Weight Loss Tips for Women: Creating Your Action Plan for Weight Loss Success

When you’re attempting to lose weight, a Success Action Plan or Lifestyle Plan is absolutely essential. At least it is if you want to avoid joining the staggering 90-95% of people (many of them women) who embark on a diet only to end up putting back on all the weight they lost, and often more.

This high failure rate amongst dieters can almost always be attributed to either not having any kind of plan to keep them on track, or having a vague plan that focuses solely on the diet, without addressing the many other important factors in weight loss and weight gain.

According to the well-known saying, “those who fail to plan, plan to fail”. And in my experience working in health promotion and specialising in behaviour change for the best part of the last twenty years, I’ve found that it’s true. If you’re really serious about losing weight and keeping it off for good, then it’s worth taking the time to make a sound plan to ensure your success.

As the name suggests, your Lifestyle Plan considers your individual lifestyle. It’s also more focused on incorporating realistic achievements into your schedule, rather than simply relying on superficial quick fixes which often lead to only short-term gains. Just as important, your Lifestyle Plan takes into account the multi-dimensional nature of losing weight and will therefore increase your chances of success.

Once you’ve evaluated where you currently are, against where you’d like to be, you should, of course set yourself SMART goals along with a step by step plan of how you will arrive at your destination. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed and form the foundation of your Lifestyle Plan. You should have long and short-term goals and your plan can address different aspects to suit you such as food, activity, stress management, relaxation, fun, and support, strategies for motivation or dealing with cravings, celebration and reward and so on. NB. These are just suggestions; the main thing is to keep it simple, personal and SMART.

Your Lifestyle plan provides structure and gives you a framework for success. It also helps you to introduce new healthy habits which each have positive physical and psychological health benefits. Your new healthy habits become your new focus, keep you busy and replace previous unhealthy or negative habits that contributed to your weight in the first place. All in all a recipe for success.

About Author: Linda Stewart, the Healthy Living Coach, is a Women’s Coach, Reiki Practitioner, Healthy Living Expert and founder of The Healthy Living Club. Linda empowers busy, health-conscious women across the globe with her simple, transformational, systems, strategies and support that will inspire and motivate you to lose weight, love your body and transform your life. You can grab a free copy of Linda’s latest weight loss report for women “5 Essential Steps to Losing Weight and Keeping It Off” at http://www.freeweightlosstipsforwomen.com

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