The Best Advice I Can Give

So today I want to give some advice to those out there wanting to start their own quest or struggling to stay with their existing quest.  I am no expert.  I have been down this road many times in the past, sometimes with good results and sometimes with a failed start.  I know it's not easy to do this.  I will never say it's easy.  I still struggle some days but I push through and keep moving forward.  So let me give some advice on what is working for me.

Find something that works well for you.  This is not a short quest, it's for the rest of your life.  I know when I reach my goal weight I can't go back to eating the way I was or I'll just got back to where I started and I never want to go there again.  You have to find a way of eating and exercising that works for you and you can happily maintain for the rest of your life.  I enjoy the food I'm eating and I can tolerate the exercise I do because seriously who really likes working out.  What works for me may not work for you but there are many options for both food and exercise.  Try stuff.  Find what works for you.

Track your food.  No matter what food plan you use, track your food.  It holds you accountable for what you're eating.  It helps you to know when you need to make changes.  Be honest with your tracking and use it to learn from in moving forward.  The only person who looses when not tracking honestly is yourself.

Planning and organizing is your friend.  I plan a lot.  I plan the meals for the week.  I plan the grocery list.  I find doing this ensures the right foods are in the house.  It stops the "what's for dinner" conversation after work and helps avoid the quick pick-up of dinner on the way home.  I plan when going out to eat to ensure I stay on track with my eating.  If you want to have a "treat", plan for it and work it into your eating plan.  Don't consider it cheating, by planning for it it helps you feel more in control and being in control is a good thing.

If you stumble, pick yourself back up and refocus.  There is normally a reason why you've stumbled, maybe you've tried to change too much all at once or you've restricted yourself too much in your eating plan.  Everything in life is a learning experience.  Take time to think about why you stumbled and make adjustments when necessary.  I have stumbled many times in the past.  About 7 years ago I lost just over 70 pounds.  I stumbled.  Big time.  Put is all back on plus a more for good luck.  I'm not a psychologist, I don't want to pretend to be one and I don't want to dwell too much on stuff.  Needless to say about that time I met my husband and because of old issues I put the weight back on as a defense mechanism, but that apparently didn't work so well because he's still here!  Learn from the stumble and move on, don't dwell on it.  You can't change it but you can learn from it.

I have touched on some of the other things in previous blogs, like the importance of a support system.  I will never pretend to know everything about a healthy lifestyle but I can speak from what has worked for me and where I had issues in the past.    I will try to use this blog to try and help where I can and as bit of a reflection for myself,  I'm not perfect but maybe I can help one person.  I have appreciated the help I have been given and want to pass that on if I can.