One of the biggest obstacles we face as we make the decision to lose or maintain a healthy weight is getting and staying motivated, and then tracking our progress. Using the following healthy lifestyle tips, you can craft the right plan for success.
Do you procrastinate or make excuses why you can't start your plan today? We all do. The first thing you absolutely have to do is stop making excuses
There is an old saying that tomorrow never gets here.. When considering delay, you may say to yourself, “Oh, I'll just do it tomorrow since.”
Sometimes you make excuses because you’ve failed in the past. Sometimes change is just a frightening proposition.
Take a look in the mirror or step on the scale. Are you overweight? Are you happy with the way that you look? If the answer is no, you’re ready to move on to the next step.
So you’ve decided that you’re overweight. It’s having long-term effects on your health. You know that you need to make a change, but you aren’t quite ready to take that step. To move beyond those feelings and fears, you should picture yourself a few months in the future: thinner, happier, and enjoying the benefits of being healthier.
In this step, it is advisable to begin thinking about ways to make changes, and how to be most effective. This could be researching diets and exercise online or in books, or even talking to a fitness instructor or dietician.
You’ve made your decision; it’s time to get seriously
serious! You’re tired of procrastinating and you’re ready to start living
healthier. You’re going to need to find a diet that works and research an
exercise plan. You may want to invest in a device or service to keep you
on track.
This is where things get really hard. It’s easy to overcome the excuses. It’s easy to realize that a change is necessary. It’s even easy to throw hundreds of dollars into making a plan.
It’s time to start eating better.
Try stocking your kitchen with foods that are healthy, but make sure that they’re also foods that satisfy your cravings. You could lose that weight by eating rice cakes all day, but really – how much fun is that?
By enjoying your diet, you stand to succeed in making it more permanent.
It’s time to get out of the house and get your heart rate up.
As with your diet, your exercise has to be something that you enjoy doing, especially in the early part of your newfound healthy lifestyle. If you’re doing something that you don’t enjoy, you run the risk of falling into bad habits or quitting altogether.
Be positive and minimize stress.
If you’re watching the scale every day for a week and notice that it’s stayed the same, or even gone up, don’t give in to negativity. Sometimes these things happen, and you’re in it for the long haul, right? Talk yourself up.
You know that you’ve been doing the right things. The weight loss will come. This isn’t a “healthy fad.” This is a healthy lifestyle.
After a few months of sustaining your healthy lifestyle, you’re consistently making healthy lifestyle decisions and this has become less of a diet and more of a transformation. You may stumble. You may even fall off course a few times. That’s alright. You’ve built a support system.
Learning to deal with stress is the most important part of maintaining these changes. Oftentimes stress causes us to binge eat. Maybe it’s easier to stay in bed for an extra hour instead of going for your scheduled run. These are things you have to fight through.
You’ve been going for quite some time now. The bad habits are gone. You stay on track and fight through the bad days. You realize that you no longer need a support system – you’ve become your support system!
You’ve achieved a healthy weight. Keep following these healthy lifestyle tips to keep you on track to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Your reward will be increased confidence and a long, healthy life!