Let’s get straight to the point – why are you overweight?

There’s probably a combination of things that have created the end result of you being overweight. Maybe you grab a chocolate bar when you feel just a little bit hungry. Maybe you work all day in an office and don’t get much exercise.

Maybe there are a lot of reasons – but most likely your habits are a major factor.

In the above examples, you automatically grab a chocolate bar when you are hungry. You don’t grab fruit. Why not? It’s a habit you got in to, just going for the chocolate. Of course, this stems from another habit – buying chocolate rather than fruit at the store. If you had no chocolate, and only had an apple, you’d have to grab the apple or nothing. BAD HABITS: Snacking on chocolate, buying that chocolate instead of something better for you.

You work in an office and don’t get much exercise. You spend all day sat in the same position – not moving – and if you need a toilet break, you find the nearest toilet and go there. For your lunch break, you eat a sandwich and mess around on Facebook. BAD HABITS: Sitting still all day – not even lifting your feet off the floor. Minimizing all movement – why not go to a toilet on a different floor? Sitting down for a break from sitting down – take a walk in your lunch break! Just round the block would be an improvement!

It’s not laziness, it’s a habitual routine. Stop eating the chocolate, stop sitting still – and you are on your way to losing weight.

But because these habits are so ingrained, you can only break the habits by becoming aware of them. Most of the time you will eat the chocolate without consciously realising you ARE EATING CHOCOLATE.

If you write a shopping list, make sure you start with writing “NO CHOC” at the top of it. And when you put some in your basket, check your list, and take it out again. If you still manage to get the chocolate home, store it somewhere with a piece of paper on the outside with headings “Number eaten”, “Date” and “Time”, and every time you take a chocolate bar out of the container, write down the number of bars you took out and the date and time. It might not stop you eating the first one, but when you see you are going for the second one less than 30 minutes later, hopefully reality will kick in and you will put the candy down and back away slowly…

Sitting still too much? Look up some exercises you can do at your desk, or just get up and move at least once an hour. Use a kitchen timer or a stopwatch on your phone. Set it for 60 minutes, and as soon as the alarm goes, take a 3 to 5 minute walk. Recent studies have shown that sitting for extended periods of time can have a detrimental effect on your health far more than just in relation to your weight – if you want to live to a ripe old age, keep moving. Remember, moving burns calories and helps build muscle – and the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn! Calories are not the be-all and end-all, but they are certainly a good starting point.

Seriously think about why you are overweight. Identify the patterns in your life that are causing this situation, and realise what habits you have that may end up killing you.

Change your habits, change your life, lose the fat.