How to Lose Weight: 7 Tips for a Successful Weight Loss Journey

29th November 2022

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1. Be Stronger Than Your Excuses

There will always be a reason that you ‘can’t’ do something that will benefit your health. If you are going to be successful with your long-term weight loss success, you need to continue to act as if your weight loss goal matters. If losing weight is important enough to you, you will find a way to stand up to your excuses and find a solution to overcome the challenge.

Excuse:

I am too busy with the kids and don’t have any childcare available

Solution – Workout from the comfort of your home. Consider incorporating your children into your workout. By doing so, you are showing the children a healthy way of living and encouraging them to be active. If you want to be the best parent to your children, then you must start putting your needs first.

Excuse:

I am injured, so I can’t do anything

Solution – Adapt your routine and find exercises that you CAN do rather than focusing on the exercises that you cannot do. Injury recovery can be a time to focus on a different type of strengthening and a different type of training. Exercises during injury rehabilitation can stretch your mind and body in ways that you otherwise would likely not invest time in doing.

Excuse:

I have no time to exercise

Solution – We ALL have pockets of time to workout if we make movement, exercise and weight loss a priority. Exercise does not need to include an hour-long bootcamp class at the gym or a long run or walk. Working out at home means that you can move your body and exercise for 5 minutes while you wait for the water to boil, for 10 minutes between calls, for 5 minutes before the children wake up or after they go to sleep. Schedule exercise into your day in the same way that you schedule non-negotiable work meetings or commitments in.

Excuse:

I can’t afford a gym membership or a personal trainer

Solution - Exercise doesn’t need to be expensive. Consider what you spend your money on each month – add up the Starbucks stops, the lunches out, the after school ‘treats’, the bottles of wine, the takeaways, and the other small splurges that add up. If losing weight and improving your health is a priority, then it is important that your spending and financial choices support this. If you have a strong enough desire to lose weight, then most monthly budgets will allow for the investment in exercise essentials (which don’t need to be a lot of money!).

Exercise bands are a great choice for an affordable to your workouts at home!

Your mind is a key component of any weight loss journey. Read about the weight loss mindset in this blog!

2. Change Your View on Exercise

View exercise as precious ‘you time’ where you have the pocket of time to focus on YOU rather than unwanted thoughts, worries and tasks on your never ending to do list. Exercise does not need to be a long and arduous sweat session that you dread doing, then suffer through. Find movement that makes you feel good.

3. Improve Your Relationship with Food

If you reach for food when you are feeling sad, emotional or upset, it can make it difficult to lose weight and keep it off. Eating in response to emotions (emotional eating) is a common coping mechanism.

Although food may have a short term ‘feel good’ factor, it does not deal with the issue and often leads to feelings of shame and guilt, and a revolving cycle.

People who struggle with emotional eating may find:

They have a desire to eat when they have strong emotions
A desire to eat, even when they are not physically hungry
That they turn to food to ‘feel good’; to calm them down or make them happy
That they continue to eat even when they feel full
Turn to food as a way to feel ‘calm’

Consciously choosing when to eat and what to eat to make your body feel healthy and strong can be an essential key in a successful weight loss journey.

Before you reach for a snack, think to yourself:

Are you actually hungry or are you connecting the desire for food with a time, place or emotion?
Have you had enough water today?
Do you need energy?
Is this a treat?
Is the snack providing a break in your day?
Is the social situation causing you to snack?

Building a strong relationship with food can be a key component of a weight loss journey. Find out more about mindful eating and steps to improve your relationship with food here.

4. Focus on Small Actions

Focusing only on your end goal can leave the drastic changes required feeling daunting and overwhelming. By breaking down your desire into smaller goals, it allows you to see the small steps that you can take to make progress. Ultimately, repeated positive actions, no matter how small, will bring you closer to where you want to be.

When you focus on small changes, it is easier to stick to a number of small actions rather than one or two big changes that you make.

5. Be kind to yourself

A successful weight loss journey takes time. No attempt to lose weight is linear, there are always bumps in the road and challenges to overcome. Remind yourself that you are doing your best.

Talking negatively about your body changes absolutely nothing, instead it feeds your feelings of unhappiness toward your body. You don’t have to love your body, but learning to appreciate your body for the things it allows you to do, and accept the parts of your body that aren’t your favourite is so important. What your body does for you is far more important than the way it looks.

You are not your body!

6. Focus on YOU and your personal health and weight loss journey!

People care more about your happiness, presence and how you make them feel as opposed to how you look. When we worry about the opinions of others, it can leave us feeling like we want to hide in a corner rather than standing tall and owning our presence.

We can sadly be so focused on our weight that it holds us back from living and being in the present moment.

Resist comparing your weight loss journey to anyone else’s.
Resist comparing what is on your plate to anyone else’s
Resist comparing your schedule to anyone else’s
Resist allowing anyone else’s progress or journey affect your own

Focus and celebrate your successes, no matter how small. Perhaps you squeezed in a 5-minute walk, included vegetables in your lunch, or parked at the far end of the car park – a win is a win, no matter how small.

Many of us spend a substantial amount of time comparing ourselves to others and striving to make other people happy. Commit to being your authentic self. Confidently show up as YOU without trying to copy someone else’s image or actions.

Wanting to look like someone else or have the body of someone else will feed your feelings of unhappiness and unworthiness. You have no role to play in anyone’s health, body, emotions or life. You are you.

7. Be patient

Successful weight loss is a journey that takes time. Life happens, nights out happen, busy days happen, lack of motivation can get the best of us, so we miss a workout or overindulge. The key is to wake up each day ready to make the healthiest choices that you can without sabotaging your weight loss journey because of a ‘failure’ you might be feeling from the previous day.

Commit to your goal for one year. Imagine how different your life will be if you consistently took small actions toward your weight loss goal for one year without stopping because it gets hard, uncomfortable, boring, or the scale stops moving. How will you FEEL? Build a strong emotional connection with your weight loss because having an emotional tie to losing weight can motivate you to take action.

Read here for 6 Tips for Long Term Weight Loss Success!