I wish losing weight was as easy as losing your cell phone or car keys.
Whether you are just beginning your health journey, or you’ve been on it for some time now, you don’t need me to tell you that losing weight is hard.
In fact, it’s not only hard to lose the weight, but arguably even more difficult to keep it off. This journey will hopefully last you a lifetime, so you may as well settle in and enjoy the process.
What exactly is the process, though? What does it take to lose weight? What does it take to keep it off? Why exactly is it so hard?
Related Book: The Overweight Mind: The Undeniable Truth Behind Why You’re Not Losing Weight by Jay Nixon
Losing weight goes against the grain of your very nature. Your body wants to store fat, to consume food, and to burn the least amount of energy as possible. That is why Netflix is so appealing to us.
There are some keystone habits that, if you implement into your rhythms, will begin a transformation in your looks, physical size, confidence, and overall drive in life. It is important to know that losing weight consists of exercising and fueling your body. If you refuse to do both these things, you will not hit any of your goals.
- Track your food.
Tracking calories might seem like an annoying addition to your day, but it will dramatically improve your fitness journey. There are so many apps out there that can help you do this. For the first few weeks of this step, you don’t even need to change what you eat.
Click Here to be taken to a food scale that will help you keep track as you cook from home!
The habit of simply tracking your food will help you see how much you actually eat and get a mark for serving sizes and nutrition labels. Once you build this habit, you will naturally float towards foods that align with your goal.
There is nothing quite like the feeling of watching your investments (financially) skyrocket into the green. Similarly, if you see that you are hitting your nutrition goals, it will motivate you to eat even cleaner and to work out as well.
You must know the food that is going into your body. Not all calories are created equal. I promise you there are some foods that everyone thinks are “healthy”, when in reality they are absolutely not. Many granola bars fall into this category.
Pay attention to your calorie intake, your carbohydrate intake, protein, and fats. We will dive into macro counting a little further down in the blog.
- Get a sleep schedule.
If you want to lose weight and maintain the new you, you must become a consistent sleeper. 6-8 hours is the minimum for what your body will need, especially as you change your dietary habits and become more active.
Prioritize your physical fitness goals over “fun”. Discipline is the key to weight loss. Therefore, I STRONGLY suggest that you learn how to go to bed before midnight and wake up before 7am to begin your day with the right things (workout, reading, meditating, a healthy breakfast, etc).
Sleep might be the number one factor in your health journey. This is the time when your muscles recover. Not only that, but if your mind is tired because you are tired then you are likely to skip out on discipline, cheat on your diet, skip a workout or two, and completely derail your journey because you never get back on track.
A sleep schedule helps you to get a schedule for the rest of your day.
- Measure your protein goals.
Yes, these goals are all measuring things for a reason. When you get in the habit of measuring, your weight loss will increase leaps and bounds.
Fitness is a science and that includes the food you eat. I understand that food is also fun, and it can build a great community when you are surrounded by ice cream and cake all the time.
If you truly want to lose weight, though – like really badly – you have got to fuel your muscles with the protein they need to grow and recover.
My recommendation is that you get .7g of protein for every pound of your GOAL body weight. So, if you want to be 200lbs, then you would need to eat 140g of protein every day. This goes back to point number 1 – track your calories.
You have a select number of calories that you can eat while being in a calorie deficit. This number will vary depending on the person and specific goals. This example would mean that you need to fit 140g of protein into your allotted calories for the day.
Losing weight is simple: burn more calories than you consume.
Related Blog: 10 Steps to a Healthier Life
Losing fat is slightly more complicated: burn more calories than you consume and eat enough protein to engage your metabolism.
Losing fat and building muscle is the most complex, but rewarding, form of eating: burn more calories than you consume, eat enough protein, and lift heavy things.
If you measure nothing else, measure your calories in and your protein amount each day. If you are accurately tracking everything and eating successfully, you WILL feel progress in less than two weeks.
- Get 10,000 steps per day.
Walking will change your life! This will require you to become a more active individual. However, there is not just one way you can do this.
Pickleball is a new sport that is great for getting steps in. You could go for a walk in the park. You could walk around while taking phone calls. If you work from home, you could invest in a standing desk/treadmill. Here is the link!
Become a person that focuses on moving consistently throughout the day. Your body will thank you, you will burn more calories, and you will start to see progress on the scale.
None of these steps are easy and weight loss can become incredibly complex. Eating healthy can get expensive, less fun, more routine, and take way more time than you imagined at first. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.
I promise you that you will feel like a million bucks. Getting through the first few hard stages is debilitating, but once you’re past the first phase of weight loss, you will be hooked on this new fitness journey for years to come.
- Move your body for 30+ minutes per day.
This doesn’t have to be overcomplicated either. You can walk for 30 minutes per day! What you need to do is challenge yourself to do something harder than you think you can do. If you don’t think you can run a mile, try it and run as far as you can.
If you don’t think you can lift a certain weight, try lifting a lighter one until you can’t lift it anymore. Eventually you will get to the point where the initially “too heavy” weight becomes your warm up.
I understand that you might not want to get jacked or absolutely shredded.
Perhaps you just want to lose a couple pounds. It is the same process and it requires the same level of commitment.
Here’s one more piece of advice when it comes to weight loss.
Losing the weight won’t make you happy. Losing weight alone will not provide you with purpose, and there is never a satisfying amount of weight to lose before you are content. It can quickly turn into a process where your “unreachable goal” becomes your starting number.
Don’t put your identity in losing weight – don’t place your hope on reaching your physical goals. You are created for so much more than just to look aesthetically a little more pleasing.
You have a deeper purpose. Read more about that here.
Fitness is fun! Don’t over complicate it and don’t stress if you mess up one day. The main thing is a consistent rhythm of being on track. Focus on these five habits DAILY, and I promise you will see the results you are looking for.
Keep going, no matter how hard it may be.
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