How to Lose Weight

Losing weight is probably the number one New Year's Resolution in the world. It's a great goal, but it's very vague. The issue with vague goals is that they hardly ever get accomplished. Since there is SO much involved in the process, it's easy to feel overwhelmed, not know where to start, and give up on the whole idea before you even really get started.

Big goals need to be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks. If you're curious about how to lose weight, here are 5 steps that make that giant goal seem more within reach:

1- Set realistic, measurable goals. 

Start off by committing to something that both makes sense for your physical capabilities and fits into your schedule. When I first started working out, I committed to a program called T25, which promised to deliver an hour's worth of gym-time in just 25 minutes, 5 days a week. At the time, my workout schedule was sporadic at best, so less than 30 minutes a day during the workweek seemed more than doable. I focused on the fact that I would have two days of rest, and simply decided to wake up an hour earlier everyday before work. 

2- Give yourself a deadline.

There is always an adjustment period when you start something new. Commit to a routine for a minimum of 3 weeks, at which point you can assess how well it worked for you and make any necessary tweaks. More importantly, give yourself a hard deadline to monitor your progress. Weigh and measure yourself on Day One, and set a date in the future when you will measure yourself again and compare. The program I completed was 8 weeks long, so I didn't go anywhere near a scale until after that time had passed. 

3- Plan your meals. 

You may have heard this before, but when it comes to losing weight, what you eat is far more important than how often or how hard you work out. In fact, exercise is only 20% of the journey, the other 80% is purely your diet. If you simply set a goal to "eat better," you are almost guaranteed to fall off the wagon. Plan and prep your meals and snacks ahead of time so that you always have something handy when hunger strikes. Personally, I carve out 2-3 hours every Sunday to cook enough meals to get me at LEAST through Thursday's lunch. 

4- Stay hydrated.

Did you know that your body can't actually tell the difference between hunger and thirst? You may be reaching for a snack when what your body is really craving is water. You should be drinking half of your body weight in ounces of water. For example, if you weight 140 lbs, your daily water goal should be 70 ounces. (Most water bottles hold about 16 ounces, so you could aim for 4 water bottles a day). 

5- Move your body.

Exercise may not be a huge part of weight loss, but it is a major part of maintaining good health. Moving your body doesn't just serve the purpose of shedding pounds, it also keeps you limber and aids in digestion, preventing illness/injury, and getting a good night's sleep. How you exercise is completely up to you. Most people don't find exercising fun, but you should find something that you don't absolutely hate doing. Walking, dancing, yoga, kickboxing, and weight lifting are all excellent ways to get moving. If you exercise regularly, there's no need to kill yourself with 3 hours in the gym. Just 30 minutes a day, most days of the week is enough. 

OK, but where do I start? 

If you just the idea of starting is overwhelming to you, relax. Breathe. Starting is the hardest part. After that, it's just about taking it one day at a time. My suggestion is to start by planning and prepping your meals, drinking 4 bottles of water a day, and doing light cardio or yoga for 20 minutes a day, 5 days out of the week. If all of that sounds too intense, start with the meal prepping for the first week, then add a new habit each week after that. 

Keep in mind that real, significant results take time and consistency. Don't get frustrated because you ate a salad for lunch and still look the same. You will start to feel better after the first week, but expect that you won't see noticeable results until around week 4. Your friends and family? They won't see a difference until around week 8, and the rest of the world (i.e. your social media peeps) won't notice until you're 12 weeks in. That's 3 months of creating new, healthy habits that are going to lead to lasting results. You CAN do this, all you have to do is start.