Adjust Your Lifestyle
The facts about being overweight:
- You can't be overweight unless your lifestyle is set up to encourage it.
- You can't be overweight if you haven't allowed yourself to eat too much.
- You can't be overweight if you've made a daily schedule that doesn't allow time for exercise.
Never forget that losing weight and maintaining that weight loss is a lifetime prospect. You will never stop working to maintain your fitness and weight. So, before you start that same old diet or exercise program, ask yourself this question: Can I sustain this diet for the long term? Is this exercise program something I can do every day?
Once you recognize the gravity of permanently losing weight, you'll need to change your lifestyle to accommodate this goal.
- Figure out your bad habits. Keep a food/activity journal for an entire week. Do it without judgment or shame--you're simply trying to figure out what you're doing every day that may be hurting your weight loss goals.
- Replace those bad habits, one at a time, with different habits. Experts know that you can't break bad habits without forming new ones. If you take away your daily Egg McMuffin and don't replace it with something else you'll drift right back into the old McDonald's habit.
This may sound simplistic, and it is. Giving up something yummy for something healthy isn't easy. You have to change your environment to make it impossible to have or even want that Egg McMuffin. Get started with these ideas:
- Decide what you'll eat instead of fast food. Stock up on breakfast foods you like, keep meal replacement bars in the car or try healthy fruit shakes or smoothies.
- Eat before you get in the car so you won't be starving and, therefore, tempted to hit the drive thru.
- Change your driving route to work so you don't even pass by McDonald's.
- Don't carry cash in the car (even if you DO have the urge to indulge, you won't be able to), write down your weight loss goal and tape it to your steering wheel or your glove compartment so, when you're reaching for your wallet, you're immediately reminded your goals.
Your best chance at making your resolutions last is to make a plan for success. A few simple steps taken ahead of time can save you time and energy.
Next Page: Making a Plan for Success
