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1. Weight loss, specifically fat loss, is a process that requires
patience, perseverance, self-efficacy, and determination.
It's more than exercise and nutrition programming; it's
also behavioral and mental. Sometimes there are other
changes outside of the gym that you have to make. It
could be your attitudes and perceptions of exercise and
nutrition or of your ability to lose weight. It could be
triggers in your environment that is causing you to veer off
course too often. Maybe it's that you don't know the
quality of the calories or ingredients that you're
consuming and how it is affecting your weight loss goals.
The following tips are tools to help you reach your weight
loss destination.

2. 1. Keep track of your calories; not only how many calories
you're consuming, but also the quality of the calories that
you're consuming. A candy bar that's 250 calories is not as
nutritious as a 250 calorie chicken wrap.

3. 2. Keep a food journal. Record what foods you
eat, calories consumed, time the meal was eaten, and how
you felt before and after eating. This gives you a visual
about what you're consuming day-to-day. Also, record
your exercise activities and caloric expenditure. Weight
loss occurs when calories expended are greater than
calories consumed per day so this helps you to see if
you're doing just that. Record how you felt or what you
were thinking before and after exercise as well. Seeing this
helps you to realize if you perceive exercise and nutrition
in a negative or positive light. If you view them as
negative, it may help to check why or talk to a personal
trainer who is skilled in lifestyle management counseling.

4. 3. Make exercise a priority. We are all busy, but yet we
make time for things that we really want to do. You have
to do the same thing for exercise sessions. Plan to exercise
by making time for it in your schedule. If you still feel you
don't have enough time, check your daily activities. Are
there times when you're sitting on the couch for an hour
watching television? Do you have at least 3-10 minute
breaks throughout the day? These are both opportunities
to get in thirty minutes of exercise!

5. 4. Set short-term and long-term goals. You have to have a
road map to success. You have to have a purpose of going
to the gym or participating in boot camps. You can't just
say, "I want to lose weight." How many pounds do you
want to lose? By what month and day? How much body
fat do you want to lose in a year? You must be specific and
realistic. Write your goals down, repeat them every day,
sign your name to them and put them in a place you
frequent the most (i.e., your cubicle at work, refrigerator
door).

6. 5. Control sugar cravings by consuming 5-6 meals
consisting of low-glycemic foods per day. When you skip
meals, your body thinks it's starving and calls for
immediate energy. This triggers cravings for
candies, cookies, energy bars, pretzels, and other high-
sugar foods. These foods are high in calories and low on
nutritional value, and they trigger you to eat more of
those unhealthy foods. If you must have dessert, eat it
after you eat your meal so that you'll be less likely to over-
indulge. Another option would be to find recipes that use
fruit, nuts, and other healthier, low-calorie foods to make
dessert.

7. 6. Develop patience. It takes time to lose weight.
Sometimes you may not drop to your goal weight, but you
may drop body fat and gain muscle. Your weight may not
change because of this, but you're healthier. When you
reach your weight loss goals, you'll appreciate it that much
more.

8. 7. Don't be so hard on yourself. You will get off track
sometimes. You still have a life to live that's full of ups and
downs. It helps in many cases to have a relapse plan.
When you get off track, how are you going to get back to
exercising 5 days per week or eating 5-6 meals per day?
What if you have a candy bar or indulged in a healthy
serving of potato chips? That's okay. Consider it a slip-up
and move on. It's perfectly fine to have one treat per week
to keep yourself sane and to reward yourself. Smile and
enjoy this weight loss journey.

9. 8. Educate and empower yourself. The more you know
about yourself, the better you can help yourself become a
healthier person. If you have hypertension, research how
to lessen the risk of it, besides taking medication (and
those medications don't always work). Learn about the
underlying causes of hypertension and what you can do to
control it more effectively. Also, you must understand how
severe the condition may become in the long-term.
Sometimes these facts are motivators to want to lead a
healthier lifestyle.

10. 9. Develop a fitness vision. Think about the person you are
now-how you perceive yourself and how healthy you feel.
Then think about the person you want to become, the
body you want to have, the clothes you want to wear, how
healthy you feel and how you feel about yourself. Go to a
quiet place to close your eyes and visualize these
situations. Remember how you feel when envisioning
both situations. Write these things down and review them
periodically. When you reach your fitness vision, reward
yourself with a vacation, spa day, or outfit and create a
new one. Think about how you would feel if you gained all
the weight you lost back or how much energy you have
when you're playing with your children or grandchildren.

11. 10. Sleep!!!! You need at least 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
Lack of sleep creates an imbalance between the hormones
leptin and ghrelin which controls your appetite. Your body
suppresses leptin, the hormone that tells you to stop
eating, and increases ghrelin, which tells you you're
hungry and triggers you to eat more. Growth hormone
levels are also highest during sleep. Growth hormone is a
powerful fat-burning hormone and plays a major role in
weight loss. So, beauty sleep is important in the weight
loss process!

12. 11. Last, but not least, love yourself regardless. Yes, you
may want to change the number on the scales or the size
of the clothes you want to wear. But, if you don't love
yourself unconditionally, you'll never be happy with
anything that you do. Make yourself happy and love
yourself first, and you will attract positive people and
situations. If you have any negativity around you, let it go.
That's a stressor that no one needs.

13. Weight loss success is a journey that requires
perseverance, determination, discipline, and hard-work.
It's possible to do, however. Restructuring how you
think, what you think about, and how you handle stress
and emotions play a huge part in this process. Evaluate
your attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs about exercise and
nutrition, restructure the negative and keep the positive.
One day, you will make it to destination: beach body.

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