3 Simple Tips to Lose Weight

3 Simple tips to Lose Weight

So many people struggle to lose weight. I know because I used to be one of them! That is until I discovered weight loss is not as complicated as I thought it was, that’s where these 3 tips to lose weight comes from-my experience. Turns out my head was just spinning from all the information out there, pulling me in every direction so I couldn’t see straight.

If you’ve ever attempted to lose weight, I’m sure you’re familiar with the daunting feelings of overwhelm and confusion. It feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, and you’ll never find your way out.

Finally, after years of miserably dieting, I’d had enough. I said goodbye to yo-yo diets, started doing things my way and, at last, found lasting weight loss success. Through that process I learned what does and doesn’t work.

Now, I’d like to share with you the 3 most valuable lessons I’ve learned along the way to help you get started on your own journey. These tips will save you from spinning your wheels, making the same mistakes I did, and wasting time you could be spending actually losing weight in the funnest, most sustainable way possible!

3 Tips to Lose Weight

1. Find a diet that fits your personality

If you eat solely as a means to fuel your body, and do not associate feelings like comfort or joy with food – as crazy as it sounds these people DO exist – then you might be able to find success with any diet out there.

If you’re anything like me, however, and immensely enjoy trying different restaurants, eating socially, and celebrating life in general, not just any diet will do. You need to find a diet that works with your lifestyle and doesn’t compromise your ability to enjoy what you love. You can’t put your life on hold until you lose weight. It doesn’t work that way. You need to find a way to lose weight while living your life. This is the only way weight loss, and eventually weight maintenance, will last.

Loving food is not a crime. Eating food is not a crime. Whatever diet you choose should not make you feel like a criminal. Instead of thinking your enthusiasm and excitement for food as a curse that will forever hold you back, simply accept it, and structure your weight loss around it.

My top weight loss recommendation is calorie counting.

If you’re like most people, and enjoy everything from meat to sweets, counting calories can be a very successful method of weight loss for you. Not just calorie counting, but eating as many calories as possible while still achieving slow and steady weight loss.

By eating the highest amount of calories possible while still seeing results, and including all the foods you love on a daily basis (like my kids and I do), you will rarely even feel hungry. Plus, bonus, you can- for the most part- kiss uncontrollable cravings goodbye!

Sure, there will be days you blow all your calories on doughnuts before noon – guilty! But if you play it smart, you will eat a lot of food, lose weight and, most importantly, feel completely satisfied. Not to mention you will even feel joy whilst trying to lose weight! Amazing!

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There isn’t any other diet or program out there that can deliver results like that. Believe me, I tried to find one before resigning myself to calories. Counting calories is where it is at (I use Noom). Not only can you do this, but you will enjoy doing it.

Counting Calories Is Not Your Only Option

However, if you have dietary needs or personal preferences when it comes to certain food groups, find a diet that fits your criteria. For example, you love meat, you could try paleo or keto. If you love fish, you could try the Mediterranean diet. Perhaps you are already consistently skipping breakfast or lunch because it is a natural thing for you- look into intermittent fasting.

Don’t try to be someone you aren’t! Just because such-and-such diet worked for Jane Fit on Instagram and she lost 60 pounds in 2 weeks DOESN’T MEAN IT’LL WORK FOR YOU! I used to be THAT person, sliding into DMs asking things like, “What’s your secret? How’d you do it?” SMH.

Listen up, I tried it all and failed it all. Trying to lose weight a certain way, with total disregard for your own preferences and way of life, just because it worked for some random person, is like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. Not only does it not fit, but it will never fit. Even if you manage to wedge it in there for a little while, it’s only a temporary solution. You will have a miserable uphill battle ahead of you trying to make it work before you inevitably decide to wave the white flag of defeat.

Do yourself a favor and take a little time for self-reflection now, before you start your weight loss journey. Really consider your lifestyle, what you do and don’t enjoy, what your natural strengths and weaknesses are, and choose a diet from there! That is your first step towards weight loss success.

2. Be consistent

Consistency is a necessary, crucial result of picking a weight loss method that fits your life (aka Tip #1). When you pick a diet that works with your personality and preferences, you are more likely to stick with it. Consistency is key, as they say. It literally does not matter what weight loss method you choose – if you are consistent with it, you will absolutely lose weight.

Consistency is the goal, and the weight loss will follow. I lost 20 pounds last year, not because I was perfect, but because I was consistent. Not only that but I was successful in the past with WW too, losing 45 pounds over the years, by being consistent. Consistency with any diet will yield results, regardless of the diet or program.

In my sordid dieting past, I typically averaged a 10-15 pound weight loss per YEAR. That’s it. Whether I was doing WW, Whole30, no carbs, Mediterranean – the list goes on – all I could ever manage to lose over the course of an entire year, was 10-15 pounds.

