Lifestyle Changes to Lose Weight

Making positive lifestyle changes to lose weight is going to be more useful and serve you better long term than trying to do some fad diet or crash diet. 

Crash diets aren't sustainable. Fad diets come and go. 

We want to make lifestyle changes that will add up and help us achieve our long term health and fitness goals. 

Sometimes this means taking the time to let a new habit solidify in our life before instilling a new second, third, or fourth habit.

I'm sure in the past we've all gone "Gung Ho" into a bunch of habits all at once and it's resulted in our crashing and burning...  I know I have. 

So let's try something different! Let's take the time to allow our weight loss lifestyle changes to really sink in before adding another one. This can take up to a month but many find two weeks is enough time to solidify a new habit. 

I like the way Matt Cutts talks about simply "trying something new for 30 days". The key here to making lifestyle changes is we want to make sure they stick. 

Healthy Lifestyle Changes to Lose Weight

When implementing new healthy lifestyle changes to lose weight: 

-Pick ONE weight loss change at a time- This is important.

No one is superman or superwoman. We can't change everything at once. Lasting changes are what we want. Take a full 2-4 weeks to let this habit truly sink in. 

If you feel overwhelmed, don't dismay. Simply take a week or two longer before adding another weight loss lifestyle change. Taking your time is good because you are letting it really sink in and become a new part of your life!

It's always ok to pause to assure that you are solidifying your new healthy lifestyle habits.

Fitness Lifestyle Changes to Lose Weight

Exercise is a very important part of any lifestyle changes to lose weight. For most of us we associate exercise as the number one way to begin any weight loss plan. 

Our consistent actions begin to prime our minds for beginning a new weight loss lifestyle, that's one reason I think exercise is a great first step to begin!

Strength training is my highest recommendation to start with because of the immediate health benefits and fast results we get by adding muscle to our bodies. 

Adding muscle with resistance training will increase our resting metabolism so we will begin burning more fat even as our bodies are in a completely rested state. Increasing metabolism is key for long term success in sustainable fat loss!

Nutrition Lifestyle Changes to Lose Weight

There are so many different suggestions out there about nutrition lifestyle changes we can make to help us in our fat loss goals. We want and need these changes to be sustainable and realistic. 

Everyone is very different and we are all coming from different nutrition habits. 

Making the right nutrition lifestyle changes to lose weight: This should feel like a natural progression into something that is naturally "do-able". 

Don't try to create a completely new lifestyle overnight, but instead progressively add habits that you CAN and WILL do daily. 

What's a good example of this? Delay your craving to once a week for indulgences that cause excessive weight gain in high quantity.

Are you used to eating lots of sugar every day? Candy bars, sweet coffee, soda, ect... 

Allow yourself a cheat day but try this for 30 days: for 6 days a week fully eliminate that sugar intake. Only one day of sugar is a great start for losing weight, and over time you will find that your cravings fade.

Do you eat fast food every day? 

Try only eating fast food for one day a week instead of every day. This may take a small amount of preparation on your part but will be well worth it. 

You are showing yourself that you are capable of making these changes, and your body will begin to feel better, you'll notice clothes start fitting better.

Here are some other great suggestions for changes to implement that will help you lose weight fast!

The Key to Lasting Lifestyle Changes

Continue to make new changes after you solidify a new habit!

If you made only one of these lifestyle changes to lose weight every month you will have massive success in less than a year! 

The key is to keep going, it may seem over simplified but it's very true.

Constant and never-ending improvement is the way to look at this. We can still indulge in some of the foods that are bad for us on occasion.

We don't have to cut certain things out of our lives, but simply learn what it feels like to procrastinate those unhealthy foods. 

A good example is that I used to drink a couple glasses of wine every night, and while this may feel good in the moment, it kept me from losing fat. 

I didn't stop drinking wine, because I really enjoy wine. 

I simply decided that I would make a lifestyle change to only drink wine on certain occasions, once a month or so. And I lost weight WAY quicker as a result. 

I made the same decision about eating bread, and eating sugar. And I lost weight faster as another result. 

The key is to make up your mind: Do you want to lose weight enough to make these key changes? If you want it enough you WILL make it happen. And you certainly can make it happen!

Start today by writing down the new habit you'll begin. And keep going :)

You got this!