My tips for Healthy Weight Loss

After posting my before and after photos yesterday I’ve had numerous people ask me how they can experience the same success with weight loss and healthy living. Beyond the usual advice of exercise and diet. This is what I’ve come up with.

1. Get Your Mind Right!
You have to be in the frame of mind to make a difference in your life. This means different things for different people. Many of us say we are ready to change our ways but after a short period of time quickly fall back into bad habits. The turning point for me was when I decided to deal with my depression. After seeing a professional for therapy and taking anti-depressants I had the energy needed to stick to my plan. For you it may be finally acknowledging that you need to put yourself first and make time for yourself a priority. Only you know what your roadblocks are and it takes hard work but take a careful look at your mental and make changes.

2. Babysteps

Once you have a handle on your mental and emotions, next it is time to get on a program. Many people want to jump into the latest fad diet, exercise 5-6 times a week and lose the weight overnight. I’m here to tell you, this method might work for a month or two but not for the long term. Remember that New Year’s Resolution you made to get healthy and fit? I advise looking at this as a lifetime of healthy living.

Start by making small changes. If you don’t exercise at all make it a goal to exercise 3 days a week. Buy a pedometer and track your steps, challenge yourself to walk more steps daily.  Add an additional glass of water to your diet until you are drinking at least 64 ounces a day. Add an additional fruit or veggie each day until you are up to five servings a day. Cut out sugary drinks and get your calories from food.

This changes are small and can be implemented over time but you will see changes.

3. Accountability Partners - Identify someone or several people that will hold you accountable. I have documented my entire journey to healthy living on my blog, facebook, twitter, and recently added the dailymile to track my exercise. Knowing that I have to check in regularly keeps me honest.

4. Find a friend - Get someone that wants to make a change to take this journey with you. I have multiple friends that I can call on to workout with. We don’t always get together but my phone call is encouraging and seeing me out and about motivates my friends to do so too. I also have a group of people that I don’t know but see on my usual running path and believe it our not, they will yell out words of encouragement when I am jogging or walking along the path.

5. Be like Nike - And just do it! No more excuses. No - I’ll wait until next week or after that time of the month or anything. Start today. It can be as easy as adding ten minutes of movement to your day or adding the extra glass of water. How about doing both?

I’ll end by saying there is no magic bullet. Weight loss takes time, persistence and commitment. You have to ask yourself are ready to commit to living your best life? Then start today!


Comments

fantastic tips. i'm glad you've had such great success. inspirational. :)
Scrumpy said…
Wonderful tips and you look absolutely fantastic!
Petula said…
The "find the friend" tip is one that I really think will help me. Unfortunately, the friend list is short and the list of those who will commit is even shorter.
Congratulations on your success and I like the ideal of having partners in the process.
Sherri said…
Look at you....you look SO wonderful!! These are the perfect words of encouragement for so many:)
Lisa Shanken said…
All I can say is "Well done!". What you have in this article is so true. If one follows what you have discussed then they will certainly look as great as you do. Nothing like losing weight in a healthy and safe manner. I also encourage your followers to download a free guide on Killing the Diet. Visit my blog for more info. Good luck!
Anonymous said…
It is extremely interesting for me to read this article. Thanks the author for it. I like such themes and everything connected to this matter. I would like to read a bit more soon.

Hilary Smith
These are great tips!! It's so true, small steps and small changes will = big results over time. You are inspiring-- congrats!!
Great tips! #5 is perhaps the most helpful for me. Nothing to it but to do it!
Gutsy Living said…
I agree with the baby steps which applies to everything in life. I love to motivate women, especially over 40, to workout. You have lost a lot of weight and look great.
Anonymous said…
I would like to exchange links with your site cutiebootycakes.blogspot.com
Is this possible?
Mens Health said…
We know that nothing in life comes easy, at least losing weight certainly doesn’t. But the least that you can do is use these tips to ensure you have a smoother ride along the way of healthy weight loss.
Your tips are very unique. I find it very unusual but I can see that it is a very effective way to lose weight.
Anonymous said…
This really solved my problem, thank you!.
Sue said…
Congratulations on the weight loss. I have been losing and I agree with all you posted. It has been gradual and so over the past 5 years I have lost 50 lbs, actually 60 but I gained some back and now I am on the down ward swing again. I have changed a lot of my eating habits and it all started with cutting out French Fries. I lost 8lbs just cutting out the fries. That spurred me on to keep trying to lose more and I did as I gradually changed my eating habits.

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