There are a lot of different things a person can do to achieve weight loss, or fitness success.  At the most basic level, all that’s required is diet, and exercise.  Sounds easy, right?  So why then, for so many, is achieving fitness goals such a difficult task?

The answer is that it takes more than just diet and exercise.  They are the back bone, the cornerstone of any successful plan, but there are other factors which play an enormous role in each person’s success or failure at achieving their goals, and one factor in particular which matters more than all the others.  Consistency.  This is perhaps the single most important thing any person can do to achieve weight loss success.  CONSISTENCY, CONSISTENY, CONSISTENCY!  Have you ever asked someone about the top three most important things for business success, and heard them say “location, location, and location!”  Well, for weight loss success, it’s “consistency, consistency, and consistency!”  It’s not enough to take responsibility for yourself, and to find our why you eat, and then choose a plan of attack, you must be consistent. People who are unsuccessful at losing weight try several different things over the course of the year, always looking for the “right” or “best” or “fastest” way to lose the weight, and always changing their plan of attack.  People who are thin and healthy consistently do the same thing, and follow the same plan, day in and day out for years.

This point is SO important.  It’s small changes in the wrong  direction…an accumulation of bad habits over the years that lead to weight gain for most people.  You don’t just wake up one day over weight, and you won’t just wake up one day and have the body you want.  But the good news is, the process CAN be reversed in the exact same way it was created!  By making small changes in your life, in the right direction…by accumulating good habits, and practicing them every day, you WILL make progress every day.

The important thing here is not to get discouraged…to be consistent with your plan.  This means if you go out to eat one night, and have WAY too many calories, cocktails, or whatever, DO NOT ADJUST FOR IT THE NEXT DAY.  Yesterday is gone, and what you need to do is just resume your normal, daily routine, get back on the path you have chosen.  By altering your path further, and making more changes to eat less, or exercise more the day after you eat too much or miss a workout, you will be falling even further from the path of consistency.  When fit, healthy people over indulge one day, they simply resume their normal way of eating the next day.  They don’t punish, or starve themselves.  Everything returns to normal.  Consistency is the rule.  Are you beginning to see what I’m talking about?

It’s so important to choose a path, but even more important to STAY ON IT!  Remember, it’s the accumulation of good and healthy habits that produce weight loss success, and the only way to accumulate anything in life is to BE CONSISTENT!

-JS