Please note I am not a doctor or an expert. I am like you, I struggle and need to lose weight (and I’ve lost 6.5 pounds so far). But if you are at that point where you are searching what do I do? What do I eat? How do I get started? Then you are at the right place. I understand how you feel, your mind is in a bad place, you feel terrible about yourself, you don’t know what to eat, you keep quitting on yourself, etc.

The first time I lost weight (late thirties) I started with fitness. I did this because I was depressed and I thought if I just did 10 – 30 minutes of cardio each day maybe it’ll help me overcome my depression. I started keeping a calendar and decided I’d do this for six months, to see where I was at in the end. I decided to start tracking my weight too. After a few weeks I started with changing my diet. This time I started with the diet then integrated the fitness. Which is harder to get started? I think the changing of how you eat, because you can start to add in fitness in small increments. Ten minutes isn’t much but after years of no exercise its enough to start with!

For my diet I start with using a calorie tracker, myfitnesspal is a good free one. The first week I start by tracking how I normally eat so I can see why I was gaining. Be honest with yourself, and enter everything. Its alarming to see how much you may be eating and what you are eating blindly. I find that by logging it helps me to realize and start to make adjustments. After a week of keeping track of what you eat then you can start to work on smaller portion sizes and start by setting a lower caloric goal. There are places you can get recommendations on this based on your height, age, and weight (myfitnesspal and calorie.net).

Its small steps but by taking these smalls steps, even if you don’t see a change in weight you will see a change in mindset. The change in mood and mindset will help motivate you to try different methods. When you first start you can eat what did before but in small portions, this is a great way to start because you won’t feel deprived.

Start with one small thing and add in something each week. I know it doesn’t seem fast enough, but there are things you need to keep in mind. This is a journey that grows with time. Just like you didn’t gain overnight you won’t lose overnight. I am a web designer, and I had to work to learn programming. For years I avoided it and focused on design and doing other aspects. I could read the code but writing it seemed like rocket science. In 2016, I said enough is a enough I am learning. I took a great course and in it the teacher said something that really resonated with me. He said people start to learn code and they don’t understand why they can’t write something amazing. But if you think about music, when you first learn you’d never expect to write a symphony.

This changed everything for me, I started to try to think of small ways to write code to into projects. I am still learning, always but I am amazed by how much this also applies to weight loss. We expect to learn and do things instantly and it doesn’t work that way. It takes time and requires the same sort of consistent effort. Its not easy because we associate food with rewards and sometimes fall off into the abyss of eating horribly. But this is worth it, you are worth it, if we slow down and try to enjoy the journey and cherish our victories no matter how small! Hard work and dedication builds a positive and happier mindset. You don’t need to be perfect you just need to try and be gentle with yourself.

I am a very logical and data based person so I love seeing the data. And it makes me happy recording things on a daily basis even if it isn’t always going how I want. The truth is I am taking action to do something positive instead of obsessing at the end of the day, that I am fat and need to do something tomorrow.

Take action in a positive way. You can do this, start with a small step and build.

What steps have you taken?