Staying Committed in your Weight-loss Journey

You look in the mirror and you're wishing you had that hourglass frame, that your belly would be flat without you having to suck it in, that your love handles will finally melt away, and that you can't wait until you see the day that arm fat will no longer exist, revealing your nice toned arms. You either feel like you've tried everything in your power to lose weight and you don't see results or you are seeing results, but you feel like the process is just too slow and you're starting to get discouraged.

If this is you, don't worry, you are not alone. These are the most common feelings to have while on your weight-loss journey. Everyone experiences this at some point of their journey to weight loss or weight gain. However, that's why its called a JOURNEY! You are taking your body and mind through a process that will be a true life changing experience. Just like with anything you go through in life, there will be highs and lows. This process to a better life and a better you is meant to challenge you, because what challenges you, changes you. The topic of this blog post is something I hold near to my heart as it is something I truly care about and I hope those who are serious about their journey and are reading this will truly get something out of it.

In this blog post I am going to cover the 5 steps to staying committed in your weight-loss journey. It is going to be filled with tips, tricks, advice and suggestions as to how you can and you will get to your dream body. I'm going to give it to you straight and I want you to take everything in with an open heart. It's time to be selfish. It's time to be healthy. Most importantly, it's time to make time for you.

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Step 1: Make the Commitment

If you are serious about making a permanent and healthy change to your body, long term weight loss will take a lot of time and effort. In order to make this change long term, you most importantly have to first, make a commitment. How do you make a commitment? Well, I am a visual person, so if I have a vision for myself and my future, I make a vision board or a journal dedicated to that vision and I write everything down. First, ask yourself "why do I want to do this?" Maybe your answer is because you want to or already have children and want to be able to indulge in physical activities with them or just be around for them in general. Maybe it's because you just want to feel confident in how you look for once. Maybe you just want to walk up a flight of stairs without being winded (me). Or, maybe its because you have realised your current habits will lead you to a poor quality of life as you get older and you want to make the change now in order to help improve your quality of life now. Whatever the reason for you starting is, just know that it's important and it is your main motivator. During your journey, when you get down, focus on your reason why.Once you’ve got it on paper or on your phone: Read it! Read it today, read it tomorrow, the next day, the day after that..Post it on your computer, on your refrigerator, on the mirror. Constantly remind yourself why you’re in this and why it’s important.

Step 2: Set Realistic Goals

Once you've found your "why", now it's time to initiate it. However, one thing to keep in mind is that is it about progress, not perfection. Please, please, PLEASE don't think you have to do a crash diet and eat only vegetables and chicken. Again, please don't. Instead make a goal that is realistic for you and your situation. If you hate carrots and spinach (also me), don't eat it! There are so many other healthy foods out there that will help you towards your goal as well! If you make a sudden, drastic change to your routine, like thinking you have to eat all these foods you don't like, it WILL fall through. If you need to first make small changes, make small changes first. Start with going to the gym 3 days a week, replacing sugar with stevia, drinking one less can of soda a day. Whatever it is, sustainability is key.

When you finally have those small changes down, then you can continue to make more small changes and keep building. Eventually a couple small changes will make a huge change! Be patient, and you will see the results come.

It may seem obvious to also set realistic weight-loss goals. But how do you really know what's realistic? Over the long term, it's best to aim for losing 1 to 2 pounds a week. Generally to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, you need to burn 500 to 1,000 calories more than you consume each day and eating healthy and wholesome foods 85% of the time. If you're tracking your macros through the process, it makes calculating it that much easier.

Step 3: Make a Plan

You've done all the research (you looked at my "Eat That Food Girl!" ebook on my website) and you feel you can make a program suitable for you. Great! Write or type it out in your journal or phone. Again, I'm a visual person, so if I see it, I'm more likely to do it.

Write out your plan for a month. If you write out and stick to your plan for a month, you will start to notice what works and what doesn't. If you notice that something doesn't work, make changes accordingly to your diet or exercise. Your body must first have to build trust with you before it will start doing what you want it to do. You will only begin to lose weight if you have been consistent and your body feels like it can trust you to afford to shed fat. Give it a few weeks of consistency, and watch the results come.

Step 4: Focus

You've done the preliminary work. You found your why, did your research and now have a plan and did your first workout. Congratulations! You are officially at the start of your fitness journey! You are at one of the most exciting (and scary) parts of your journey. Right now, your motivation is high and you feel good about everything you have done so far. Fast forward 2 weeks...

Your cravings are starting (or have been) to peek around the door way. You're starting to side eye that pizza your friends are eating or that dessert that looks oh so decadent . Curbing those temptations are starting to get hard and you are beginning to question if you can do this. This is when most people lose sight of their "why" and turn "I need to do this" to "I think I made good progress for now." You see what starts to happen? You start to convince yourself that the "why" that is so important to you is now something you don't need anymore. You begin to lose sight of the life you want for yourself. When this happens, ask yourself: "Do I not want to feel confident in how I look anymore?", "Do I not care about being around for my future or current family anymore?", and wait for it....

"Do I not want it anymore?"

When you ask yourself these questions, you should realise that of course you still want those things! But what happened was we lost sight of our "why" and HOW important it means to us. Crack open that journal or phone and write down why you don't feel as committed and then come up with solutions that will help you stay committed when it gets hard. Lay it all out on the table and be honest with yourself. Once you've sorted through your thoughts and feelings, re read WHY you should stay committed. Keep reminding yourself about your goal and what it means to you! Read it today, read it tomorrow...... you know the rest!

FOCUS.

You have a vision for yourself and your future. Now is the time to have, what I like to call, tunnel vision. You are the only one that can turn that dream into a reality. There will be set backs along the way. Everyone has them! At the time of this blog post, I am in the middle of my first competition prep and I am 3 1/2 weeks in and have already experienced set backs! But instead of giving up everything after a setback or taking a break, just accept the set back, remember your reason, and start fresh the next day. Remember that you're planning to change your life and have long term weight loss and it won't happen all at once. Stick to your plan and the results will be worth it. Trust me.

Step 5: Reward Yourself and Take Refeed Days

Now all this talk about focus doesn't mean you have to be so strict about what you eat and that you can't take a day off. If your body feels like you need a rest day, take a rest day and just stretch. If you have been eating all your meals and have been doing good, you aren't competing and want a piece of cake, eat that cake! Don't go over board or use it as an excuse to eat dessert 5 days straight because you did so good for 2 weeks, but enjoy life. You are not a prisoner to your plan!

With that being said, every once and a while a re feed is actually needed. This just means, you eat more calories in a certain day. Refeed days are good, because they help normalize leptin levels, which can boost your metabolism and decrease your cravings. They also just simply provide a temporary break from your diet, which can help a lot with sticking to your plan. By temporarily eating more food, you actually increase your metabolism so you can in turn burn food more efficiently. So give yourself a refeed day when you need to once every one or two weeks!

However, if you find yourself at a point where you feel like your going crazy, taking a diet break for 3 days is OK. Sometimes a break is what we need to recalibrate. Don't feel guilty. Do what you need to do to keep this as part of your lifestyle.

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I hope these steps help you through each part of your fitness journey. No matter where you are in your journey, if times get hard (and they will) refer to your five steps to staying committed: Make the commitment, set realistic goals, make a plan, FOCUS on that plan and reward yourself! This is the most self rewarding journeys you will accomplish and trust me, it will be worth it in the end.