How Your Home Can Help You Lose Weight

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Most of what weight loss comes down to is a good diet and lots of activity, but there are lots of other things that can help you achieve success on the scales. Your home – what is (and isn’t) in it and how it’s laid out, for example, can have a surprisingly big impact on your efforts.

Take a look at these very simple changes you can make to your home right now to help you step up your weight loss and make greater gains towards optimum health:

Change the Colour of Your Plates

One of the best things you can do to curb your appetite so that you eat a smaller, healthier portion of food is to pick up a new set of plates. Why? Because one study found that people who ate from plates where there was a low contrast between the food and the plate, ate approximately 30 percent more than when they were eating from a plate that provided a high contrast with the food, This makes sense because when there is a low contrast, the food ‘blends’ into the plate somewhat and it doesn’t seem like you’re eating quite as much as you are, so if you were to eat potatoes on a white plate, for example, you may find yourself piling more on than you would if you were eating them from a red plate. By having bowls in light and dark colours, you can then ensure that your plates are always contrasting, helping you to more carefully portion out what you’re eating.

Buy Smaller Dishes and Make Them Accessible

A study conducted by the American Journal of Preventive medicine discovered that nutritionists who were given a bigger bowl, on average, scooped 31 percent more ice cream into it than those who were given a smaller bowl. Again, it’s pretty obvious why this is the case – a smaller bowl,like the ones at https://www.kitchenwarehouse.com.au/ will look fuller faster, with less food than a larger bowl which would look pretty empty if you were to serve the same amount that fills up a bigger bowl. So, invest in a much smaller set of bowls (and plates for that matter) and keep them within easy reach so you’re more likely to pick them up and your portion control should improve.

Place a Mirror Close to the Table

Chances are you have a few mirrors in your home, but do you have one anywhere near the dinner table? If not you might want to change that because according to one study conducted back in 2016, individuals who ate chocolate cake in a room where there was a mirror hanging so that they could see themselves found the sweet treat far less enjoyable than those who ate in a location with no mirror. However, there was no difference between having a mirror or not when it came to eating a much healthier fruit salad. The likely cause of this difference is self-awareness and self-consciousness. We all know which foods are good for us and which are not, so when we can actually see ourselves pigging out on the bad stuff, we are likely to be reminded that we are making a bad choice and that we should not eat nearly as much as we might really want to.

Declutter

You might think that the amount of clutter (or lack of it) in your home could not possibly have any bearing on your weight and your efforts to slim down, but that might not actually be the case. You see, when your home is cluttered, it can often lead to stress and stress releases hormones that can increase weight gain, So, if you have a really cluttered home, it might be worth going through it and seeing what you do and do not want/need to keep. Hire a bin from http://www.cheaperbinhire.com.au/ to get rid of anything that is no longer useful, donate to local op shops and even sell the stuff that is just taking up space, and you might just notice that your weight loss efforts get a little bit easier. An added bonus will be that, once the clutter is removed, you’ll have much more space to workout at home, so you never have any excuse to skip workouts due to the weather or whatever!

Get the Lighting Right

The ambiance of a room can have a surprising impact on the amount of calories people consume according to a study conducted by the University of Illinois who discovered that when the lighting was dimmer, and there was soft mood music playing, patrons at a fast food restaurant ate on average 175 calories fewer and enjoyed it more, than when the lights were bright. So, invest in a dimmer switch for your kitchen and dining room and load up the soft jazz for mealtimes.

Take Away the TV

If you’re one of those families who has a TV in the place where you eat, then removing it is one of the simplest things you can do to up your weight loss game because it has been shown time and time again that when you’re distracted by the TV, out eat more mindlessly, taking in far more calories than you would when eating at the table in silence of talking lightly to your family. The TV makes it harder for you to tune into your hunger and satiation cues and that can be really bad news when you’re watching your weight.

Invest in an Aromatherapy Diffuser

Aromatherapy diffusers are fantastic for making your home smell amazing in a more natural way, but they are also fantastic for keeping those cravings at bay. If, for example, you smell peppermint every couple of hours, in one week, you will on average eat 2,800 calories less, which is almost 1 pound in weight without having to do anything at all. It is thought that certain smells can make you feel fuller, so you don’t feel the needs to overeat, and I think you’ll agree weight loss doesn’t get any easier than that!

Time to make some changes to your home?