“Home is where your heart is” is what we believe. However, in this case, it’s more of a place where your weight loss program begins! Are you confused? Don’t be because we’ll delve into more details and you’ll know why your home can be the key to maintaining an ideal weight.
How Can Home Help You Stay In Shape?
For starters, losing weight isn’t an easy proposition. From watching what you eat to slugging it out in the gym, there’s a whole host of things that you need to keep a constant check on. Besides your diet and exercise regime, there are a couple of other important factors that can make a huge difference in helping you stay in shape. Most of these factors are present in your home and are the things that you can control:
1. Keep Your Home’s Interior Bright
While a soft glow is a perfect setting for some romantic time, it can also be the ideal environment for your over-indulgent food cravings. Make it a point to keep the lighting in your kitchen and dining area as bright as possible so you can actually watch what you eat! This means that you’ll be able to see every little or big bite of food that you take.
2. Organize Your Refrigerator Properly
When it’s time for you to adopt a new diet plan, it’s always good for you to clean your fridge completely and organize it so everything is fresh and visible. A fridge that’s dirty, unorganized and filled with plastic containers can’t really be appealing in any way.
To begin with, choose a proper meal plan and buy groceries accordingly. A clean and organized fridge will only inspire you to eat healthily and encourage creative meal plans.
3. Place A Mirror In The Dining Area Or Near The Table
While it isn’t really the best place for a mirror or for you to check yourself out, the whole point of placing a mirror in the dining area is to make you more self-aware when you eat. The presence of a mirror in your dining area can actually make unhealthy food options like chocolate cakes or desserts less tasty as you become more self-aware of what you eat.
4. Choose The Right Colored Plates
When you choose plates of a light or a dark hue, you’ll be able to trick yourself into eating less. If there is a low contrast between your food and the plate on which it’s served, you’ll end up eating more, as compared to the times when there’s a high contrast between the colors of your plate and your food.1
For this reason, all you need to do is when you’re planning to increase your dinnerware collection, go for light-colored and dark-colored plates. Remember to pick plates with a light hue when you’re having food that’s dark in color and plates with a dark hue when you’re having food that’s light in color.
5. Make Use Of Small Dishes
It can’t be very difficult for you to understand how this concept works. If you go for small dishes — plates or bowls — you’re bound to serve less food for yourself as it can look like your plate is already full.
Remember to take out all those small dishes that you’ve put away. If you don’t have any small dishes, get them right away!
6. Don’t Get Distracted When You Eat
Whether you’re watching TV or surfing the internet on your PC, ensure that you don’t eat at the same time because you’ll end up eating more than what you usually do. This happens as you’re unmindful of the amount you’re eating when you’re completely distracted. Your favorite TV program can now wait until after you finish your meal.
7. Engage Yourself With Some Household Chores
Is your workout schedule clashing with the time that you spend doing your daily chores? You can end up with a win-win situation, wherein you get a sparkling clean home and sufficient physical exercise by combining the two schedules.
From vacuuming your floor to washing your car, doing your household chores can help you burn a lot of calories and shed those unwanted pounds.
8. Ensure That Your Sleeping Space Is Cold
While sleeping in a warm and comfy bed is your idea of a good night’s rest, it doesn’t really help your weight-loss cause.
On the flip side, if you sleep in a bedroom that’s cold, you tend to store an increased amount of brown fat. This form of fat in your body is metabolically active and can help remove sugar from your bloodstream. This way, you’ll end up burning a good amount of calories.
9. Try Out An Essential Oil Diffuser
Isn’t it wonderful when your space smells nice and healthy at all times? You can now reap the healing benefits of essential oils by diffusing them into the interior air of your home. Additionally, if you use the right scent, you’ll be able to curb your hunger pangs. Essential oils can induce olfactory sensory-specific safety factors in you, thereby, helping you feel full and eat less.
Apart from these important measures, you can also try other kitchen-specific ideas like avoiding a cluttered kitchen space, keeping snacks out of reach, and refreshing your herb and spice collection among others.
These measures alone won’t do you any good if you’re still not eating healthy or physically exerting yourself. However, your home can be the perfect place for you to start off on your weight loss regime.
References
