By Alexander Eliot

One of the hardest aspects of losing weight is finding the time and motivation to change your everyday routine. Sure, rigorous exercise regimens and carefully-planned diets can help you quickly shed some pounds. However, if you have a busy schedule, trying to adopt drastic new weight-loss routines can be quite daunting. Luckily, there are a number of easy ways to lose weight without having to change your daily schedule.

Use Your Legs

Walking is a great way to burn excess calories while improving your overall cardiovascular health. It’s also a very easy practice to incorporate into your everyday life. Take the stairs instead of using elevators and escalators. Walk to the nearby café for lunch instead of driving. Using your feet to get around whenever possible can help you burn several hundred calories every day, and it’s much easier than trying to fit an exercise routine into your busy schedule.

Track Your Calories

Tracking your calorie intake has never been easier. Many restaurants now conveniently list nutrition information right on the menu, and those that don’t generally post their nutrition information online. Furthermore, there are numerous free phone and computer applications that allow you to easily record your calorie intake as you go.

Use these tools to keep track of how many calories you eat throughout the day. Doing so requires virtually no time out of your schedule, and it can drastically help you with your weight-loss goals. At first, track your current calorie intake to get a baseline for how much you are consuming. Then, try to cut out a few percent here and there by foregoing a single snack or a side dish. Being conscious of your calories makes it much easier to cut down on your daily intake without having to drastically change your eating habits.

Drink More Water

Instead of drinking sugary juices and soda, drink water instead. Replacing a single can of juice or soda with water every day allows you to cut several hundred calories out of your diet. Moreover, once you break the habit, you likely won’t even miss those sugary drinks.

Additionally, drink a full glass of water before every meal, and keep a bottle of water handy throughout the day for drinking between meals. This will help reduce your overall appetite while also speeding up your metabolism. Furthermore, water is far healthier than sugar-filled alternatives, so you can experience some additional benefits such as reduced blood sugar and an improvement in your mood stability.

Be Mindful of Your Eating Habits

Human beings are creatures of habit. Every time you eat to deal with stress or boredom, you are conditioning your mind to crave food as a coping mechanism. Remaining mindful of your eating behavior allows you to break these bad habits. When you feel bored or stressed, instead of reaching for a snack try going for a walk or socializing with friends. Over time you will decondition your mind from craving food as a coping mechanism, and your excess snacking habits will be a thing of the past. Additionally, physical and social activities are much more efficient when it comes to dealing with negative emotions, so this trick can help improve your mental health as well.