Your weight-loss journey
When you decide to lose weight you are, in effect, embarking on an exciting journey.
When you decide to lose weight you are, in effect, embarking on an exciting journey. Like many journeys, the road to your goal is often strewn with obstacles, ash clouds, hold-ups and diversions and getting around them can be challenging.
Think about a journey you take regularly, maybe to work.
How long does it take you to get to your destination at rush hour?
How long does it take to get there when the traffic is quieter?
The journey is no longer in distance but can be considerably longer in time.
Losing weight is the same. You follow the same track each week, yet each week can be different.
You have done well so far, and we hope to make you even more successful with the following pointers.
- Check your goals are realistic – are they achievable within the time frame you have allowed? Revaluate your goal, if necessary, and set a smaller one.
- Are you rewarding yourself realistically – no boxes of chocs for each 1lb lost!
- Are you happy with your progress so far? What one thing can you do to make it better this week… and the next?
- On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest, how confident are you at the moment about your diet?
- On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest, how motivated are you that you WILL reach your next goal?
- Make a tick list of all the things you enjoy about being slimmer and how being slimmer can make a difference to your life. Put 3 on to start with then add to it each week. Do you remember, in our April article Don’t Panic, we suggested a rolling list of 42? As you travel the journey to your goal, there will be new things to enjoy, new positive aspects of being slimmer and new reasons to continue toward your goal.
- Never forget the importance of being active. This is particularly true for those of you whose lifestyles have changed dramatically over the past few years – children left home, no more running around taking them here, there and everywhere, more active socially, more meals out, slowing down with age etc. And remember that eating the same amount of food as you did previously and not being as active = weight gain.
- Measure your inches or take stock of the changes in your body. While you’ve probably been measuring the obvious bits, don’t forget that fat is everywhere. You will lose it from places you don’t perhaps normally measure such as the feet, wrists, fingers, under the chin, top of the chest, across your back etc. Inch loss can be a better indicator of fat loss and more toned muscles than how much you weigh. After all, we buy clothes to fit our inches not our weight. When did you last see a label that said, “to fit someone weighing 11st”?
