8 Ideas That are Useful to Have Before You Start on a Weight-Loss Plan

Posted: Aug 15 in Health And Wellness, Nutrition, Weight loss by Dr. Lazarus

Anyone who has successfully been through a weight-loss program can vouch for the fact that the process can be challenging. Weight-loss enthusiasts learn a number of lessons from their time losing weight, and often wish that they had known those things earlier. What follows are ideas from those who have managed to shed considerable weight, that it can help to know going in.

Don’t overthink your calories

When you first start a weight-loss program, your enthusiasm may lead you to be determined to cut as many calories out of your diet as possible. Focusing too closely on calories is a bad idea, however, because many foods that contain calories also contain important nutrients. You don’t want to take the nutrients out of your diet, along with the calories. Good nutrition is important to your ability to work out well in order to lose weight.

Never think of leaving fruits and vegetables out of your diet in order to cut back on calories. You will end up undernourished, unable to work out, and gaining weight instead of losing it.

It’s important to understand that weight loss is a psychological game

Anyone can try to eat less and work out more in order to lose weight. What separates those who are actually successful over the long-term, from those who give up early, is that they master the psychological approach to weight loss, as well as the physical work. It’s important to understand what practices, thought processes, and habits led you to gain weight in the first place so that you can escape them.

Losing weight isn’t always about eating less

Weight loss isn’t as simple as cutting down on the calories. While you do need to cut back on excess consumption of low-quality calories, you need to remember that calories also power your ability to work out. When your weight-loss plan includes working out, often, you need to raise your calorie intake in the form of nutritious foods. You’ll work out better, then, and succeed in losing more weight.

Support from a community can make a big difference

It can be hard to imagine how much of a difference a supportive community can make to your weight loss efforts until you actually experience it. It’s important to get on Facebook to find a weight-loss group that has like-minded people and share your weight-loss challenges with them on a regular basis. You’ll find that having others along for the journey magically motivates you, makes you feel better about yourself, and allows you to proceed along the path to weight-loss with your heart in it.

When you’re motivated, weight-loss actually becomes easy

Weight-loss can seem hard when you’re unmotivated. Rather than force yourself to move forward with a better diet and exercise routine, you should use your willpower to find a way to get better motivated. When you develop a passion for health, good nutrition, and exercise, everything you do for it will seem more interesting and enjoyable.

Take each day as it comes

Each morning, when you wake up, you don’t need to overwhelm yourself thinking about whether you’ll ever achieve your weight loss goals one day. All you need to do is to think about whether you’ll succeed in sticking to your weight-loss resolutions for the day. Tell yourself that your job is to eat responsibly and work out on that day, and nothing more. When you give yourself a small, short-term goal to achieve, your mind feels much more capable of achieving it, and you feel greater motivation.

Make small changes, rather than big ones

When you attempt to make major lifestyle changes for better health, it can make you miserable. Rather than tell yourself to go from no exercise to 3 hours of exercise each day, tell yourself that you’ll work out 15 minutes each day, and raise it by 5 minutes each week. You won’t be overwhelmed. Small changes can work when you try to eat healthier, as well. The aim is to get used to tiny changes, one at a time, and have them add up over time to make big changes.

Knowing that it’s never too late to get into better shape is an important way to stay motivated. It’s simply a fact of life that important resolutions take time to achieve. Once you do resolve to make changes, you can always make them happen, no matter how old you are.