Maintaining a healthy lifestyle despite having health issues limiting your mobility can prove quite the challenge for some people. While some may be blessed with a speedy metabolism to make shedding pounds easy, most of us work at an average pace, and in some cases, even slower than that. Thankfully there are options available to keep the weight off and the energy on, so let’s dive in and discover what kind of steps to take to start the journey towards hitting your weight goals!

So how do you lose weight with mobility issues? An essential starting point to any fitness decisions you make begins with controlling your controllable, and that comes in the shape of making healthier choices and creating a schedule. Ensuring that you eat at the right times and not constantly snacking, dedicating yourself to nutritious meals, and cutting your portions down, losing weight will come naturally. Your diet is hands down the most significant part of getting your weight under control, but you can squeeze in some physical activity to help expedite this process.

Keep that in mind, read more to find out what techniques and options are available, and which route will work best for you!

Find Your Motivation

Fuel your own fire and ask yourself: what life changes will be available to you with dropping a few pounds? Make a list of what motivates you and why you need to work hard to improve yourself and your living situation, and what life can hold for you.

Some of the more fundamental reasons a person might want to shed some pounds would be having less physical pain, decreasing your chronic disease risks, improving their self-esteem through their looks, and generally feeling better. There are many small reasons but targeting them to yourself and making it unique is where you can find the inner strength you’ve always had to commit to this new lifestyle. Motivation can come and go in waves, so it’s imperative to spend some time on this step and make a list to refer to, so when the going gets tough, you can pick up the pace on a strong note.

Each person’s motives to shed pounds are different. Chances for success increase dramatically when those motives are clearly defined and put in writing. Motivation waxes and wanes, so having a list to refer back to — a plan to remind the individual why they are working so hard — helps reignite a dwindling fire. Common reasons to lose weight are:

• To look and feel better.
• Feel more confident with themselves.
• Have less physical pain or discomfort.
• Improve immune function.
• Decrease chronic disease risk.

Drink More Water

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying before, humans are 60% water. Well, it goes a little bit further than that, because our blood is 90% water. Knowing this, it’s no big surprise that drinking aqua in regular amounts is essential towards keeping yourself in healthy shape and a basic necessity. An excellent way to remember this is by drinking 8 glasses of 8-ounce water, but there is no harm in drinking more.

You may be wondering how many benefits come from swapping that tea or coke for water? Well, there are quite a few:

• A few water glasses a day helps lubricate your joints and make it easier for them to take the wear and tear on your cartilage.
• Drinking water makes doing small activities less painful and aids in avoiding joint pain
• Regularly consuming water has also been proven to help increase oxygen flow through the body and increase your natural stamina and innate drive to perform the available activities.
• Another core component of our weight loss formula comes from its ability to regulate your body temperature, which is vital when engaging in strenuous activity so you can prevent overheating and control your ability to produce sweat.

Watch Portion Sizes

Keeping yourself in moderation and only eating exact amounts of food will ensure you start seeing results instead of seeing the scales spin. Most of our conventional eating sizes are too large to be considered balanced, primarily your home-based or restaurant styled measurements. Not only that, but most people make the common mistake of underestimating just how much food they are eating.

If you are significantly movement impaired, it is imperative to your success that you make a food record, a detailed list of what you ate, and when you ate it, hold yourself accountable for your nutritional habits and chart your direction. An excellent example of this would be:

“Breakfast: A slice of whole-grain toast, an apple, as well as a glass of water at 7:30 AM.” Other footnotes to add would be marking how hungry you were at that time on a scale of 1 to 10.

Have a Well-Balanced Diet

All too often, most people fail their dietary plans because they want to invest in some new fad diet plan that boasts fast results and prides itself on a secret power food you’ve probably never eaten before. Well, putting it frankly, it’s unlikely to work, and when it does fail, the pounds come back with a vengeance.

However, keeping that plate on the healthy side isn’t that hard! You want to start by measuring out your meal into accountable amounts. On average, roughly two-thirds of your eating should come from healthy veggies, whole grains, beans, and fruits, while the remaining third being some protein. (It’s worth noting you can have less than the third on protein, it’s just generous).

Loading up on non-starch based vegetables like tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, and carrots will be one of your best choices because they make for excellent snacks. They are not only incredibly filling but low on calories as well!

