Make Small Changes Over Time to Achieve Lasting Weight Loss

When you want to lose weight quickly, you may be tempted to make big changes to your diet to achieve your goal. While this can work in some cases, it also comes with negative effects. When you make major alterations to your diet that will allow quick success in losing weight, these changes are typically ones you can’t (or won’t want to) maintain over the long term. The result is quick weight loss, followed by weight gain – and sometimes you end up gaining even more than what you lost. This is how yo-yo dieting begins, and while it is obviously hard on your body, it can also wreak havoc on your self-esteem. To lose weight and actually keep it off, you will need to make a complete lifestyle change that can be maintained over the long term. The idea of this can seem overwhelming, however, and this can often prevent you from ever starting the new plan. Read on to learn how to slowly implement changes into your diet to change your habits over time, allowing you a slow and steady weight loss that you can actually maintain.

If you accept the fact that weight loss will be slow in the beginning, and know that you are making a commitment to change for the long term, you won’t be as likely to give up after a week of dieting. Instead, you will have a plan to lose the weight slowly with just minor changes to your diet that evolve over time. Ultimately, you will have an overall healthier diet and achieve your goal weight, but it won’t feel like a diet. Instead, it will simply become your way of eating every day, making it easy to maintain. Yes, it is a slow process – but with each change you make to your diet, you will feel better, look better, build your willpower, and get one step closer to achieving your goal.The Smallest Changes can Have the Biggest ImpactIn the beginning, pick one thing that you typically have a hard time resisting – whether it’s a morning cup of cappuccino, a nighttime snack, donuts at work, etc. You don’t have to completely eliminate these splurges, you simply have to find a replacement. If you have an obsession with chocolate, find great low carb, low calorie brownies to keep on hand at all times. Don’t even buy the full-calorie versions. The same goes for almost any type of snack foods, such as popcorn or chips. If you find replacements you like, the change will be simple for you. If not, however, keep in mind that after a few weeks of not tasting the originals, you won’t notice the difference anymore and you will likely develop a taste for the new food or drink. Another small change that can make a big difference is adding in more types of healthy foods that keep you full longer. High fiber foods, leafy green vegetables, and lean protein should all be increased in the diet over time.

Slowly Add New Changes

Each small change that you make to your diet will become a habit after a few weeks. When you no longer debate which type of muffins to buy, or which type of sodas to drink, or debate with yourself over whatever your change was, then you know it is just part of your routine. That’s when you can begin to implement additional changes to your diet to lose weight. Pick another weakness and address it, all the while maintaining your original change. One great change to make at any point during the process is to increase water intake. You can do this slowly as well, by making yourself drink one more glass of water a day for a week, then add another the next week, etc.

Typically, the idea of making a complete overhaul to our daily diet is so scary that we end up trying to lose weight in a different way. But as most of us have seen, that only works for a short amount of time. Committing and taking lifestyle changes one step at a time can ultimately result in the weight loss and the healthier you that you have been searching for!