Your best chance for losing weight and keeping it off is to use a personalized weight loss plan. Researchers have found that most people who lose weight and keep it off have followed their own combination of rules, rather than following one standard diet. The idea is to create a healthy lifestyle that you can maintain by forming better habits.
The following six steps will provide a solid framework for your own weight loss plan. Read it over and insert the specifics that best fit YOU and your lifestyle.
1. You need to begin with motivation and commitment to change.
Put aside the “wanting" and “wishing" to lose weight. Make the decision to lose the weight and create a healthy life. Commit to doing your best and focus on what you will gain by losing weight.
2. You need support in some form. Seek out your supporters, request their help and let them know specifically what they can do to assist you.
You may find support from a family member, friend or co-worker, but there are other sources for support, too. Do not despair if someone in your life doesn’t jump forward with support for you. Ask others to join you, find a weight loss buddy online, or begin posting to a weight loss message board. My personal favorite: hire a life coach and have support focused entirely on wonderful you!
3. Journaling (or blogging), taking notes, keeping a food diary, even designing charts, are all great opportunities to see progress, patterns, and confront issues head-on.
Personally, I kept a blog as I lost weight. At first I kept it as a personal journal, but I eventually opened it up to the public. It helped to keep me inspired knowing that others were reading and looking to me for support. I encourage you to choose the method that fits you best and do it as frequently or infrequently as you desire. Allow it to change as your needs or abilities change.
4. Keep it healthy by making good food choices.
Don’t follow fad diets, starvation diets, or allow yourself to be pulled in by the promise of quick and easy weight loss by pills and such. Your healthy diet should include whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, heart-healthy fats, lean meats (or soy), and at least eight glasses of water a day.
5. To lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in.
You do not have to jump into a big exercise program to do this. You can build extra movement into your daily routine. Take an extra trip up the stairs; park towards the back of the parking lot; walk around the mall before you actually begin shopping, get up and move during TV commercials… When you are ready, you can begin more formal exercise.
6. Begin with baby steps and keep moving!
Small steps allow you to move toward your goal in a steady manner. To get started, you may add one glass of water to your day, or exercise thru one set of commercials. Don’t worry if your steps seem very small. They can be guaranteed successes that encourage you to do more. Find steps that will move you forward and don’t worry about making major changes at first. If you try to do too much, too soon, it can cause burn-out, overwhelment, despair, and cravings. Easy, no-fail steps add up quickly and before too long you could be ready for major leaps.
Are you ready to create a healthy life? Take your first step today.
