Being Prepared for the Weight Loss Journey

A checklist for success with your weight loss plan

By Beth Hansen

Changing your body isn’t easy. Being prepared for a weight loss plan entails changing your mindset, actions, and behaviors which equates to adapting an alternative lifestyle. Set yourself up for success by checking out these tips to approach weight loss with a healthy and reasonable outlook.

Do these things!

Embrace patience

Patience is a virtue, and you’re going to want to practice the heck out of it while changing your physique. Understand that weight isn’t gained in a day and it won’t come off in a day, meaningful change takes time. Focus on things you can control like food selection, portions, and activity levels daily.

The reason weight loss surgery and diet pills are so popular today is because we lack patience. Medical weight loss is necessary for some individuals, but for many it is a quick fix. Gaining the skill of patience will serve you in your weight loss journey and other areas of your life.

Track progress regularly

That means monitoring more than your scale body weight. Be sure to take regular progress photos and body measurements, ideally once a week. Get a workout notebook and track improvements and strength gains.

Be sure to rock a rest day at least one day a week. Dieting puts stress on your body and over-exercising depletes already low energy levels which could trigger an injury or illness.

Don’t forget to celebrate! Weight loss can feel like a grind, so it’s important to recognize your progress.

• Maybe you went from eating 0 vegetables to 3 servings a day, that’s awesome!
• Possibly you’re up to a new daily step goal OR making steady strength improvements in the gym, that’s awesome!
• Perhaps you notice you have a better relationship with food and feel more in control, that’s awesome! Be kind to yourself and be proud of your wins.

Have an “after” diet plan

Congrats, you lost the weight! Now what? This is often where people ditch new habits for old. Yes, you lost the weight, but the work isn’t over. Your body’s metabolism has done its job and adjusted so now you need to figure out what your next goal is. Is it maintenance? Reverse diet? Muscle build? Figure out your next goal and keep it moving!

Avoid these Common Missteps:

Extremely restrictive diet plans

The word “diet” implies restriction, and there’s no way around it in weight loss. To lose body weight, you must be in a calorie deficit. It’s no wonder people have issues with overindulgence and weight gain because food is delicious, but getting a grip on nutrition doesn’t have to mean ditching your favorite foods.

Eating fewer calories simply requires you to be mindful and aware of your daily food choices while monitoring portion sizes. This may mean that you should start meal prepping ahead of time to encourage better eating habits.

If your plan makes confronting foods or entire food groups a moral dilemma, it’s time for an alternative plan. Food isn’t bad, it’s fuel for your body and like most things in life, there are better choices than others.

The main takeaway is there is room for everything in a balanced diet, it just requires planning. Healthy eating should allow for a variety of foods so that the plan is sustainable.

Getting caught without a meal plan

People overindulge the most when they’ve allowed themselves to get ravenously hungry. When you plan, you stay in control of your hunger. You expect when your body needs fuel by paying attention to signals your body sends you and you have a plan of action in place.

Meal planning is a better experience when you take time to put to paper what you plan on eating for the day or week. It helps prevent emotional eating as you already know what you should be eating.

This also entails regular grocery trips or using a meal prep service to keep healthy food options on hand. Be sure to have your healthy meal prep list of foods ready and stick to the list! Having the ingredients for your meal prep recipes will prevent you from food prepping to ensure wholesome food is readily available and being prepared for when hunger strikes.

Example Grocery List

• 2lbs brown rice
• 6 sweet potatoes
• 1 bottle of olive oil
• 3 bundles of kale
• 2lb chicken breast
• 2lb lean beef
• 1lb overnight oats
• 1lb fresh salmon

*Your grocery list should include veggies, healthy fats, lean protein, and complex carbohydrates.

When a meal isn’t available, keep a healthy snack in your gym bag, purse or car so you maintain control. Set yourself up to hit your weight loss goal by planning ahead!

Diet Plans that are too aggressive

Fast results may seem appealing, but guess what? Fast doesn’t equate to healthy or sustainable. If you’re too aggressive in your weight loss program and losing over 1% of your body weight a week, you could compromise your muscle mass, which is not ideal.

Possessing more muscle mass equates to a higher resting metabolic rate. Seriously restricting your intake will cause other unappealing side effects like extreme hunger, irritability, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, dehydration, malnutrition and menstrual irregularities.

Jumping Weight Loss Plans

Understand that change comes from long term consistency. Stick to one plan for 2-3 months, measure progress and keep notes about how you feel along the way.

Following the latest fad diet trend such as keto, intermittent fasting, or whole 30 won’t matter if you don’t stick to the plan for enough time to see results. Switching back and forth between fad diets will never work. Sticking to a sustainable healthy diet with consistent food prep is a smarter way to reach a healthy weight.

The first two weeks are often the hardest as you settle into your plan. If your plan isn’t working, consider changing your plan to serve you better before calling it quits.

Important Things to Remember

The most important factor in achieving successful weight loss is adapting a sustainable plan that will work for you long term. Long term adherence and consistency produce lasting improvements. There are no safe, quick fixes in body recomposition. Respect the process and refer to this list when you need to.

Weight loss can be extremely rewarding for many reasons. One reason is when you control your thoughts and actions, you discover a new mindset about who you are. You learn what you are truly capable of. Lessons learned from improving your health will inevitably carry over to other aspects of your life.

Time to Take Action

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