5 New Year's Resolutions to Lose Weight This Year

5 New Year’s Resolutions to Lose Weight This Year

by

Sharing is caring!

If your motto for 2020 is “New year, new you,” then you need to check out these 5 New Year’s resolutions to lose weight this year. This list has practical and proven tips that can help 2021 be your healthiest year yet!

I have spent years trying different diets and methods to try to get to a healthy weight and maintain it. Over the last 18 months specifically, I have been able to fine-tune what really works and today I am going to share my top 5 tips with you.

These are the 5 things that I did to get to my healthiest weight and maintain it for the last 18 months. You can use these steps if you are just starting on your weight loss journey. They also work great if you have stalled out in your weight loss or just need some added motivation.

5 New Year's Resolutions to Lose Weight This Year

Start with the right mindset

Before I go over the New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, I want to go over a few quick ideas that will help you get in the right mindset to be successful in your weight loss.

  1. Recognize that weight loss is a long-term journey, not a quick fix. You want to make healthy lifestyle changes that will help you lose weight and keep it off. This is usually a slower process than the “quick fixes,” but the results last longer and are worth the effort.
  2. You are going to make mistakes. You’re going to overeat, you’re going to skip a workout here and there. You are going to have bad days where you pig out on junk food. No one is perfect 100% of the time and a misstep doesn’t mean you’re doomed to fail. Just pick yourself back up and start working your healthy habits back in and you will be back on track in no time!
  3. Baby steps are the key to success. Going cold turkey and trying to do everything exactly right from the beginning is so, so hard! It’s also unnecessary. Focus on adding in your healthy habits a little at a time. It might not feel like enough in the beginning, but small changes made consistently will add up and grow into big results. Plus, they are a heck of a lot better than huge changes that you can’t maintain.
For more tips on the best mindset to lose weight go check out this article The Mindset You Need to Lose Weight.

5 New Year’s Resolutions to Lose Weight

Drink water

1. Drink 64 oz of water a day.

Drinking water is a fabulous New Year’s resolution to lose weight because it’s one of the foundations for weight loss. Drinking water is KEY to helping hydrate your body and to get those pounds coming off.

Making sure you hit your water intake for the day helps:

  • boosts your metabolism.
  • cleanse your body of waste.
  • helps suppress your appetite.
  • ensures you don’t hold on to extra water weight.

If you currently don’t drink a lot of water, start slow. Begin by adding in a cup of water first thing in the morning. Once that gets easier, you can slowly add in a cup of water before or after a meal, before and after a workout, and before bed.

Cut back on wheat and sugar

2. Limit or cut back on your wheat and sugar intake.

Limit or cut back on your wheat and sugar intake is next on the list of New Year’s resolutions to lose weight. Wheat and sugar are large contributors to the fat stores on our bodies.

When we eat wheat and sugar, they raise our blood sugar levels. This causes our bodies to produce more insulin to counteract the increased blood sugar. Insulin is the hormone that causes our body to store excess calories as fat.

So the more wheat and sugar we eat, the more insulin our body produces, the more fat our body stores.

This New Year, try slowly cutting back on the wheat and sugar. I’m not saying you need to go cold turkey (that can be really hard to commit to long-term). Just start slowly with one meal or snack at a time. Add in more as it gets easier.

Plan your meals ahead of time

3. Plan your meals ahead of time.

Planning your meals ahead of time is a great way to help make sure you lose weight in 2020. Throughout the day our brains get so worn down from making countless choices and decisions. Especially as a mom!

By the time the end of the day comes around, it’s so much harder to have the will power and energy to make healthy choices. (Especially if you got hangry kids to deal with too.)

When you plan your meals ahead of time, you take all of the thinking out of the equation. When you decide ahead of time what you’re going to eat for the day before you actually get hungry, you are more likely to make smart choices with your best interests (and your weight loss) in mind.

This New Year, aim to plan your meals at least 24 hours in advance. That way, throughout the day, all you have to do is follow through on your plan.

Stop eating when satisfied, not full.

4. Stop eating when satisfied, not “full.”

When you eat your meals, aim to stop when you are satisfied instead of full. Satisfied is when you have eaten enough food that you are no longer hungry. Full is when you can’t eat anymore without discomfort. These are 2 very different sensations.

Most of us eat until we are full because that’s what we have been taught. In reality, eating until we are “full” means that we are eating more food than our bodies actually need. And what happens when we eat more food than our bodies need?? Yep, you guessed it. Our bodies store it as fat.

When we keep repeating this process at every meal, it never gives our bodies an opportunity to burn the fat that we already have on us.

This New Year’s try stopping when you are satisfied, not full and give your body a chance to start tapping into your existing fat stores.

5. Exercise for 20-30 minutes a day 3-4 days a week.

The last item on the list of New Year’s resolutions to lose weight is to exercise for 20-30 minutes 3-4 days a week. Exercise is soooo good for your mental and physical health.

When it comes to weight loss, exercising helps burn fat, build muscle, and get your mindset in the right place to make healthy decisions about your food. Even doing light exercise like walking or yoga can help produce a lot of the health benefits from exercising regularly.

It matters less about the type of exercise and more about staying consistent with it. Consistency over intensity will help get you results in your weight loss over the long-term.

This year try to make sure you get that body moving for 20-30 minutes at least 3 times a week to help kick start your weight loss. For some great beginner workouts, check out the Fitness section of the blog.

Conclusion

So there you have 5 great New Year’s resolutions to help you lose weight this year. I know that this year can absolutely be the year that you take control of your health and fitness. If you feel like you need more support that is tailored to your specific obstacles to weight loss, check out my coaching and accountability group.

I would love to hear what New Year’s resolutions for weight loss that you will be putting in place this year. Comment below or email me at Candice@littlestepsbighappy.com. Follow me on Pinterest for more advice and tips on losing weight and getting fit.

Looking for more weight loss tips?

Pin this for later!!

5 New Year's Resolutions to Lose Weight This Year

You might also like:

How to Set Health and Fitness Goals for Weight Loss
How to Set Health and Fitness Goals for Weight Loss
The Mindset You Need to Lose Weight
The Mindset You Need to Lose Weight
8 Secrets to a Successful Diet
8 Secrets to a Successful Diet

Sharing is caring!

Leave a Comment