Losing Weight Is Simple - But Not Easy

     Most popular diet plans and programmes promise easy weight loss, if you follow and often fairly complicated plan. In fact, this is the wrong way round! The plan needn't be complicated at all, and the simpler you make it for yourself the easier it will be! But actually achieving the weight loss is not easy - there will be times that you are tempted to indulge that bit too much and ruin all your hard work, so you need to have strategies available to prevent this from happening - and to get back on track as soon as you can afterwards.

If you start a fat loss plan understanding that it will be hard, you are much closer to success. So many people start off a plan feeling really motivated and ready to get stuck in. Many people I deal with are excited at first, as they think of the end result. But unless you have acknowledged that it won't be plain sailing, you will hit the first obstacle or hurdle and struggle to overcome it. It is at this point that those who haven't thought it all through become despondent and demotivated. They weren't prepared for the regular, ongoing work that was required, and they certainly weren't prepared to have to make the odd sacrifice or compromise - which is of course essential in order to reverse the situation your current habits have created.

The first step is to set clear goals before you start and then drill down into those goals and plan what you need to do in order to achieve them. At this stage, you can identify potential challenges and come up with clever strategies to overcome them. For example you might have a friend's birthday to attend where everyone else will be drinking alcohol. If you think it will be too hard to 'just say no' when you are there, you can plan to be the designated driver - so you can't say 'yes'!

Keep in mind the mantra: 'it's simple but it's not easy'. You are bound to face these obstacles and challenges. Some of these you will navigate easily, others will be harder to overcome. Being prepared and ready for some hard work is really important.

You should also remind yourself that the reward is greater when a challenge is harder, so the obstacles you face now are what will make success seem all the sweeter when you achieve it. When you have lost the fat and are looking great, you will tell everyone how you managed it despite your challenges, so rather than dwelling on them and using them as excuses, let them make your eventual success even more impressive!

Knowing that it is hard means you are likely to be able to be a little more forgiving, though, too. When you think you are failing at something you have been told is easy, you will feel like a failure. Remind yourself that fat loss is hard but that one slip-up really won't affect your success as much as getting demotivated and giving up altogether will.

Be prepared to forgive yourself when you don't meet your own expectations, and quickly jump back on and get back on track. The common 'all or nothing' mentality that comes from a need to be 100% perfect is counter-productive. Allow yourself some slack and realise that staying on track consistently 80% of the time is far more successful than being 100% perfect for a week only.

Keep your strategies simple (eat clean, eat less, exercise more) but be prepared for some hard work along the way!

Copyright (c) 2010 Caroline Radway

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