Sounds silly, doesn’t it? How can doing the dishes, specifically doing dishes right after the meal is over, or even as you make it, have anything to do with weight loss? You might be surprised. I was. I used to be the queen of putting it off. Changing when I did the dishes was a multifaceted step in the right direction that is now one of my most important tricks to staying on track.
Move Yo’self
The number one reason that doing the dishes after a meal is that it keeps your body moving. This aids in digestion and adds some steps to your day. Talk about a double bonus. Sometimes doing the dishes just entails loading the dishwasher, but that’s better than plopping my butt on the couch right after I eat. Join me in keeping our butts off the couch.
Clean Dishes = No Excuses
I don’t know about you, but if I had a quarter for every unhealthy food choice I have made just because I didn’t want to do dishes before I could cook myself something reasonable, I would be a wealthy woman. My family and my waistline both suffer when I don’t clean up the last meal long before the next one is due. I do work as a full-time home health nurse too, so not only does having to wash dishes and then cook after a busy day just make me tired to think about, but it also results in my family getting their meal later too.
Free Your Mind from Menial Tasks
The third plus of doing the dishes after dinner is that you get that one menial thing off your mind. If you are like me, you have way too much cluttering up the space between your ears already. Getting this task done takes one of those things off your mind. For me, that means I have a little more time to do something important, like reading another book to my little boy or getting my charting done sooner so I can get paid.
A Complimentary Lifestyle Change
I am not the neatest person in the world. For the longest time, I put off every household task I could for as long as I could. The change in that behavior came when I got serious about losing weight and realized it was so much harder to talk myself out of cooking a healthy meal if I didn’t have to waste time washing the dishes. I made this change, and I haven’t looked back. This change isn’t solely responsible for my weight loss to date, but it has played an important role in it.
Do you have something that has been a game changer in your journey? I would love to hear about it in the comments if you do. Great minds not only think alike, but they also learn a lot from each other.
