Six Essential Steps for Lasting Weight Loss: Your Journey to a Healthier You

If you want to try and lose excess weight, then this video is for you because I'm going to cover six things that you need to do to help you on your journey. I've made this video because there are hundreds of weight loss programs and, quite frankly, outright scams that promise quick and easy weight loss but don’t actually work. The basics of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight are actually quite simple: having a foundation of a healthy, calorie-controlled diet combined with increased physical activity. The key to successful weight management is making permanent changes to your lifestyle and health habits. In this video, we're going to cover six things that can help you achieve this.

First, make sure that you're ready. Long-term weight loss takes time, effort, and a long-term commitment. While you don’t want to put off weight loss indefinitely, you should make sure that you’re ready to make permanent changes to your eating and exercise habits before starting. Now, it’s important for me to be honest with you: this journey is not necessarily going to be easy. It’s going to be challenging at points, and it will be tough. But it’s rare that anything in life that’s worth doing is easy. For this reason, you need to make sure that you’re choosing to do this when you feel ready, resilient, and mentally prepared to commit.

If you’re not sure about this, it’s worth asking yourself a few of the following questions: Am I motivated to lose weight? Am I too distracted by other pressures? Do I use food as a means to cope with stress? Am I ready to learn or use other strategies to cope with stress? Do I need other support, either from friends or professionals, to manage stress? Am I willing to change my eating habits? Am I willing to change activity habits? Do I have the time to spend on making these changes? After answering these questions honestly, if you don’t feel ready, it’s really important to address your underlying concerns and stresses first. This might mean speaking to your doctor or health provider, a coach, or even just a friend or family member to explain what you want to do and why you’re struggling to commit. After working through these underlying challenges, when you’re ready, you’re going to find it easier to set goals, stay committed, and, really importantly, change your habits.

Second, it’s important to find inner motivation. No one else can make you lose weight. You’re the person who needs to undertake the diet and exercise changes to help you succeed. For this reason, you’re going to have to be really clear on what’s going to give you the burning drive to stick to your weight loss plan and get you through the tough times when you feel like giving up. To help you with this, I’d advise making a list of what’s important to you to help you stay motivated and focused. This is going to be different for everyone. It might be to feel better about yourself, to be more fit to play with your kids, or just for better overall health. Then, it’s really important to find a way to make sure that you can call on these motivational factors during moments of temptation. You might want to post an encouraging note to yourself on the fridge door, join a supportive group of others who are also trying to lose weight to keep you accountable, or work with a coach. Whatever you think is going to work for you to keep you motivated, do it.

You should also try to pick people who support you and who are going to encourage you in positive ways without shame, embarrassment, or making you feel bad about yourself. Ideally, find people who are going to listen to your concerns and feelings, spend time exercising with you, or creating healthy menus and share the priority that you’ve placed on developing a healthier lifestyle. I really believe that a support group can keep you motivated. If you want to lose weight and need some encouragement, please post a comment in the comment section of this video, and I will get back to you to support you. I read every comment that is posted on this channel, and I do reply personally. I love to hear motivational stories of people who are looking to make positive changes to benefit their health, so please do reach out. By doing this, you’re probably going to inspire others who are looking to take the first step on this journey. This could be a really positive thing. On the other hand, if you prefer to keep your weight loss plans private, that’s also totally fine. Just try to be accountable to yourself by having regular weigh-ins, recording your diet and exercise progress in a journal, or tracking your progress using apps, such as the NHS weight loss plan app, which is a free 12-week program that you can access. I’ve included a link to this in the description box of the video.

The third thing is to be realistic when you’re setting your goals. It might seem obvious to set realistic weight loss goals, but what does being realistic actually mean? Over the long term, it’s smart to aim for losing 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilo) a week. Generally, to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, you need to burn 500 to 1,000 calories more than you consume each day through a lower calorie diet and regular physical activity. Obviously, these specific numbers are going to vary from person to person. It’s important to work with your health provider to work out what the optimal weight range is for you, based on your height and sex. Depending on your weight, 5% of your current weight may be a realistic goal, at least for an initial goal. If you weigh 180 pounds (82 kilos), that’s 9 pounds (4 kilos) that you need to lose. Even this level of weight loss can help to lower your risk of chronic health problems like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. When you’re setting your goals, think about the process as well as the outcome goals. “Walk every day for 30 minutes” is an example of a process goal, whereas “lose 10 pounds” is an example of an outcome goal. The process is going to lead to the outcome. It’s not essential that you have an outcome goal; you should always set a process goal because changing your habits is the key to weight loss.

My fourth tip is to enjoy healthier foods. Adopting a new eating style that promotes weight loss must include lowering your total calorie intake, but decreasing calories doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on things like taste, satisfaction, or even just enjoying the meals themselves. One way that you can lower your calorie intake is by eating more plant-based foods, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Try and mix up your diet to keep you motivated and keep some variety. That’s going to be key here to keep you motivated. In terms of three general tips that I can give you, you could start off by eating at least four servings of vegetables and three servings of fruits a day, using moderate amounts of healthy fats like olive oil, avocados, and nuts, and finally, cutting back on refined sugar as much as possible, except the natural sugar in fruit.

My fifth tip is to get and stay active. While you can lose weight without exercise, regular physical activity plus calorie restriction can help give you the weight loss edge. Exercise can help you burn off excess calories you can’t cut through diet alone, and it generally offers a sense of feeling really good about yourself because you often get an endorphin release. It also offers numerous other health benefits by boosting your mood, strengthening your cardiovascular system, and reducing your blood pressure. It can also help not only with losing the initial weight but also with maintaining a healthy weight. Studies show that people who maintain their weight loss over the long term get regular physical activity. How many calories you’re going to burn exactly will depend on the frequency, duration, and intensity of your exercise. One of the best ways to lose body fat is through steady aerobic exercise, like brisk walking, for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. Some people will need more physical activity than others to lose weight, and again, it might be worth coming up with a personalized exercise plan, if you can do this with something like a personal trainer. Any extra movement will help to burn calories, so think about ways to increase your physical activity throughout the day if you can’t fit it in formally. For example, make several trips up and down the stairs instead of using the elevator, or park at the far end of the parking lot when you’re going shopping.

Finally, it’s not enough to eat healthy foods and exercise just for a few weeks or months. If you want long-term successful weight management, these habits need to become a way of life. You’re likely to have occasional setbacks, and that’s fine. Instead of giving up entirely after a setback, just start fresh the next day. Remember that you’re planning to change your life; it won’t happen all at once. Try to stick to healthy lifestyle changes, and the results will be worth it in the long term. I do hope that this video has helped you and perhaps has motivated or inspired you to start on this journey. For more videos I've made on healthy weight management, please do check out the description box. I've included links to these. Until next time, thanks for watching, and best of luck on your journey.

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