If you are carrying around a few (I use
that term loosely) extra pounds like most of us are, you all know all
the reasons why we should take the weight off. It will reduce stress on
our heart, reducing the chance of heart disease, cancer, possibility of
diabetes; feel better, look more attractive, etc.
There
are 101 reasons why, but it can be a real pain to finally get that
weight off. You push really hard, make a little progress, get side
tracked, and bam you are heavier then you started.
It’s maddening. Enough with that hassle, I have put together 5 simple steps to actually losing weight and keeping it off. These steps can be applied to anything, but we are focusing on weight loss here.
1. Know What You Want
2. Know Where You Are
3. Track Your Results
4. Make Course Corrections
5. Being held Accountable
2. Know Where You Are
3. Track Your Results
4. Make Course Corrections
5. Being held Accountable
Now
all your extra weight will effortlessly melt off. Yeah right! A simple
list of 5 items is not going to do it, so let me explain the
intricacies of the 5 items and where the hang up normally occurs when
applied to losing weight.
1. Know What You Want
This one is dead simple. Most people that want to lose weight have an idea of how many pounds they would like to lose or how they would like their body to look.
I
think we can safely say if your body started looking the way you wanted
it, you would know, even if you didn’t have it completely mapped out
and detailed.
2. Know Where You Are
This
is the big trip up. It is almost always overlooked and is the number
one reason for the up and down Yo Yo effect we experience with losing weight.
We are unhappy with how our body feels and how it looks and it is
painful to zoom in and get an accurate picture of where we are.
Unfortunately, we have to know where we are, to be able to accurately
judge the results we are getting.
You
are on a trip to San Diego, California. You would like to start your
trip from Phoenix, Arizona, but you really don’t know where you are. No
problem. You get an Arizona/California map and find that a simple 6
hours trip west on interstate 8 will get you to San Diego.
6
hours later, you have no clue where you are and it is definitely not
warm San Diego. You feel defeated and you want to give up! Do you
blame the car? The stupid maps? San Diego? Yourself?
Now
what if I told you, you were actually in New Your City, not Phoenix,
Arizona. A 6 hour car ride west from New York City will never get you to
San Diego.
If you took the time to
accurately find out where you were, you would have been able to choose
the appropriate means to get to San Diego and have an expectation as to
how long it would take.
This is the same with weight loss
and our personal physical condition. In our minds, we think we are
starting in a different physical condition then we really are. When the
results don’t follow the illusion in your mind, we get upset.
3. Track Your Results
This
is conceptually simple. If we have no clue as to WHAT we are doing, how
do we know what is working? It might be a simple to do, but is also
simple not to do. In the end, most people never track their results.
4. Make Course Corrections
We love to do this one. We have it hands down. It is like step 1 of knowing what you want. We try the new food diet, the super sit up machine, and the cardio hip hop power energy yoga fat burner class.
We
might be great at switching it up, but without knowing where we are
starting from and a history of tracked results, we have no clue as to
what we should change or even which direction we should go.
5. Being held Accountable
No,
not accountability! That is an evil word. I don’t want someone to know
what I am doing, or more importantly what I am not doing.
So, why do we resist accountability, your secret weapon to weight loss?
Because it works! If you know someone is going to be watching, you
would follow through or at least feel very uncomfortable not following
through.
Accountability when used wisely is the ultimate turbo booster to your weight loss. Since you are going to be accountable anyway, you might as well get something out of it.
Using
accountability up front, you can achieve the body of your dreams. If
you let your body hold you accountable, it will throw on fat in places you don’t want it to be.
The
biggest obstacle to weight loss is not taking any action. It doesn’t
matter how good the plan is, it is worthless if you don’t follow it. So
what do I do now?
First and foremost get Accountable.
Forward
this article to someone you respect and care about and tell them I want
to be accountable to finally taking off my extra pounds. When they
agree to support you, start working through Steps 1 – 5.
SOURCE health weight loss diets