Your metabolism controls how you convert food and drinks into energy. A faster metabolism means your body converts food and drink more easily, which helps you operate at peak performance and maintain a healthy weight.

Rev up your metabolism with these 10 new habits:

1. Drink green tea

Green tea has been proven to speed up your metabolism and cleanse toxins from your system. It’s also a tasty alternative to sugary juices and sodas when you really want some flavor.

2. Add some lemon to your water

Another great way to add some flavor to your water and give your metabolism a boost is by adding some freshly squeezed lemon juice and a slice of fresh lemon. Lemon juice contains several enzymes which help the digestive system along with fiber which helps keep everything moving.

3. Eat small meals every 4 hours

Your metabolism has a difficult time with big, heavy meals and if you go too long between meals it will slow right down. If you do a lot of high energy activity during the morning you might want to eat a bigger breakfast and a somewhat smaller second meal.

4. Pack on the protein

Protein is what helps you build muscle and the amount of muscle you have determines your resting metabolic rate. Your meals should be mostly protein, especially directly before and after your workouts.

5. Have dinner earlier

Your body doesn’t digest food as quickly when you’re sleeping and you’re probably not going to burn off many extra calories at the end of your day. Having dinner early(around 6PM is ideal if you’re going to bed at 10) gives your body plenty of time to digest its food and burn away some of the calories.

6. Change your dessert style

Having something sweet after dinner is a great way to reward yourself for getting through a long day at the office or successfully completing your workout but a slice of cake is going to sit heavy in your  stomach and slow your metabolism right down, especially if you’re having a late dinner. Switch to having a fruit bowl or a bar of dark chocolate for dessert. Once you’ve gotten used to these healthier desserts you’ll hardly even crave junk food.

7. Be picky about your carbs

Cutting out carbs completely does more harm than good but you should be selective about what carbs you eat. Most traditional flour products, especially white breads, are highly processed and difficult to digest. Stick with oatmeal(from raw oats), brown rice, quinoa and other less common sources of carbohydrates. These foods all have higher nutritional value as well.

8. Make sure you’re actually sweating during your workouts

Many people work out but aren’t willing to push themselves to the extremes necessary to really boost their metabolism. Yes, any working out is better than none, but you’re not really going to lose weight if you’re not working up a sweat. At the end of an exercise session, especially a strength training session, you should feel like you can barely continue. Working out isn’t supposed to be easy.

9. Get up more

What do you do when you’re not working out? Chances are you have a job where you spend most of the day sitting, at least an hour of commuting(which means more sitting), and a few favorite shows you’re keeping up with. This means you probably spend about 95% of your day sitting, even if you do start with an hour long workout. Your metabolism moves faster when you’re moving, so get up and at least walk in a circle around the room every hour or so.

10. Sleep better

Good sleep is just as essential to your body as good food. When you’re sleeping your body has time to repair and build on its muscles. And when you don’t sleep enough your body has a hard time digesting food and is more prone to stress. The right amount of sleep varies from person to person but most of us should be getting at least seven hours every single night.