Baby Steps

Does this sound familiar? You decide to get serious and lose the weight once and for all. You give up all of your favorite foods, cut calories to starvation levels, resolve to exercise for an hour each day, and stop your TV-time snacking habit. All at the same time. Starting today.

The first day goes well, but by Day Three, you are hungry, and feel deprived and overscheduled. You give up because the program you created for yourself is impossible to maintain for any length of time.

Why not try creating small, achievable goals for yourself? Instead of cutting out all of your favorite foods, try choosing to avoid foods that have sugar in them for a week or two. Keep everything else that you do the same. Then cut out foods that contain refined flours. So far so good, right? A couple of weeks later, try replacing your evening snacks with smarter choices such as crunchy veggies or a handful of nuts. You might eventually want to give up this habit altogether, but if you try to make too many changes at once, it can be overwhelming.

A baby-steps approach works well with exercise too. Don't plan on exercising full-bore for an hour a day right at the start. Instead, aim for small blocks of time that fit in your schedule on a regular basis. You can always increase the amount and frequency of exercise as you lose some weight and feel more inclined to move.

By incorporating small changes gradually, you'll create the momentum needed to reach your goal. And without too much pain!


"If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten." -Anonymous