack a healthy lunch and some snacks for the day. Part of being successful with weight loss is planning and being prepared.
When you have healthy food ready and waiting for you, it’s a lot easier to avoid temptation. I can’t tell you how many times meal prepping has saved me from hitting the drive-through.
Spend a few extra minutes in the morning packing some healthy food for the rest of the day and help set yourself up for success.
8. Set your intentions for the day
Another great weight loss habit to practice in the morning is to set your intentions for the day. Spend some time thinking about how you’re going to work toward your weight loss goal.
What workouts are you going to do? What healthy habits are you going to work on? Which meals are you going to eat?
You can do this with journaling, meditation, reading, or even listening to a motivational podcast.
I like to journal about my weight loss and plan my meals for the day before I even get out of bed. Before my feet hit the floor, I have a plan and a goal for how I’m going to work toward a healthy body weight.
However you decide to do it, setting your intentions around your weight loss will help you feel more inspired and ready to tackle the day.
9. Get some sunlight
Last on our list of morning habits for weight loss is to get some sunlight in the morning. Exposure to sunlight can help boost your mood and increase your vitamin D levels.
This helps to get your day off to a good start, which will give you more energy and help avoid those stress-related cravings.
A study in 2017 also discovered that sunlight can help reduce how much fat is stored in our cells. This won’t replace a healthy diet and exercise, but it’s an added boost to your weight loss efforts.
You can open the blinds and spend a few minutes looking out the window or maybe sit outside while you drink your morning cup of coffee. Either way, getting a little sunlight in the morning is a great habit to add to your morning routine.
Morning Habits for Weight Loss Checklist
To help you incorporate all of these morning habits for weight loss, I’ve put together a checklist for you. Simply print it out and put it somewhere you’ll see it every day to help you add these habits to your morning routine.
Conclusion on the 9 Best Morning Habits for Weight Loss
Now you know the best morning habits for weight loss. I use these habits to help start my days, physically and mentally, ready to make healthy decisions.
You can start with just one of these habits and work up from there as they become second nature. Don’t forget to grab the Morning Habits for Weight Loss Checklist to help you start your days off right!
What are your favorite morning habits for weight loss? Let me know in the comments below or email me at Candice@littlestepsbighappy.com. Follow me on Pinterest for more weight loss tips and advice.
Looking for more weight loss tips?
- How to Set Health and Fitness Goals for Weight Loss
- How to Keep a Food Journal for Effective Weight Loss
- 10 Simple Tips to Help You Lose Weight on a Budget
- 7 Simple Tips to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain This Year
- How to Take Body Measurements for Weight Loss: Step-by-Step Tutorial
- 7 Quick Weight Loss Tips for Busy Moms
- 10 Habits You Need to Break to Lose Weight for Good
- 21 Small Diet Changes to Lose Weight for Good
- 5 New Year’s Resolutions to Lose Weight This Year
- 5 Ways Coaching for Weight Loss Speeds Up Your Progress
- How to Lose Weight Without Starving: Smart Tips to Try Today!
- Scale Not Moving? 12 Reasons Why & What You Can Do About it
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I’m a busy mom of 3 turned Health and Fitness Coach and Self Defense Instructor. I help inspire other moms to reach their health, fitness, and weight loss goals. You can usually find me chasing my kiddos around, training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or sneaking away to read romance novels. About Me
Breakfast was a hard one for me. I was always told you NEEDED to eat breakfast, & would force myself to eat something, but waiting has definitely helped. I usually do a workout, then eat breakfast now. Granted the kids allow this lol.
I know what you mean. I always thought you were supposed to eat breakfast. But honestly, listening to when my body naturally gets hungry makes a big difference. It’s crazy how often I used to eat when I wasn’t even hungry because I thought I was supposed to.