Weight Loss for New Years Resolution

Most people will have a New Years resolution like stop smoking, quit drinking, or exercise more. The resolution most people have is to loose some weight. Smallstep.gov is a site that tries to help with this issue. There is a list of over 100 small steps that one can do to help with the weight loss. These are meant to be small steps in the battle over obesity. Take a handful and implement them in your life. Remember that the weight gain didn't happen overnight and neither will the weight loss. It has been four years for me to get to where I'm at and I'm still struggling to improve my fitness level. Do what works best for you. If your going to do a Atkins or South Beach diet remember that once you are off the diet you will put weight back on. With me it is simple thermodynamics. I expend more calories then I take in.

In hindsight, if I were to do it over again I would take a picture of myself as nude as possible (front, side and rear), and take general measurements of my body (neck, chest, arms, waist, hips, thighs, etc) along with the starting weight. Set a short term goal and a long term goal with a date to achieve each goal. Hang the pictures and the short term goal on the refrigerator door. This is meant to be a deterrent and a reminder of your goals.

I used to weigh myself on a daily basis at the same time of day with the same condition and chart the weight on an spreadsheet. I weighed myself in the morning after using the bathroom. After you have developed your weight loss habits (it takes 21 days to form any habit) post your spreadsheet on the refrigerator door as well and update it every week. This will be a visual cue that the weight loss is working. When you hit a short term goal reward yourself (buy a new bike, exercise clothes, set of dumbbells etc.) and set a new short term goal.

Note that if you don't do this for yourself you may fail. It will help if you have someone else going through the same process as you go through it. Make it fun... wager a lunch over who looses the most weight. Finally, you have to treat this as a LIFE CHANGING EVENT. If you don't you will just yo-yo diet and will put on the weight again (if not more).

Good Luck!