Low Lifts that Make a Big Difference in Weight-loss

Losing weight can take a lot of effort, so it's nice when you find things to do that don't take a lot of energy - but come with nice returns. Here are just a few of our highlights.

1. Carry a Water Bottle Everywhere: Water is key to weight-loss. You're probably tired of hearing that, but it's true. Make drinking more easier on yourself by keeping some kind of reusable water bottle with you at all times.

2. Walk or Bike Whenever You Can: We are pretty lucky to live near our little town's downtown shopping district so we take the opportunity to walk or bike to it as often as possible. This isn't something we naturally would have ever done. It had to be intentional at first, but now it's a habit that's turned into one of our favorites. We get to see our neighborhoods in ways we never would have in a car. We get to take our time, and it feels more natural if we're being honest. ---- If it isn't feasible for you to walk as your main form of transportation, we get it. We don't do that either. BUT at least try parking further away when you go shopping instead of snagging rock star parking. Little increases in daily activity add up!

3. Follow Serving Sizes: This is one of the easiest ways to cut out extra calories that you didn't even realize you were taking in. It seems overly obvious, but it's worth noting because very few of us actually even glance at serving sizes. Measure things. And DO NOT NIBBLE ON INGREDIENTS WHILE YOU COOK! All of a sudden you had twice your cheese serving, because you inadvertently threw another quarter cup into your mouth as you lightly sprinkled it on top of your entree...

4. Bring Your Gym Clothes to Work: When your goal is to workout directly after work, DO NOT GO HOME INBETWEEN. The likelihood of you getting back out and going to the gym diminishes significantly. Trust us. We know this from experience.

5. Meal Plan: Yes, yes, yes... We've all heard this before, but it doesn't make it any less real. You can meal prep like a pro with a million tupper wared out servings for every single meal and snack for the entire week OR you could simply write down what your meals are going to be - and make an effort to make them at least a little healthier than you would have originally. Honestly, either one is an improvement from opening the fridge and staring into the abyss until you spot the Velveeta.

6. Get Active during Commercial Breaks: Any activity is better than nothing. Want to have a chill night at home? Then chill, but get up and walk in place or do crunches during commercial breaks or pause while Netflix is loading the next episode of the series you're binge watching to get in a little movement. It adds up!

7. Switch to Almond Milk: This one isn't for everyone, but through the #Whole30 Challenge, we learned that Ryan has a mild case of being lactose intolerant. Who knew?!

8. Use a Stability Ball or Bosu Ball: This is for the folks out there that have a desk job like Rachel. Her bosu ball has been a game changer, and pairs well with a standing desk like the one we found on Amazon HERE that didn't break the bank.

9. Take Cold Showers and Hot Detox Baths: We aren't sure if these actually help with the weight-loss aspect of a wellness journey, but they are great additions to any healthy lifestyle.

10. Clean Out Your Closet: We don't remember where we first found this tip (probably somewhere on Pinterest), but we have used it through our entire journey and it's been incredibly helpful. What we mean by "clean out your closet" is this: every couple months go through ALL the items in your closet and organize/get rid of things because you don't want to make it easy for weight gain to fall under the radar. We can't even list how many times that happened to us during previous weight-loss kicks. We'd lose weight, leave our "fat jeans" accessible, fall off the health wagon, start wearing said fat jeans, and only notice the weight gain when our fat jeans got tight. Had we put our bigger clothes away, we would have at least noticed the task of having to go get them from a box instead of noticing too late that we'd put our weight back on.

When we did this for the first time, we had 6 different piles. 1) Clothes that were way too big; 2) Clothes that were a little big; 3) Clothes that fit perfectly; 4) Clothes that were a little snug; 5) Clothes that were way too small; and 6) Clothes that we simply didn't like.

• The clothes we didn't like and the clothes that were way too big, we donated or trashed. Yay for freeing up closet space right there!

• The clothes that fit perfectly went into the closet - easy enough.

• The clothes that were a little big, we put in storage boxes that fit under our bed. We weren't doing this to "shame" ourselves if we had to get into them, but we did want to make it noticeable if/when we had to size up.

• The clothes that were a little snug, we put into different storage boxes that also fit under our bed. We wanted to make those fairly accessible as well, in case we lost enough weight that we needed to size down.

• And finally, the clothes that were way too small were put into a box and stored away in our basement, because it would be a bit before we'd need to get into them so they didn't need to be taking up precious closet space.

We went through this process every couple months and slowly had to start getting rid of categories, because we ran out of clothes that were way too small and clothes that we didn't like. It was like a shopping trip anytime we had to break into the "size down" box or the way too small box, and we also felt like Santa's when we got to donate the clothes that were now too big. Gotta love a win-win!

Well, there you have it. Our short list of low lifts, big wins. What would YOU add to this list? We'd love to hear more tips and tricks!

Until next time,

Ryan & Rachel