Weight Loss - What's Your Plan?

Why do all successful businesses (and people) set goals and create plans? When you decide to go on vacation, don't you plan for it? A ship departing a port in Los Angeles bound for Singapore has a goal but if the trip has not been planned, the ship could miss its goal by going the wrong direction or run out of fuel and provisions. If that ship is designed for short range, it will have to set several smaller goals so that it can re-provision and refuel along the way before reaching its ultimate goal. Thus, goals must be set at reachable milestones so that effective planning will assure success.

These are the simple basics of any human endeavor and most of us would say this is "common sense".

So let's say that we think we are overweight by 20 lbs. Should we look for a way to loose those 20 lbs. in one week? I think not! Remember that the best way to loose weight is to slowly adjust your lifestyle so that your weight can be sustained and not come back. You get into the habit of doing things daily that will reduce your body fat over time. Setting realistic goals along your journey is critical for success!

When I ask my clients how they would plan to loose weight, I hear a lot of the same ideas. Usually, these ideas are general and very disruptive to their lifestyles, i.e. "Stop eating so much (skip a meal)", "exercise more", "take a diet pill", "join a gym", "get a personal trainer" to name a few are always in this list. Now all of these general ideas will get a person to their goals but at what price and time frame? Will they be able to continue this lifestyle indefinitely so the weight does not come back?

A plan will not be any better than the paper or computer file it is written on if it is not followed, but if it is not written down somewhere so you can look at it and track your progress, it is similarly useless. So you should write down your goals, milestones, and the methods that you will integrate into your lifestyle to accomplish this. Some of us want to go the easy way so we ask a personal trainer or use an online weight loss/diet planner. Any method is fine but you must make your goals and plan solid so that you can commit to it!

What I suggest is to first set your ultimate goal. This gives you a big target to hit that you will not loose sight of. Find out what your Body Mass Index (BMI) is and calculate your ultimate target. Let's say for example this is 20 lbs. The maximum weight you will want to plan to loose is from 1 to 2 lbs. per week and you will need to burn 500 to 1000 calories more than you eat per day to do so. But do not be afraid to set your weight loss goal per week to something smaller. If you do not have any time constraints, it will be easier for you to integrate your lifestyle changes gradually and make them a habit if you set your weekly goals lower.

Once you have your major goal and your milestone goals set, look at the details of how you will accomplish each milestone.

Be sure to include the following details in your plan:

Calorie Intake - Use a calorie calculator to determine the foods that you will change in your diet and write a general daily menu. Make sure your new diet does not cut too many calories initially and gradually change the diet so that you can get used to the changes without impacting your life.

Hint for adjusting Calorie Intake: Try to remove the following foods from your daily diet each week:

• 
  
• Fried Catfish
• Canned Soup
• Bacon
• Fast Food Hamburgers
• Commercially baked goods
• Potato Chips
• Hot Dogs and Lunch Meats
• French Fries
• Doughnuts
• Soft Drinks

Exercise Plan - Using your BMI and your weekly weight goal, compare your daily calorie intake from your diet plan to your weekly weight loss goal. Let's say you adjusted your diet so that you consume 250 less calories per day the first week. This alone would allow you to loose about 1/2 lb. per week. Now, calculate the type of exercise activity you will do and how often you will do it. If an activity you select will burn 500 calories/hour for your body weight, it will burn 167 calories during a 20 minute workout. (Calories/60) x Duration of workout(minutes). With these two changes in your lifestyle, you will begin shedding over 1/2 lb. per week! Gradually increase the intensity, not the time spent, to increase the calories burned during exercise each week to match your changes in diet every week. This alone could easily have you loosing 1 to 2 lbs. each week within the first few weeks.

Include Vitamins in your diet - This is crucial! Our body often compels us to eat more because it is needing some vitamin, nutrient, and/or mineral. You will find it easier to adjust your diet without feeling hungry if you are giving your body the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals it needs.

Often, our bodies are missing nutrients that our processed foods are missing. This also causes hunger and low energy levels because nutrients are the fuels the body requires. Try adding Acai Berry supplements to your daily diet to make sure that your body is getting all the food nutrients it needs. This will also help you to control hunger, just as taking vitamins will.

Drink Water - Make sure you drink at least 2 quarts of water per day. It is a proven fact that you will be dehydrated if you wait until you feel thirsty, but it is also known that your body will tell you it is hungry if it needs water.

Your success in attaining your great figure and health depends on Goal Setting and Planning. Creating goals and plans that are easily integrated into your lifestyle will give you the lifelong habit of maintaining your ideal weight. Once you have made these things your habit, you will rarely have to do it again, nor will you have to refer to your plan anymore. It will be as natural for you as brushing your teeth!

References: Body Mass Calculator at www.halls.md