Jump Start Your Weight Loss with These Simple Steps for Beginning a Healthy Lifestyle!

Photo: Truly Blessed Photo

You want to change yourself and have made the decision to start living a healthier lifestyle, but perhaps you are feeling completely overwhelmed and are unsure where to even begin or what step you should take first.  My friend, let me assure you that you are not alone in having this feeling, it is a common response to be a little overwhelmed at the start of a weight loss journey and the more weight you have to lose, the more overwhelmed you may feel! I remember beginning my journey and the thought of losing the amount of weight I needed to lose seemed nearly impossible and incredibly overwhelming!  But take comfort in the truth that no matter how much weight you have to lose, everyone has to take that first step and begin somewhere and the fact that you've already decided to make a change in your life is already a step in the right direction!  So whether you have 5 pounds or 100 pounds to lose- following these simple steps will help to jump start your journey to successfully implementing a healthy lifestyle! 

1. Access the current situation: Before you make any changes, it's a good idea to take a few minutes and assess your current situation.  Weigh yourself and take measurements of your body and write them down. These are great tools to use through out your journey for gauging your success.  Lastly, I know you may hate it but take some before pictures of yourself, you will appreciate them down the road, I promise!
2. Write goals: Knowing exactly what it is you are wanting to accomplish on your journey is important, as it can be used as a tool to keep you focused through out your journey. It is beneficial to set both short term and long term goals that you would like to accomplish.  I've outlined how to do this in my previous post The Battle Plan-Preparation for Your Weight Loss Journey
3. Shift your mindset: Transform the negative thought patterns you may have regarding "diets". What you are starting is not a "diet" but rather a lifelong healthy lifestyle.  There are no quick fixes for weight loss! Diets don't work and statistics suggest that they have upwards of a 90-95% failure rate and do not deliver the permanent results you desire. It's crucial for you to change your thinking about eating healthy as a lifestyle, not a temporary diet.
4. Plan: Take a look at the week ahead of you and make plans for how you will incorporate your new lifestyle.  Plan when you will fit exercise into your day and what you will need to do to in order to eat healthy. For example, if you know you will have 3 nights where you will not be at home for dinner, make a game plan to prep some healthy meals to take with you.
5. Raid your refrigerator and cupboards: Go on an epic quest to de-junk your refrigerator and cupboards, getting rid of the foods that are unhealthy and potentially hazardous to your new lifestyle. Give away the food to a skinny friend or throw it away, but it needs to go!
6. Grocery shop: After you've raided your cupboard and fridge of all the junk, you are ready to fill it up again with all the healthy essentials you will need to successfully begin eating healthy! If you are ready to lose weight, I've outlined what foods to focus on in my previous post What to eat to lose weight and build muscle and if you want to begin meal prepping I've complied a list of what you will need to get started in my previous post Stocking Your Kitchen for Success
7. Gradually make changes: When you begin your journey it's easy to be all gung ho and go all in too quickly. This mentality usually ends up backfiring on you because you get burned out quickly and fill deprived. Instead of going all in straight away, I recommend focusing on one to two changes at a time to ensure that they become habits in your life.