Millions of Americans struggle every year to lose unwanted pounds only to give up and gain all the weight they lost. You have to realize that your bad habits were not formed over night. Your poor food choices and lack of motivation to exercise has been going on for a long enough time to make you overweight. With that said, you have to understand that you will not reach your goal weight in a day, or even a month.

Once you've accepted that the road to a thinner, healthier you is not easy and will require diligence, dedication and consistency. In order to make real changes in your life you will have to be okay with leaving your comfort zone and do things you have no motivation to do. Sounds fun, right?

It doesn't have to be a horrible journey, having a positive attitude and a supportive network of friends and family will make this road the easier choice over time. You already know that making real chances will be uncomfortable, but just think how uncomfortable you will be if you don't lose the weight.

If you've always focused on your weight loss goal, stop. Take each of your goals day by day and make your changes small. Make one thing a healthy habit at a time instead of trying to go head first into dieting and exercise. Try cutting out refined carbs and sugars out of your diet or exercising at least 15 minutes a day and then increasing by 15 minutes every week from there. Just think where you could be in just two months!

Making your healthy lifestyle non-negotiable is the key to losing weight. Know that motivation can be temporary and the real change that you need comes when you challenge yourself and make hard decisions.

Make quitting impossible! Never have an off day, even if you eat too much one day, give yourself permission to move on. These changes will not happen overnight and even when you've reached your goal weight. If you use your weaknesses as a way to quit you will never succeed because weakness will always happen.

Give yourself permission to be flawed. Put yourself in an environment that promotes healthy eating habits. If you usually have junk in the house or foods that trigger overeating, it is best to be honest with yourself and remove these foods for occasional treats. It's a lot easier to just keep eating too much food and not exercising, and its much easier to take the easy road. These changes are difficult and the earlier that you accept that the easier your journey will be. Once you start making that effort to live a more healthy life, you will definitely start noticing the changes. You will start feeling better, your body will move easier. Your new habits will become easier the more that you still with them

The road is long and hard, but isn't your life worth it?