How to Succeed at Eating Healthy and Exercising

We are 57 days into the new year. Have you kept your New Year's Resolution to exercise and to eat healthy? If you are like the majority of us, those well intentioned goals have already become victims to bad for you food cravings and bodies too tired to work out.

Over the years, I have made many false starts into changing my eating and exercise habits. I would charge ahead with "tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life!" I will eat only healthy, whole, organic food that is grown locally. I will not eat fried foods or cake for the rest of my life! I will exercise 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. I will never miss a workout again!

The problem with this scenario is that it is too rigid and unrealistic. When real life steps in and you don't keep these promises to yourself, you feel like a total failure. So what do you do? You go back to your old way of doing things with a vengeance. You tell yourself that this is proof once again, that you will be out of shape and overweight.

The secret to any weight loss success is consistency, positive attitude, realistic goals and realistic time frames. We want everything right now in this society! We want our food fast through the drive up, we want our tax refund check early, so we get a loan against it instead of waiting the 4-12 weeks. We want to see our favorite shows in record time, so we Tivo through the commercials to get to the end. We don't want to wait for our prescriptions at the pharmacy, so we call ahead and rush through the drive up to pick up. The ways that we speed through our life are endless!

We have unrealistic expectations. We are bombarded in the media by shows like The Biggest Loser. It seems that these contestants lose weight in the time frame of a one hour show. In reality, these folks are exercising the majority of the day, their meals are prepared for them so eating healthy is a no brainer. They live in a weight loss bubble with no room for real life. This is why some of the contestants do not exercise or eat healthy after returning home and they regain the weight.

The truth is this, exercising and eating healthy is a slow journey. There is no magic pill, tea, shake, food or drink that melts fat. (Regardless of the many claims out there.) There is no machine or object that will shake away, jiggle away, or shrink the fat off your body.

Good old fashioned effort and patience is the only two things required to lose weight and get healthy. So where to start? Follow the steps below and you will be on your way to being a more fit and healthy you!

1. Be realistic, do not set yourself up for failure. Do not say that you will never eat a certain food again or that you will exercise 2 hours a day. Start small and take your time. For example, start your first week off with cutting your soda intake down from 3 a day to 1 a day. Make a promise to yourself to eat vegetables at lunch everyday as a start to eating healthy. Commit to parking in the last parking spot at the grocery store this week, walking around the block once each day before dinner as a start to exercising. These small accomplishments will spur you on to make more changes.

2. Be consistent. Commit to doing healthy changes daily. If you fall off the wagon, don't go extreme and decide to binge for the next 7 days, start again and again!

3. Have a positive attitude. Talk to yourself as your best friend would talk to you. Pat your self on the back each time you exercise, eat a vegetable or drink more water! Encourage yourself, tell yourself how well you are doing in your quest to eat healthy and exercise.

4. Slow Down! You must understand that weight loss takes a lot of time. Do not worry about the results that you see in the mirror right now. Tell yourself that if you are consistent day in and day out, you will have success at being healthy and losing weight. Each small victory leads to larger ones.