That being said, keep away from many processed foods, for this will hinder any progress you have to lose weight. If you are craving anything in particular, try these substitutions instead:

• Ice cream — frozen yogurt.
• Burger — chicken burger.
• Crisps — popcorn (make sure you get the seeds and not the boxed version for better nutrition.)
• Sweets — a piece of fruit.
• Cake — banana bread.
• Milk chocolate — dark chocolate.
• Butter — oils (avocado, coconut, olive, grapeseed, etc.)
• Chips — sweet potato chips.
• Beer — wine.
• Pizza — pitta pockets.

Eat Better Substitutions

Changing up your eating habits is already a hard choice to make, but finding smarter and healthier alternatives can come in a wide variety of options. Keeping your mind open to trying new things will allow your nutritional pallet to feel the freedom most conventional diets lack. Most of our diets consist around “frying something up in a jiffy,” but that mentality is going to fall upon deaf ears for us, but an innovative twist can keep things just as comfortable.

Baking foods offers a much healthier option and, in the process, spares us of a lot of excess calories we would have taken in otherwise. Small replacements sampled throughout the cooking process will also allow us to progress in every direction and keep your mind open. Still, healthy alternatives are everywhere, like swapping up regular cheese with its reduced-fat cousin gives the satisfaction of having it, minus the calories and extra saturated fat. Not everyone is a culinary virtuoso, though, so for more options, pick up a low-fat cookbook at your local library, or order one online.

Get Rid Of Extra Added Sugars

Excessive amounts of sugar are scientifically proven to have many adverse effects on your health, contributing to heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and tooth decay being just some of the reasons.

Some reasons as to why it would be a good idea to drop access sugars include:

Cutting Out Sugar-filled Drinks.

Most of us have these go-to’s throughout our day, like soda, energy, and sports drinks, and some fruit drinks sampled in as well. The unfortunate part about this would be that even our “healthier” options like smoothies and fruit juices still contain ridiculous amounts of sugar. Fortunately, there are some phenomenal alternatives! Water, sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon or line (lovingly known as homemade soda), herbal or fruit teas, and tea or coffee without sugar are just some to get your creative juices flowing.

Desserts.

Another huge source of sugar, but you probably knew that already, swapping out that cake or pie with a nice piece of fruit or even dark chocolate will keep your progress steady.

Sauces We Use In Everyday Snacks.

These sauces can contain a staggering amount of sugars, molasses, and salt, which are additives that we do not need in our bodies. Things like barbecue sauce, sweet chili, and ketchup are all worth their weight in unhealthy flavors.

Planning Things Out

As discussed above, there are many routes and methods to take to see some guaranteed results, but the biggest thing to consider is the time you dedicate to making sure your goals have reasonable steps backing them up.

Quite a few people don’t have a lot of experience in the kitchen in general, so learning to cook will be its journey of self-discovery. Still, the knowledge and direction to undertake that task are undoubtedly out there. The low-fat cookbook we spoke of above can offer considerable advice there. Some people struggle more with the prep work for making a good meal due to physical limitations, stopping them from doing something like cutting the vegetables up, or standing over the stove for too long. As with anything in life, though, where there is a will, there’s away.

Most supermarkets have pre-sliced alternatives available or can be requested and occasionally be done without an extra charge. Seeking these options out and overcoming what is holding you back from the healthy lifestyle you deserve is only a quick search away. Don’t let your mobility issues determine how you maneuver throughout life; carve your path and enjoy it to the fullest by being the best you can be!

Get Some Exercise

Regardless of your mobility issue, there are a plethora of exercise options at your disposal; that being said, it is imperative to exercise caution and only do so under medical supervision or doctor-approved methods. It stands to reason consulting your doctor and coming up with some exercise regimens that are safe to perform is also one of the initial steps to get going in this direction. Safety should always be your top priority, and ensuring that you keep progress going with any medically advised actions is the best approach to doing so.

Conclusion

No matter what kind of mobility issue you might have, know that there are many ways for you to lose weight with endurance, dedication, and hard work. It is incredible to know what we can do with our bodies, even when we cannot move specific parts of them! We hope you are encouraged by this article and share this post with your friends and family!