5 Simple Steps to Lose Weight
If you’re carrying a few extra pounds (I use the term loosely) like most of us, everyone knows all the reasons why we should lose weight. It will reduce the stress on our heart, reducing the possibility of heart disease, cancer, possibility of diabetes; feel better, look more attractive, etc.
There are 101 reasons, but it can be a real pain to finally lose weight. You push really hard; you progress a bit, you veer off and bam, you’re heavier than you started.
It’s maddening. Enough with that hassle, I’ve put together 5 simple steps to lose weight and keep it off. These steps can be applied to anything, but here we focus on weight loss.
1. Know What You Want
2. Know Where You Are
3. Track Your Results
4. Make Heading Corrections
5. Be Responsible
Now all your extra weight will effortlessly melt away. Yeah, sure! A simple 5-item list is not enough, so let me explain the intricacies of the 5-items and where blockage typically occurs when applied for weight loss.
1. Know What You Want
This one is absolutely simple. Most people who 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 that if your body started looking the way you wanted it to, you would know it, even if you didn’t have it fully mapped and detailed.
2. Know Where You Are
This is a great journey. It is almost always overlooked and is the number one reason for the up and down Yo-Yo effect we experience when losing weight. We are not happy with how our body feels and 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 in order to accurately judge the results we are getting.
You’re on a trip to San Diego, California. You would like to start your journey from Phoenix, Arizona, but you really don’t know where you are. No problem. You get a map of Arizona / California and discover that a simple 6-hour drive west on Interstate 8 will get you to San Diego.
6 hours later, you have no idea where you are and it’s definitely not hot in San Diego. You feel defeated and want to give up! Do you blame the car? The stupid maps? San Diego? Yourself?
Now, what if I told you that you were actually in New Your City, not Phoenix, Arizona? A 6-hour drive west from New York City will never get you to San Diego.
If he had taken the time to find out precisely where he was, he could have chosen the appropriate means of getting to San Diego and had an expectation of how long it would take.
The same goes for weight loss and our personal fitness. In our minds, we think we are starting out in a different physical condition then we really are. When the results don’t follow the illusion in your mind, we get angry.
3. Track Your Results
This is conceptually simple. If we have no idea what we are doing, how do we know what is working? It may be easy to do, but it is also easy not to. In the end, most people never keep track of their results.
4. Make Heading Corrections
We love doing this one. We certainly have it. It’s like the first step in knowing what you want. We tried the new diet, super abs machine, and yoga cardio hip hop power energy fat burning class.
We could be great at changing it, but without knowing where we’re starting from and a history of recorded results, we have no idea what we need to change or even which direction we need to go.
5. Be Responsible
No, no responsibility! That is a bad word. I don’t want anyone to know what I’m doing or what I’m not doing.
So why do we resist responsibility, your secret weight-loss weapon? Because it works! If you know someone is going to be watching, they will follow or at least feel very uncomfortable not doing so.
Accountability, when used wisely, is the best turbo booster for weight loss. Since you will be responsible anyway, you might as well get something out of that.
Using responsibility early on, you can achieve the body of your dreams. If you let your body hold you accountable, it will accumulate fat in places you don’t want it to be.
The biggest obstacle to losing weight is not taking any action. No matter how good the plan is, it is of no use if you don’t follow it. So what do I do now?
First of all, take responsibility.
Send this article to someone you respect and care about and tell them that I want to be responsible for finally shedding the extra pounds. When they agree to support you, start working on Steps 1 to 5.
Gustavo Woltmann.