Back then I STRUGGLED – every. single. day. – to adhere to my diet. I imposed so many distorted rules and restrictions on myself that I hated every second of every diet I ever tried. I consistently found myself at the end of my restriction rope, and at the bottom of a bucket of ice cream, feeling ashamed and hopeless. This is no way to lose weight, and it’s certainly no way to live! Actually that wasn’t living, that was just sad.

Once upon a time, I miraculously lost a whopping 10 pounds in a single MONTH while on WW.

That was one of my best ever months in terms of weight loss! I was able to be consistent…for a month, and then I was spent. The idea of reliving that “successful” month over and over for the rest of my life was more than daunting to me – it was straight up impossible. Within the first week of the next month, I promptly gained 7 of the 10 pounds I’d lost back. I spent the rest of the year trying- successfully- to lose it again. Which means I ended that year at a 10 pound total loss for the year.

In comparison, I lost 20 pounds in just 6 months last year by simply counting calories. Not only did I lose more in six months than I have ever lost in one year of my decades long weight loss journey, but I’ve kept it off. By allowing myself to eat whatever I want and a generous number of calories every day, I have discovered the most sustainable route to weight loss I’ve ever known. Not to mention I’ve found food freedom and honest-to-goodness balance.

Even when I step back from calorie counting now and then for holidays, vacations, birthdays, or just the mental break, I more or less maintain my weight. There are no crazy binges, no drastic weight gain, and I feel no anxiety or dread about getting back to logging my food. This is what it’s like when you find a diet that naturally fits your personality…you naturally acquire consistency. I used to think I needed to be miserable to lose weight, but I was wrong! This is how weight loss should be.

3. Look at the BIG picture

In order to find a diet that fits your personality, and that you can be consistent with, you must look at the big picture. You will not be able to diet for a couple months, be done, and return to “normal” life. But I understand that mentality. I see it all the time, and I used to think it myself!

This thought process will earn you the title of “Career Yo-Yo Dieter” who loses 20 pounds in 1 month while eating nothing but chicken breasts and dressing-less lettuce then gains it all back, and then some, when you return to the land of the living.

Please understand you don’t have to choose between deprivation and “normalcy.” Constantly cycling between the two will get you nowhere in the long term. You must step back, visualize your happiest self – how does she think, look, and feel? – then redefine your idea of “normal” in order to achieve it.

Don’t think in terms of being summer ready, losing the baby weight, or fitting into a size zero as quickly as humanly possible.

Take a step back and consider your life as a whole. What does it look like right now? How do you want it to look? Are you willing to miss out on social events, special occasions, and happy hours in the name of weight loss?

Now, ask yourself the same questions, but in the name of weight maintenance. If you’re willing to sacrifice things to lose the weight, but not once you’ve lost it, you’re going down an unhealthy, unsustainable path.

This is not a quick fix, and you don’t want to live your life stuck in a perpetual cycle of losing and gaining weight! Think bigger. Find something you can do forever. Resist the urge to drop 10 pounds in a week, and choose the sensible option. It will pay off in the long run.

I used to be in a rush to lose weight, like I’m sure you are right now.

I get it. I’d suddenly wake up one morning and be SHOCKED by my giant belly, as if it appeared out of nowhere overnight. In a panic, I’d decide I couldn’t possibly live one more second being so chunky, and want the issue resolved immediately.

My panic led to drastic measures, and the need to lose 2 or more pounds a week. I’d restrict and starve myself until I reached my breaking point, and the fallout was always epic. The eating free-for-all that ensued caused me to gain back any weight I painstakingly lost, and then some.

The drastic measures I took didn’t get me the results I so desperately wanted. They only led me further away from my goal. Drastic measures may get results, but alas, they’re usually only temporary. Then the fallout from it are often much worse than the initial problem. So maybe, just avoid that whole scenario all together!

Eventually it hit me: I could get myself back into shape just as slowly as I had let myself go. What was my hurry? I had my whole life ahead of me to make small, but significant changes. There is no deadline. My focus became big picture. I realized by losing a little here and there it would add up to serious weight loss over a long period of time.

Choose a weight loss method that is sustainable and slow. This will yield HUGE lifelong results. (Check out my weight loss method and support group to see if it might be what you need to finally get started losing weight.)

Those Are My 3 Simple Tips to Lose Weight

Weight loss has everything to do with your personality. It must be tailored to you. Your tastes, your abilities, your life. Finding a diet that fits your lifestyle breeds consistency. Consistency over time produces results – the lasting results you’ve been looking for.

It’s really not that hard. Okay, that’s a lie. But the hard part is accepting that it will be a slow process, there will be ups and downs, and what worked for them may not work for you. The hard part should not be feeling miserably hungry, thinking you’re a failure, and wondering how you’ll survive another day of dieting.

Weight loss, and life in general, gets a heck of a lot easier when you’re legitimately enjoying the ride. Wishing for the trip to end, and hastily speeding toward your destination will guarantee you’ll never get there. Plus, that trip SUCKS, avoid it!

Reach out if you need help getting started or shifting gears into a mindset that more successfully supports your happiness and, in turn, weight loss.

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