Weight Loss: It Begins With A Goal And Ends With A Complete Notebook

By Author: Bruce Tucker
Total Articles: 174
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It seems like everywhere you go or anytime you turn on your television set, someone is either talking about, weight, talking about weight loss, talking about exercise or fitness, or you see someone trying to sell you some type of weight loss program or fitness product.

The fact is everyone has the ability to lose weight just as they are. Sure it might be harder on some more so than others. Many factors lead to this. It could be your lifestyle, maybe it is fast paced, a bit more hectic or it could be genetic which requires you to work a bit more harder at what I am about to tell you. There are a variety of reasons why some people can lose weight faster than others, but keep this in mind, you are not trying to lose weight faster than someone else, you are just trying to lose weight period!

The first thing is to buy yourself a one subject, wired rules notebook. You can pick these up anywhere for about a quarter. This will be your lifeline in your weight loss program. In this notebook, as you are about to see, you are going to write down everything. You are going to write down the weight you want to get down ...
... to, the weight where you are now, the foods you consume each day and the foods you were supposed to consume that day. This notebook will serve as your means of accountability. Only you can write in your notebook. Therefore anything you write in there is of your own doing. For example, if you eat a donut and never put it in there, who are you really fooling? Only yourself.

Now that you have your notebook, keep in mind each page represents a single day. By the time you fill in your notebook completely you will have lose the weight you set out to lose. When you begin your day you mark down the date at the top of the page. Next to the date on the same line, write in your goal weight. By writing your goal weight everyday it keeps reminding you as to where you are trying to get. Next to your goal weight enter in your current weight. Do not get discouraged if your weight fluctuates (goes up and down) on a daily basis. This is very common. So as long as the weight is lower then it was 14 days prior, you are in great shape.

Skip a line and start writing out your meal plan. You will create four columns. In the first column you will write meal 1, meal 2, meal 3, etc. up through meal 6. You are now going to consume six meals each and every day. In other words you will eat one meal every two and a half to three hours. In column two you are going to write in the meals you are GOING to eat for that day. I try to write this out seven days in advance. Makes it easier and I can better prepare my meals and shopping list for a week at a time. In the third column is where you are going to write in what you ACTUALLY ate. For example, say breakfast was supposed to be three egg whites with mushrooms and ¼ cup of oatmeal, but instead you had a 3 egg spinach omelet, then you will write into column three the 3 egg spinach omelet.

That is how you will keep track of your meal plan. Skip another line and make notes of physical activity that you have performed for the day. If you work out with weights write it here. If you walk the dog or go for a bike ride, put it in here. Make note of the distance, time or other measurable notation so you know exactly how much you did.

Finally on this page you will write in a notes section underneath your physical activity section. In your notes you can write as to why your meals differ, why you may have missed a meal and so on. What you are trying to do is a keep a journal of information so that you can better prepare yourself for the days ahead. For example, lets say on Tuesdays you always seem to miss the 4th meal due to a meeting a work. Because you have been writing this down, you can refer back to it and plan accordingly. Also write down how you are feeling for that day. Studies have shown that your mood is a reflection of what you eat. You notice on certain days you feel really good, but on others you may feel a bit down, take a look at what you did on those up days, and make changes on your down days accordingly.

Setting goals for weight loss is a very important step in the weight loss process, but just as important is writing everything down so you have a physical account of what you are doing and what you are about to do. Just remember before you start any type of physical activity, weight loss program or nutritional diet, you consult with your primary care physician to get a complete physical.
About the Author:
Mr. Tucker is a regular contributor on Bukisa, an online community for writers that pay you for your articles. You can also follow him on Twitter.