Taking steps to improve your health and lose weight can be admirable, however, it may not always feel like an easy journey. This can be true in particular if you’re just starting out and haven’t seen any progress yet, or if you have been working at it for a while and find yourself hitting a plateau. That doesn’t mean, though, that you should feel discouraged. With a little effort and some lifestyle changes it can be possible to see the results you’re looking for.

Try a Cleanse

One way that you can help give your weight loss efforts a boost is by trying a cleanse. A cleanse can often give you a reset, which can be helpful especially in situations where you feel it’s important to make changes to your diet. There are many kinds of cleanses with varying degrees of intensity. If you haven’t done a cleanse before, sometimes it can be best to start out slow with something like a lectin free breakfast or a short 3-day cleanse as opposed to a longer one.

Tune In to Your Diet

Making sure that you’re eating the right foods for you can be important. Also, there are many diets that may seem healthy, but may not be as beneficial for you as you might think. This can be true in particular if you have a hidden food allergy or sensitivity.

When considering what kind of diet you should eat for optimal health and weight loss, it can be a good idea to keep a food diary and track what you eat and how you feel after each meal. By doing this, you can be better able to see if there are foods that you eat that are affecting you negatively that you should eliminate from your diet.

Try Different Kinds of Exercise

Although exercise is an important part of staying healthy, it can be equally important to make sure that you are trying different kinds of workouts. This is in part because if you do the same kind of workout frequently, your body may adjust to it over time, and it may end up not being effective for you any longer. By alternating your workouts and trying new kinds of movement, like including yoga in your rotation if you mostly lift weights, you can help to ensure that your body is responding to the exercises you do.

Try Out Relaxation Techniques

Even though most may be aware that it feels good to relax and unwind, they may not realize how much of an impact it can have on their health. Actively relaxing with techniques like meditation and deep breathing exercises can be good ways to help slash stress. Slashing stress is important because high levels of stress hormones in your system, like cortisol, can lead to a wide range of health problems, including weight gain and retention. Also, often spending as little as 15 to 20 minutes actively relaxing each day may be all it takes to make a noticeable difference.

Get Your ZZZ’s

Sleeping may not be the first thing you think of when it comes to weight loss, but sleep can often have a significant impact on your waistline. This is in part because your body undergoes many processes, some of which are related to weight loss, while you sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, or don’t sleep deeply enough, your body may not be able to undergo these processes, which could lead to both weight gain and weight retention. Even if you can’t get the full recommended 8 hours every night, fitting in an extra hour or two where you can may make a difference.

The Bottom Line

Choosing to take steps to improve health and lose weight can be admirable, but it may also feel difficult at times, too. That doesn’t mean, though, that you should necessarily feel discouraged. By doing some research and making a few lifestyle tweaks, it can be possible to boost your health, and your weight loss potential.