What’s the #1 habit we need to lose weight for life?
Is the most important habit cutting out carbs from our diets? Eating our veggies? Exercising?
There are examples of how ALL of the habits mentioned above may impact weight loss, but for many people, none of those habits (followed perfectly) have been shown to lead to the type of weight loss that lasts forever.
We often gain back weight we lose.
Why is that?
Truthfully, it’s not our fault. The billion-dollar diet industry often markets their products and nutrition programs in a way that shows we must be hard-core, in pain (with super-hard workouts!), feel deprived with our nutrition (super-strict diets), and most of all, that we must be PERFECT when we try and implement these new programs or products into our lives.
The diet industry can often make us feel like the most effective diets and weight loss programs are the ones that feel the most difficult to adhere to.
But there is another way to tackle the weight loss journey, and it has to do with the #1 habit for life-long weight loss that I’m writing about today.
WHAT’S THE #1 HABIT FOR LIFE-LONG WEIGHT LOSS?
The #1 habit is consistency.
How do we achieve consistency?
By having patience, practicing healthy (and realistic!) habits one at a time so we don’t get overwhelmed.
Most important, making your forever-program LIVABLE so you can be consistent.
We don’t need to suffer to get fit.
We don’t need to be perfect to lose weight for good.
When we try to be perfect and master multiple new habits at once, we may achieve perfection for a couple weeks or months, but then we crash and burn… always feeling like we need to “get back on the wagon.”
START WITH ONE HABIT TODAY
How do we achieve consistency with our habits? Start with ONE nutrition or exercise habit you’d like to work on… TODAY!
Don’t start on Monday.
Start now.
To be consistent, we need to give up the idea of being perfect and needing to change everything at once.
Pick ONE healthy habit you feel you have a high chance of success in achieving, and practice it until you can do it consistently.
Once you can do the habit consistently (again, not perfect, but good the majority of the time), then you can add a second habit to work on.
Maybe the one habit you’ll practice today is to focus on eating lean protein 3 times per day.
Or maybe the one habit you’ll practice today is to log on My Fitness Pal.
Whatever you choose, start with ONE habit, and practice until you can achieve it with consistency.
So, remember, progress, not perfection! And most important, start building healthy habits one at a time, so you can do them CONSISTENTLY.
❤️️,
Barb