Want a step-by step process to lose weight?
I’ve got it for you here (& lots of more details in this week’s podcast episode)!
But first… I have to let you know that each of these steps is being sung in my head a la New Kids on The Block. If you are a fellow child of the 80’s/90’s, please feel free to sing along with me.
(Because weight loss works better when it is fun. And you will absolutely remember these steps if they are running through your head with a NKOTB tune. Thank me / Hate me later 🤣)
I totally had this picture hung in my bedroom in grade 6. Anyone else? <Sigh>… Jordan….💗
Ok – Let’s hit it! Step by Step.
Losing Weight and Keeping it Off.
Don’t let the simplicity of these steps fool you. This process is golden. It is what it takes to lose weight for the last time. No magic. Just a willingness to keep moving through the steps.
Step 1: Decide What to Eat
Empower yourself to decide how you want to eat. Open your mind to the possibility that you can find food that you love & that helps you lose weight. Don’t settle for just another diet.
Trust your knowledge in this. You have so much personal experience about what has worked, and what hasn’t in the past.
Step 2: Try to Follow Your Plan
Now you try to follow your plan and notice whatever comes up for you. This is where you move from just following a diet to creating a lifelong weight management strategy.
The purpose of setting a plan and trying to follow it is that a whole lot of stuff will automatically come up. You may resist following the plan. You may love it for a bit. You may hate it some days. All fantastic opportunities for learning and growth!!!
Step 3: Make Mistakes
You may be thinking… “How can making mistakes be part of a weight loss plan??”. The answer is … “Because they are”
No matter what your goals are or where you are in your journey, you will stumble and fall along the way.
The mistakes aren’t a problem. They are part of the growth needed to reach your goals.
They only become a problem when we tell ourselves that we shouldn’t make mistakes. Because then we tell ourselves that we must be failing and quit.
Mistakes, eating off plan, overeating are all part of your weightloss journey. They are all normal and don’t have to get between you and your goals.
Notice them and learn from them and then go back to trying to follow your plan.
Step 4: Build Skills that Support Your Weight Loss
Losing weight for good goes way beyond what you eat.
Between you and your goals are a set of skills that will support you in following your eating plan with ease and enjoyment… so that you can be consistent.
This includes things like food journaling, stress management, optimizing sleep, managing your mind etc.
The exact tools and skills you use will change and shift as you go through your journey. How you start often isn’t how you finish.
Step 5: Keep Going Through Steps 2-4
It may not be glamorous, but it is what losing weight looks like.
Decide what to eat. Try to follow your plans. Make mistakes. Learn from the mistakes. Build skills to support yourself the next time.
And repeat. Over and over again.
And guess what… even after you reach your goal, you will still be following these steps to maintain your weight loss. Because a weight loss goal is not a finish line. It is a lifestyle to maintain a weight loss.
Step 6: Tweak Your Plans
If you have built really good consistency by following the above steps but you aren’t seeing the weight loss you want, then it is time to tweak your plans.
Make small changes. Resist the urge to throw it all out and start fresh. That doesn’t get you closer to your goals.
Look for the tweaks that will help AND (this is important) you will be happy doing.
There you have it – Step by Step what it takes to lose weight and keep it off.
Check out this week’s podcast episode for more details and the places where we commonly make mistakes in this process.
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