You don’t get fat because you indulge in an occasional piece of cheesecake or order your favorite deep-dish pizza once (or twice) a month.

Weight gain is far more insidious than that. It sneaks up on you slowly … a half-pound here, a pound and a half there, and then one day you wake up and find your pants are feeling a bit snug … a week later, you’re having trouble buttoning them at all.

How does this happen?

Because many of the primary culprits in weight gain are habits that you’ve adopted, probably without even realizing they’re making you fat. Some of these things may be deeply engrained in your daily life. Others, you may not even know are a problem. Taken together, these are the habits that make you fat.

The good news? Stop them and you’ll probably lose weight … effortlessly.

8 Habits that Make You Fat

8. You’re Not Prepared

You’re going to want lunch every day. Breakfast and dinner, too. You should already know what your meals will look like tomorrow and the day after. If you’re really serious about weight management, you should have an eating plan for the entire week. Maybe even two.

It’s those times when it’s late, or you’re tired, or you’re too busy, that you’ll end up in the fast-food drive-thru. Circumvent this by having healthy foods on hand all the time. Make a weekly grocery list that includes everything you need to make quick, wholesome meals and snacks and go buy everything on it. Seriously … do this now. It’s crucial to eating right and staying slim.

7. You Engage in Distracted Eating

You may feel accomplished that you can eat while driving, typing, reading or surfing the Web. Don’t. Eating while distracted is amateur hour … people who are serious about losing weight just don’t do it. The problem is that when you eat while distracted it’s far to easy to put away obscene amounts of calories without even realizing what you’ve eaten. You won’t really taste your food. You won’t feel satisfied. And you certainly won’t realize that you’re still eating even though you’re already full.

6. You Don’t Drink Enough Water

It’s often said people may confuse thirst for hunger, eating when in fact they’re actually thirsty. I haven’t been able to find any real science to back this up, and it seems to me that most people can easily distinguish between the two very different physical sensations of thirst and hunger.

That said, it’s still important to stay hydrated if you want to maintain a healthy weight. For starters, even mild dehydration can lead to fatigue and moodiness. This might make you crave an energy or happiness boost in the form of a big chocolate bar or bowl of ice cream. Drinking water (16 ounces) before meals also helped middle-aged and older adults to lose more weight than those who did not.[i]

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like water, try this recipe for apple cinnamon water. It’s irresistible.

5. You Drink Your Calories

When you drink sweetened beverages, you’re quickly adding hundreds of calories to your day, without eating something to fill you up. The end result is far too many calories, yet you probably won’t ever really feel satisfied. You may wonder how others can seem to eat and eat, when you gain weight eating a fraction of the food. Liquid calories are sneaky like that (don’t forget that any caloric drink counts in this department — soda, fruit juice, sweetened coffee or tea, sports drinks, energy drinks, alcoholic beverages, sweetened vitamin waters, etc.).

One of the best ways to lose weight without really trying is to drink only water, tea or coffee (black).

4. You Eat Low-Fat

Low-fat foods are typically fortified with extra sugar to make up for their lack of fat. And there’s nothing wrong with eating healthful fats. In fact, your body thrives on them. One study even found that supplementing your diet with coconut oil (rich in saturated fat) helps to reduce abdominal obesity.[ii]

So if you’re looking to lose weight, cutting fat from your diet is probably not the answer. Cutting unhealthy carbs (like sugar) and exercise will often do the trick, and you can also try a spritz of ThinMist under your tongue before each meal. It enters your bloodstream in just 23 seconds, flooding your body with critical minerals… amino acids… and natural, bio-identical hormones that work synergistically to help BURN FAT more efficiently.

It essentially kicks your metabolism into high gear all day long, and best of all, because it’s a 100% natural formula, you won’t experience any harmful side effects!

3. You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep

Too little sleep wreaks havoc on important hormones in  your body, increasing your appetite and how many calories you burn or store as fat. Researchers from two separate studies noted “acute sleep loss enhances hedonic stimulus processing in the brain underlying the drive to consume food,”[iii] and “reduced sleep may lead to greater propensity to overeat.”[iv]

2. You Skip Strength Training

Cardio may burn more calories a minute than strength training, leading many exercisers to believe it’s best for weight loss. This is short sighted, however, because strength training helps you build more muscle, which in turn burns more fat. In fact, for every three pounds you gain in muscle, your body will burn an extra 120 calories a day![v]

So go ahead and do your cardio (especially high-intensity cardio), but be sure you’re working in regular strength training workouts, too.

1. You’re an Emotional Eater

People who eat in response to their emotions or stress are 13 times more likely to be overweight or obese than those who do not.[vi] Here are 10 ways to help you reduce stress (and thereby stress-related eating as well). However, if you know you often succumb to emotional eating or any kind of food cravings, keep a bottle of ThinMist handy (such as in your purse or in a desk drawer at work), as this all-natural blend works at the cellular level to regulate your blood sugar levels and stop cravings immediately.