How A Dog Can Help You Lose Weight
Keeping your weight in check is an integral part of staying fit and healthy, but trying to lose weight isn’t always that easy, especially when you’ve got into some bad habits that it’s hard to get back out of. There are all kinds of diets, lots of different exercises, and plenty of advice, but sticking to these things or even trying them in the first place can seem impossible.
Yet there is something that some people can do and others can’t when it comes to losing weight and having an advantage. Dog owners have a lot more around them to help them lose weight than those without a dog. It may sound strange, but it’s true, and here are the reasons why.
Exercise
When you have a dog, you have to walk it. That’s the one big rule about dog ownership; a dog must be walked. Some dogs need more exercise than others, older dogs and smaller dogs won’t need long walks like younger, larger dogs will, for example, and some breeds such as collies and Labradors need a lot more exercise than others like pugs and dachshunds. Yet no matter what kind of dog you have, it is still going to need to be exercised at least once a day, and sometimes more.
That means you will be exercising just as much as your dog, and that’s good for you and will help with your weight loss. Even if you don’t have time to visit the gym or the finances to join a class, taking your dog for a walk is excellent exercise that non-dog owners won’t get.
Good Food Choices
Taking good care of a dog is going to help you lose weight in other ways too. As well as exercise, you’ll need to eat healthily and make good food choices. Combine this with your exercise, and you will lose weight.
How does having a dog help you to make good food choices? It’s because healthy food is going to be much more in the front of your mind. You’ll need to choose the best healthy dog food for your pet if you want them to be fit and active, visit the vet less, and live a long life. With all this in mind, it will be much easier to make good choices for yourself too, meaning that you can more easily lose weight, you’ll be more active, you’ll visit the doctor less, and, all being well, you’ll live longer too.
Motivation
If you want to lose weight, you might know exactly what you need to do – you’ll know about exercise and healthy eating. However, without motivation, simply knowing this isn’t going to help you. When you have a dog, that motivation will be with you at all times.
Not only will your dog remind you about taking exercise, but their very presence and their happiness and the fact that you’ll want to keep them fit and healthy and happy too will be great motivation for you to do what is needed. You won’t be able to skip exercise if it’s raining or you don’t feel like it because your dog needs it, and that’s excellent motivation.
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