Goal setting for weight-loss success!

Firstly never set a goal to lose weight. Yes you may want this and it's fine to follow a programme to do this, but don't let this be your main goal....trust me! Real weight-loss and not just a quick fix, but something you wish to maintain takes time, but if you focus on being healthy the rest will naturally follow! Of course you can lose weight really quickly following the right diet and exercise regime but if once it's completed you put it all back on it's pointless. 

Your 1st goal should always be to re-educate yourself. Knowing how to read food labels, which foods will keep you feeling fuller for longer and so on will make you much more likely to succeed permanently. 

Now set specific goals that are achievable but will help your individual needs for e.g if you struggle to stay off the sweet treats then your goal would be to research and learn some healthy sweet recipes that you enjoy. 

One of my goals is to try something new every week. The reason for this is I'm really fussy however I know it's important to eat a variety of foods for results and health. Making this a perfect goal for me which allows me to slowly increase my palette of food which eventually will make it easier for me to eat healthy which equals a fitter me. Happy days!

Write a list of your weaknesses and set yourself a challenge based on where you struggle. 

My goals are to tone up my rear and get some definition in my arms and lower stomach. I'll be posting soon how I plan to do this with setting specific goals to help me succeed. 

Facing reality....

Some people all their life have struggled with their weight and others like myself got away with eating junk, never touching a vegetable, drinking excess amounts of alcohol and never having to exercise and staying skinny. The silly thing is for me I never actually appreciated at the time that I was pretty perfect and was still unhappy with the way I looked. I now believe that this is a very important lesson to learn before going on any health kick......will you know if you actually look good? If not then really what is the point if your still unhappy. People lose weight all the time and don't see it so I think it's important to learn to be contented, but also I always recommend taking some photographic evidence so you can visually see your results.

Me on holiday in Tenerife when I was 21 and stupidly thought I needed to lose weight!!

I use to blame the fact I'm now a mum on why I find it harder to maintain my size, but actually this is just an excuse that can go on for far too long as to why your not back into shape. For me it was never because I became a mum but it took me a while to be honest about this. Yes stretch marks came when I was pregnant but extra weight gain definitely not. I tried to convince myself it was, but actually I was quite poorly in pregnancy and lost a stone and eventually at the end put back on another 3 stone so ended up just 2 stone heavier than what I was originally. The 1^st stone came off more a less as soon as Peta was born and the extra stone gradually over the first 6 months. However when Peta was 15 months I was my biggest yet and the blame for my weight was still having a baby, well since I'd already lost that weight once and the 1^st stone was nearly all baby and considering her age well it quite simply was just an excuse to make myself feel better for not taking proper care of myself.  It was only when I looked back on photos of myself at 6 months that I realised this and owned up to the fact I was making excuses for myself. The reality is you can get away with a lot more when your younger without it visually showing, but it will catch up with you evenually.

Luckily I was still just classed as having a healthy BMI (a lb more and I was classed as overweight) but this is about the time I realised I needed to start appreciating I'm not 19 anymore and actually I can't live on sh*t without exercise and still be healthy size. If I continued I would in fact keep putting on weight and feeling rough from lack of nutrition. This was at this time I starting improving my fitness and looking at my diet. The first step in succeeding is owning up to any excuses. Do you ever blame time, money or having a baby for not being in shape? Don't get me wrong I don't believe in pressuring yourself within a certain time frame to be back in shape but if like me after a year your still not back where you want to be it's time to face reality. Yes there are plenty of factors that make it difficult, nothing in life you really want comes easy but work hard and evenually you earn your results.