Danny Davis
French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
If you are truly determined to lose weight, you know you need a great plan. A robust plan will anticipate life’s relentless curveballs like work and family stresses, social pressure, and unpredictable cravings.
It will employ genuine self-awareness by working with your psychology and biochemistry instead of making extreme demands of your body and mind. It won’t depend on raw discipline because you’ve tried that and know where it leads. We’ve compiled a long list of tips to help you achieve your weight loss goals.
1| Accountability
You don’t have to make your weight loss journey a solo adventure. There will be times when you need help and having a partner in the same boat as you will give you the safety net you need during hard times. Your partner can be a role model to you and vice versa. Make a weight loss partner out of a friend, an acquaintance, or your spouse. If you go to therapy, let them in on your goals, and they can keep you accountable.
Take it further by finding a community in real life or online. There are online groups for every niche diet under the sun. The group members are going through the same struggles as you, and some have already reached their goals. They know the lay of the land and can prepare you for what’s ahead. Reach out and get involved.
2| Choose a diet that suits you
As you decide on your approach to weight loss, it’s easy to get swept away by the incredible results claimed by new and extreme diets. The most effective diet will be the one that you can realistically sustain. Fad diets often make their creators rich. Extreme diets require a level of discipline that most of us don’t have space for in our busy lives.
Choose a diet that you can commit to and that fits your lifestyle. Do you live with meat eaters? That may make it difficult to go vegan or vegetarian. Are you a big social eater? Consider what foods you will be exposed to and how that will influence your choices. A diet that appeals to you while still challenging you is a realistic path to achieving your weight loss goals.
3| Revisit your failures
If you have tried to lose weight in the past and failed, revisit those attempts to learn why. Did stress from work or relationships trigger too many cravings? Did you attempt an extreme diet that demanded perfection? Did you give in to social pressure?
Exploring your past failures can provide valuable insight that you can use to plan a better approach this time around. Knowing why you failed will allow you to build a strategy that targets those specific obstacles so that you are ready when they return.
4| Know your body
Your body’s energy, willpower, and hunger go through daily cycles and fluctuations. Becoming more conscious of these cycles will give you the leverage you need to prepare for them. Do you come home stressed and seeking a snack to calm you down?
Maybe you have a late-night sweet tooth. Is breakfast your weakest moment? Willpower runs low during breakfast for those who do not consider themselves morning people.
Find your most vulnerable points of the day and develop a strategy, so you don’t have to rely on willpower alone. Buy some emergency snacks that are low-calorie but still capable of satisfying the moment. The goal is to avoid both bingeing and total deprivation, so you stay on track. Place them only where needed and keep them out of sight to reduce temptation.
5| Meal prep
It’s the moment of truth when we decide what to cook or order. Convenient food delivery apps offer us endless opportunities to indulge. Cooking can feel like a chore. What if we didn’t even need to decide? What if there was a healthy and convenient option available all the time?
Meal prepping can take the friction out of that difficult moment. Prepare your meals ahead of time, and you will save money, time, and stress. You will be in control of portions and ingredients in a calm state of mind, so you don’t have to choose while your hunger is beckoning.
6| Grocery store
The grocery store is a place full of distracting sights and tempting smells. Don’t go in without a strategy or an empty stomach. Have your diet planned out and a grocery list that matches it. Stick to your list and avoid browsing. Go with a supportive partner or friend that is working on their weight as well.
It’s also possible to avoid the grocery store entirely. There are grocery delivery apps like Instacart, and many stores offer their own delivery services. Choose your groceries from the comfort of your home when your willpower is at its daily peak.
7| Have motivation in your back pocket
No journey is complete without struggle. You will eventually stumble, so don’t start until you know how to get back on your feet. Hopefully, you have a weight loss partner or community you can talk to when you falter. If not, call your spouse or a friend that always puts you in a good mood.
If you’re dieting solo, make a list of inspiring movies, music, literature, or social media influencers that put you in an excellent state of mind so you can quickly generate motivation when you need it most. Remind yourself of why you started this journey and rebuild your momentum.
8| Plan the timing of your food
What you eat is important but when you eat has a huge impact too! Good timing concerns your exercise more than the time of day. Registered Dietician Lauren Sharifi recommends going heavy on carbohydrates for breakfast if you work out in the morning while saving those carbs for dinner if you work out later.
The energy from the carbohydrates will circulate through your blood during exercise, enhancing the workout and burning up the glucose. Unused energy from food may be stored as fat instead, so strike while the iron is hot.
9| Make exercise engaging
Exercise is vital to any weight loss journey, but if you go in without a plan, so much is left to chance. Your workout choices may be more susceptible to the whims of the moment. A good exercise plan should be structured and progressive but also appealing to you. If working out for you is boring, bring a partner to keep you company and motivate each other.
Playing sports is another great approach to exercise. It can be more exciting than running or lifting alone, and the social aspect adds a dimension of engagement that keeps you coming back.
10| Plan a series of milestone rewards
The benefit of losing weight is a reward in itself, but we can use our brain’s reward system to boost our motivation even further. It’s a mistake to save all celebration for when we finally reach the summit. Smaller victories tell our brains we are on the right track, which sets us up to crave more small victories.
Celebrate along the way with escalating rewards. Start with a small reward like a trip to the movies. Escalate into a massage, a shopping spree, then a mini vacation. Figure out what motivates you and reward yourself as you shed the pounds.
Weight loss is neither a simple topic nor an easy task, but I hope these simple tactics will equip you with the intelligence and confidence you need to reach your goals.
