Over the last four months I've learned some valuable lessons regarding weight loss and healthy living. I want to share my top five tips with you!
1. Eat - 
this may sound like a no-brainer, it is very important. Food is not our enemy, far from it. Food is fuel that we need for our bodies to function. The important thing is to provide your body with the right types and amounts of food. Frequently when people are trying to lose weight they decrease the amount of food that they are eating but sometimes this can be the opposite of what we need to do. Personally, I was eating too little and I slowed my metabolism down. When I did eat, most of the food was high in fat and calories, a terrible mix. Now, I am eating much more food - I grace and eat about 5 meals a day and I have been losing weight consistently. Be sure to eat enough! Food is our friend, we just have to make the right choices.
this may sound like a no-brainer, it is very important. Food is not our enemy, far from it. Food is fuel that we need for our bodies to function. The important thing is to provide your body with the right types and amounts of food. Frequently when people are trying to lose weight they decrease the amount of food that they are eating but sometimes this can be the opposite of what we need to do. Personally, I was eating too little and I slowed my metabolism down. When I did eat, most of the food was high in fat and calories, a terrible mix. Now, I am eating much more food - I grace and eat about 5 meals a day and I have been losing weight consistently. Be sure to eat enough! Food is our friend, we just have to make the right choices. 2. Exercise 
For many busy women, finding the time to fit in exercise is extremely difficult. Many of us do not have one full hour to devote to exercise but you can still get exercise in. As a mom with a toddler at home I have to get the exercise in when I can. I utilize nap times and sometimes late evenings to exercise. I've found that by doing 20 minutes of exercise at a time I am able to move my body almost every day. If you don't have 20 minutes do three 10 minute sessions throughout the day. Your body will thank you for it!
For many busy women, finding the time to fit in exercise is extremely difficult. Many of us do not have one full hour to devote to exercise but you can still get exercise in. As a mom with a toddler at home I have to get the exercise in when I can. I utilize nap times and sometimes late evenings to exercise. I've found that by doing 20 minutes of exercise at a time I am able to move my body almost every day. If you don't have 20 minutes do three 10 minute sessions throughout the day. Your body will thank you for it! 3. Journal
Write down the food and/or exercise that you do on a daily basis. I know what you may be thinking "uh oh, here goes another fanatic trying to convince me to log food" but just listen. It took me awhile to get to the place where I could log all of my food but I've found it to be tremendously helpful. I use an online tool, Sparkpeople.com that helps me assess if I've met not only my caloric goals but my nutritional goals too. This is an invaluable resource for me because I am better equippe to make good food choices without need to actually "count" calories. With practice I've been able to determine the foods that I can eat.Perhaps you aren't convinced and that is okay, you might want to just journal your exercise. That is where I started and it helped me keep track of my activity level. When you are ready to journal regarding food, perhaps rather than track what you are eating, you can write down how you feel before and after you eat. This awareness can help you determine if you are mindlessly eating, emotional or stress eating and in the long run I think you will learn a great deal from this exercise.
4. Celebrate - Be sure to celebrate your victories. Too often when we are on a journey to healthy living we wait until we reach our final goals to celebrate. I believe in setting up mini-goals along the way. Every pound loss is a victory in my book and when I go down a size I treat myself with a new pair of jeans. Other ideas are manicure, pedicure, massage, you are working hard and deserve to reward yourself!
5. Remember - We all have setbacks. Whatever your idea of the "perfect" way to lose weight entails, understand that at some point you will fall short of your ideal. Perhaps you won't meet your exercise goals for a day/week/month or maybe you will overindulge over a weekend or for a week. This happens to EVERYONE! The important thing to do, no matter what, is to get back up, dust yourself off and move forward. Don't let your hard work go to waste because of a slip-up. Move Forward!
That's it. My five tips for weight loss. I hope that they are as helpful for you as they are for me. And I'd love to hear your tips, be sure to leave a comment with your suggestions!
