9 Simple Tips to Boost your Metabolism
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Your metabolism doesn’t slow down because you get old. Your metabolism slows down because you slow down. Think back to your daily and weekly life when you were in your early 20’s compared to now. Not only have your daily habits changed over the years, but the world has changed to. With access to everything you need pretty much at your fingertips, movement has become more of a lifestyle choice than a requirement for daily living.
The movement your body requires to keep your metabolism humming does not have to be high intensity or even hard. If your body is free of injury and you enjoy pushing yourself, playing a sport or pursuing a tough workout, most definitely keep doing you. But it’s not a requirement.
What is required is moving yourself often throughout the day. And if you have purpose to your movement throughout your day, you set yourself up to be professionally more successful, free of chronic pain, and living a happier life with more energy.
Start your day with water and movement. Even if you have been tossing and turning all night you haven’t been moving much since the night before, nor have you drank any water while you’re sleeping. A movement routine first thing in the morning after drinking water supplies energy and hydration to your muscles turning them on making you feel better and ready for the day all while boosting your metabolism.
Eat a consistent breakfast. This doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be consistent. And if you are consistent you can work on slowly making positive food choices over a long period of time (5 years?), taking the pressure of ‘all or nothing’ off the table. Food is needed to release energy into your body. So with no breakfast, you’ll be running on low energy, low performance, and low attitude because of low metabolism. Boost your metabolism and eat a consistent breakfast.
Win the fringes. As you read through this, giving your body fuel and moving your body regularly through the day is the theme. And if you can choose “more movement” as an option in your daily life you are giving your metabolism a boost every time. So take the stairs, lift your knees up as high as you can for a minute while walking, or do some squats while waiting to hear back from a co-worker.
Prepare the healthiest snacks you REALLY LIKE ahead of time. Again, let’s just take our time here. If we can prepare our favorite snacks that we not only feel good eating but give us energy afterwards, we’re boosting our metabolism by giving our body the confidence to burn energy consistently throughout the day.
Win the sitting battle. When your body stops moving it constricts and shuts down your vascular system to slow down the loss of heat and energy (your metabolism slows down). After 45 minutes of sitting all the muscles you turned on during your morning movement routines are close to being completely shut down and tightened up. This is the reason aches and pains start showing up and energy dips and it’s hard to perform your best. To win the battle, set a timer for 45 minutes and stand up and move for 5 -10 minutes. Metabolism boosted! Anything is good, but specific to your situation is better.
Add in a salad a day. A lot of chewing. A lot of digesting. A lot of vitamins. A lot of minerals. Takes up a lot of space before a meal. Not a lot of calories. You get the picture, metabolism boosting! Don’t try to replace a meal with a salad, just add in a salad a day. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be a start.
Learn movement and breathing routines to let go of stress. When you ruminate on stressful situations or have a hard time “turning off” work your sympathetic nervous system is constantly turned on, keeping your body running on adrenaline and caffeine. Learning methods to letting go - boosts your metabolism.
Win the dessert and alcohol battle. Be aware of how much you’re “actually” partaking in daily and weekly. Both dessert and alcohol cause your body to have sudden peaks and long valleys to your metabolism completely shutting it down. Set up a plan ahead of time of how much dessert/alcohol is enough each week to be able to avoid negotiating with yourself when temptations are around. Another time is to attach squats to them. 25 squats each dessert/alcohol you have will make you aware of how often you’re “actually” partaking.
Get good sleep. Your organs have jobs to do when sleeping which actually burn fat and a ton of calories, but you have to be getting good sleep for them to do their job and boost your metabolism. So turn off screens a few hours before bed, stop eating a few hours before bed, do some relaxing movement an hour or so before bed, and keep drinking water.
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