The first part of the plan is to visualize a desired outcome or result, and to circle a date on your calendar for when you MUST have this result. The MUST is important. If things aren't a must, then they'll never happen. The minute you go from thinking you SHOULD lose weight to knowing you MUST lose weight is when the changes will start to happen. So I decided that on June 1, 2008 I will weight 50 pounds less than I do know.

The next thing I did was write down WHY this is a must. This is going to be different for everybody, but unless you have a clear vision of WHY you must lose weight, you'll never change. It will be way too easy to drift back into your old patterns.

Finally, I wrote down an action plan of all the possible things I could do to help me achieve my desired outcome or goal. Keep in mind that when I brainstormed the actions, it didn't mean that I had to do everything on my list. In fact, as a rule of thumb you'll discover that a small percentage of the actions you take account for most of the progress you'll make. This is true with just about everything.

So the main actions I took today were calling up the gym I used to belong to and finding out how much the membership costs, and if my kids could go to. Now I know it might not sound like much but just making the call was very important. Why? Because once you begin the process of changing anything it is crucial to take some action RIGHT AWAY. This will start building momentum for yourself. Procrastination is the enemy of progress. Remember, you don't need to lose 50 pounds in 1 day. But you need to change your lifestyle, your values, and your priorities in an instant. Once these priorities are changed, the result will follow.

The saying that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step couldn't be more appropriate for weight loss. The loss of 50 pounds starts with changing your mindset and taking small actions. The results will follow.