I don’t mean to be a stick in the mud but I think it’s important for someone to tell you the honest truth about losing weight. None of this 10 pounds in two weeks business! None of this eat everything you want and lose 60 pounds! It’s important to know what you’re in for when you start to make changes – this is not to discourage you,  this is so you are realistic and not disappointed when you begin your journey. If you know what’s ahead of you, you will be more likely to succeed. Brace yourselves, I have my school-marm uniform on.

1. You Will Feel Hungry.

The reality is, if you cutting calories to lose weight (and you need to) you will feel hungry.  Going from 2000 calories a day to 1500 -  your going to feel the difference. Unfortunately, you kinda gotta sit in your hunger and get through it. After a few weeks, you will get more used to the lower calorie diet and your stomach will shrink – but until then- YES YOU WILL BE HUNGRY. My advice: after dinner- water and decaf flavored tea!

2. You Will Have Good Days and Bad Days.

It’s a journey. There will be ups and downs. You have to accept that you will have bad days. I say this becuase the difference between the person who succeeds and the person who fails is these “bad days” . The person who succeeds has a bad day or meal and the next thing they put into their mouth is healthy- they keep on trucking. The person who has a bad day and believes they messed up ALL their attempts and simply “gives up on themselves” will not succeed. I always say to my clients-

” IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY! It’s in the past.

It will not effect the choices you make today – IF YOU DON”T LET IT!”

3. It Is A Lifestyle.

Once you lose weight you will NOT BE ABLE to go back to your old ways. In order to maintain your new healthy weight, you have to stick to the methods you used to lose it. This is THE REASON ‘diets’ don’t work. People restrict what they eat too much or cut out a food group completely and they can only follow and maintain this new way of eating for a certain period of time. As soon as they stop – HELLO WEIGHT! You have to find a way of healthy eating that you can sustain FOR LIFE.

4. It will be slow.

As much as I would love to promise you the world- I can not. Making healthy changes, ones that you can live with for life – will provide results, but they will be slow. We are talking about 1 to 2 pounds a week or every 10 days. At the beginning you may see a 2 pound loss every week- but know and accept that it does slow down as you get closer and closer to that goal weight. Remember -  slow and steady wins the race. Look at the weight loss as accumulated over time and not a day to day basis and you won’t make yourself crazy

5. You Have To Be Realistic About Your End Goal.

Pick a weight that is right for you NOW. Not 20 years ago. I think a big problem with people trying to lose weight and failing is that they decide they want to weight 10 or 15 pounds less then they really should. And this “weight they were in high school” is impossible to achieve because, well, they are no longer in high school! Their body, metabolism and activity levels have changed. If you set yourself a realistic goal and not a supermodel goal – you’re WAY MORE likely to actually succeed.

6. You Will Have To Say No.

As much as you read “You can have all you want!” You really can’t. Sure, you can have a treat here or there in moderation – but if you want to lose weight you have to suck it up, close your mouth and say NO. Even if it kills you inside to do it. Even if you are fighting with your brain every step of the way – you have to say No. And yes- it is NEVER EASY FOR ANYONE to say no to something they want – but you have to ask yourself what do you want more….diabetes or the cheesecake?

7. Working Out is Not a Get Out of Jail Free Pass

As a trainer I really only want to be able to say – workout and eat whatever you want! But the reality is, we don’t burn enough calories during a 30 minute workout to permit ourselves to eat more. If your trying to lose weight, it means you want to create a caloire deficit. Working out is a great way to create a 200 or 300 caloire deficit (it does not create a 700 caloire deficit unless you running a half marathon! – the numbers on your workout machines lie). Don’t go home after a workout and feel like you ‘deserve’ to eat the cake. No, you ‘deserve’ to lose weight! The cake should not be in the equation. Don’t make up for lost calories by eating more. You can eat your 30 minute efforts away in 15 seconds. LITERALLY!

Sounds fun doesn’t it? Losing weight is not a trip to the circus! It’s not fun. If it were fun and easy we would all do it. I think the important thing to remember is :

a) It gets easier. Yes, at first you will feel hungry, yes you will not want to say no. But after a while you will start to WANT to say no. Sounds crazy, but a switch will go off in your brain and  you will start to love, live and breath your new lifestyle. Yup you still may have the odd hard day – but you will have WAY more easy days then hard ones.