You Know What To Do

In retrospect, this should have been my first post.

At the risk of sabotaging your defense strategy, I want to let you in on a secret. You already know how to lose weight. You already know what habits you need to change to improve your health. Nobody accidentally eats a supersized double quarter pound cheeseburger meal with fries and a tub of soda. Everyone knows that they're going to feel a little ill after they take a second slice of cheesecake. Everyone knows that if they ran more, they could run farther.

How many times have you heard/read, "Eat less. Exercise more?" Ad nausseum? Me too. Is your reaction the same as mine, "Yeah? How?"

I was overwhelmed. I knew I had to change how much I ate, how often I ate, what I was eating, how much I exercise, what I did for exercise, etc. That's a lot! It makes me want to crawl back into my hole.

The first change just happened. I had to stop eating out because I couldn't afford it for a couple months. This might be the best thing that could have happened. I learned two things. First, the quality of food at restaurants is less than that of what I make at home. Which interests me greatly but I'll save that for another post.

Second and more importantly, I learned that I can make one change at a time.

Wow! What a relief!

After eating at home for a while, I decided to keep a journal and count calories. I want to cover reading labels and counting calories separately. For now I'm grouping those into one change, because I've done them in the past and already knew how.

Change three was adding snacks to my lunch bag for work.

Change four was replacing those snacks with fruit and yogurt.

Change five was eating more salad.

Change six is learning how to exercise efficiently and effectively. In the meantime, I'm walking for exercise several times a week and feel much more energetic.

The point of all that is, to succeed at anything make one change at a time and track your progress. You already know what to do. In fact, you have everything you need to get started.