How to successfully lose weight and keep it off for good

Sunday, November 9th, 2008 at 11:03 pm

Lose 20lbs in 20 days!

Don’t believe a word of it! I wish it was that easy! Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for weight loss. Supplement companies are making a fortune making people promises of having the magic pill or weight loss drink, but the truth is that there is no magic supplement to help you lose weight overnight. Sure you can have liposuction or even bypass surgery to lose weight quickly, but what happens after the surgery, when you resort back to the same old behaviors that caused you to gain the weight in the first place. Do you think that you will still be able to keep the weight off and prevent future weight gain? I seriously doubt it.

Losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle requires a lifelong commitment. It does not just happen overnight. You must make it a priority in your life. I couldn’t tell you how many people that I have meet over the years that said, I want to lose weight, but they failed to do it. The reason was that at that point at time they were not ready to make the sacrifices that come with making a commitment. They were only able to be successful when they were truly ready to commit to living a healthy lifestyle.

Set goals for yourself.

Find out what motivates you. Do you want to get back into your skinny jeans? Do you want to lose the last 5 lbs? Do you want to reduce your body fat? Do you want to have more energy so you can chase your kids around? Whatever it maybe, you need to find what it is that drives you and make it your goal to accomplish it. Write your goal down and use it for motivation.

Educate yourself and create a plan.

Now that you have a goal take the time to educate yourself, learn as much as you can about what you’re trying to accomplish. If weight loss is your goal you need to learn about exercise, nutrition, life style changes, and the psychology that goes into it making the changes.

Use the information to develop a plan to achieve your goals. Write your plan down and keep records. Studies have shown that people are twice as likely to succeed if they follow a written plan and keep and keep a journal to track their diet and workouts.

Most people fail to achieve their goals because they lack the knowledge or skill that it take to achieve them. If you don’t know how to do something, I strongly recommend that you find someone that does, like a coach or a mentor.

Find a support system

Surround yourself with people who will support you. Having a support network is important for your success. Having people there to offer positive feedback, will encourage you to stay focused and help you work harder to achieve your goals.

It can be very challenging to be do it all on your own. Sometimes friends and family can be your biggest distraction to our success. Often they can be negative influences that contribute to your negative behaviors. This is why it is important that you let your friends and families know what it is that you are trying to accomplish and how important it is to you.

Many times you can encourage them to make changes as well and you can work together. You can work out together, share recipes and eat healthier meals together, and motivate each other to do better.

Stay Focused

Understand that you are human and that you will have ups and downs. If you have a bad day diet wise or if you skipped a workout, get back on track the next day.

Remember that you made a long term commitment to your health and that the bad day was just a bump in the road. Just make sure that you keep your sights set on accomplishing your long term goal.

Make it happen

Now that you have the knowledge and a support system in place it’s time to take action and start improving the quality of your life.

Nothing is going to happen until you decide to take the next step and make the commitment to change your life.

Now go make it happen!

By Benjamin Petitpas