Just as I lost focus and concentration over the weekend, I’m sure many other folks did as well.  People once committed to changing their lifestyles stopped briefly over the holiday weekend, and unfortunately, some or even many won’t regain that commitment for days, months, or even years to come.

It’s all apart of the typical stages of a failed diet.

1. Excitement and anticipation.
You see a magazine article about a celebrity who lost 100 pounds.  You read a variety of impressive weight loss journeys and want to mimic their success — “that can be me!” you think.  Or, you find out from a doctor that you have pre-hypertension and you need to change your life or suffer the consequences.

Regardless why you decide to make the lifestyle change, you’re excited about it.  You can picture yourself 10, 50, 100 pounds lighter and you’re ready to begin.

2. Planning.
You want to follow the new low-carb craze your co-workers are trying.  You read about some guy online who lost weight on a liquid diet and want to try that.  You make a plan to lose the weight, join a gym, and get ready to start burning those pounds and earn that six pack.

3. Hit the ground running!
You’ve thrown away all the bread in the house and haven’t had a carb in days!  You went to the gym 5 times the last 3 days, once during your lunch break.  That’s some serious dedication.  You’re so motivated and energized to keep going, nothing can stop you.

4. Friday night happens.
Your friends are going out for drinks and guy food.  Wait, are cheese sticks not on your diet?  You try to change the venue, but alas, your friends want to keep living their lives.  They love you, and appreciate what you’re trying to do, but they’re happy the way they are.  So, you join them.  You eat a few hot wings, then you eat a dozen.  You just can’t help yourself — you’ve starved your body and it’s craving things it know it can’t have.

You binge.  You feel terrible, but binging makes you feel better.  All the foods that you’ve neglected over the last week come out to play in one night.

5.  Utter failure.
You ate “bad” food, so you failed.  You tell yourself it’s over and that’s it.  You stop going to the gym (but they keep getting your monthly draft!) and you start eating most of your meals from a bag again.  You’ll keep following this pattern again until another random moment of inspiration hits you — when it’s convenient for you, of course, then you’ll do it all over again.

I would repeat these stages numerous times over the last several years.  As soon as I did one thing I considered bad, like skip the gym a day or eat a french fry, I completely went off the deepend.  I know I’m not alone, especially this past Memorial Day weekend.  Cookouts, friends, no work, and no routine, it’s a perfect storm for laziness and junk food.

It’s over, though.  It’s time to get back on track.  I don’t care if you were in the deepend Friday through Monday, get out of the pool and grab a towel.

It’s time to dry off.

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Folks are taking advantage of the new forum by starting their own weight loss journey.  We’ve had over a dozen journeys start the last couple of days — men and women needing to lose anywhere from 10 pounds to 100+ pounds.

I plan on following all of these journeys and encourage you to do the same!

I wanted to share a few tips for those starting their weight loss journey.  These can apply to anybody, regardless how or where you start your journey.

1.  Make small goals
Setting a goal like “lose 100 pounds in 6 months” or something similar is setting yourself up for failure.  While you may or may not hit that goal, you need have smaller, quickly attainable goals to keep you motivated.  Your first goal should be something sensible and able to met fairly quickly, like “lose 10 pounds in 4 weeks.”  You can always have big, ultimate goals to accomplish (like trying to lose 100 pounds in 6 months), but you need small ones that you can check off your to-do list and move on.

2. Don’t stop after a little bump in the road
You will have days which you consider to be a failure.  You’ll have a day where you don’t eat how you should or you’ll start skipping the gym more often because you just don’t feel like going.  When this happens, it’s not a time to stop completely — it’s a time to start again.  Losing weight isn’t a short, get rich quick type of scheme, it’s something you’re going to do for the rest of your life.  We all have off days, heck, I have off months, but that doesn’t stop me from getting right back on the horse.  It shouldn’t stop you, either.

3.  It’s not all or nothing
While some certainly do decide to go all or nothing and that’s completely fine, it’s not realistic for the average person to never touch their favorite foods again.  Don’t think you need to cut out pizza for the rest of your life to lose weight — you simply need to moderate.  That means eat the foods that are good for you most of the time, but on occasion take a few slices of pizza (+/- 1,000 calories) and enjoy them.  It’s not failure, it’s having a sensible lifestyle.

4.  Find a support and accountability partner/group
I made a blog.  And then, I made a forum for everyone else to use.  If you’re not technically savvy, join one of those Biggest Loser groups at your office/gym, or just call your mom every other night to tell her how your weight loss is going.  The bottom line is that you want to let other people know how you’re doing in your journey — it’s easy to let ourselves down, but it’s a whole different story when others are counting on us.

5.  Make weight loss fun
You don’t need a gym membership.  I don’t know how I’d live without mine to Hampton Hill, but for some a gym just isn’t their cup of tea.  You can do a variety of things to burn calories:  chase your kids, play with your dogs, join an adult sports league, dance, swim, go bowling, etc.  The gym is convenient for many because it’s something that can be built into a routine — as long as you burn calories on a daily basis, you’ll be fine.

Do you have any tips for someone just starting their weight loss journey?

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