Step 7. Do it.

Be realistic. Every week isn't going to be a good/great week. Learn from it, and move on.

Be honest with yourself. I have been shocked when I actually looked up the nutrition facts on some of the foods I've eaten: "I knew it wouldn't be super healthy, but I sure wasn't expecting it to be THAT BAD." or "What do you mean it's an entire meal's worth of food?! Are you kidding me? I thought it was healthy!" And then there's the times: "Seriously, what I thought was a disaster choice wasn't?! Yippee!"

You HAVE to track what you eat. You HAVE to look up the nutrition facts. This is not negotiable. I say this because I have a friend who's "on weight watchers" except she doesn't know the points values for ANYTHING. She's just "watching what she eats" and "knowing that I'm on the plan makes me make better decisions." Except she's not losing weight. And doesn't know why. and doesn't listen when I say she should look up the values of what she eats. (I know the values of what I've seen her eat, or heard her tell me she's eaten. I'm so not surprised at all.) "Watching what you eat" DOES NOT WORK. Unless you actually know what you're eating, but she doesn't. There are days and weeks where I don't track as strictly as I should. However, because I have memorized the nutrition facts for my favorite foods, I still know how to make better decisions. But when I stop actually thinking (or caring) about what I eat, is when I gain 4 lbs in 4 days. (Yeah, it happened.)

I will say it again, WEIGHT LOSS IS A MARATHON AND NOT A SPRINT. Man, I know it's hard. We all want it to be a sprint. I definitely struggle with this. A healthy rate of weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week. I am in that range. When I get on the scale and I've lost a good number that week, I wonder to myself "If I hadn't had that cookie, would the number be higher?" That's terrible! Why do I think like that? Because I want to be super skinny NOW. I don't want to take a long time to get to the finish line. Yet, when I lose a small amount of weight for the week, I console myself by saying that the longer it takes me to lose the weight, the more likely the weight will be to stay off because it's more likely to have become a habit.

Is your weight-management plan livable? On days when I start thinking, "I can't wait until I'm done with weight watchers" are the days that I know I'm still in trouble. I cannot think of this as a diet. I will fail if I think I will be done with it. I need to be conscious of my nutrition for the rest of my life. When I gained 4 lbs in 4 days, I reverted back to the old me. I've been on the plan for 6 months, but it was that easy to go back to my old eating habits. :-(

I weigh myself every day. I know that "they" say you're not supposed to, but I do. Because I do "cheat" sometimes. Nutrition information for everything we eat isn't available. So I have to do some guesswork. I use the scale to inform my guesswork. If my weight is trending up for a few days, I stay stricter on the plan to get it back where it should be.

I don't like saying that weight loss is work. It takes effort and thought. It doesn't just take care of itself. But it is easy. Or at least, it can be easy. We decide whether it is hard or easy for us to lose weight. Yes, your body determines the rate of weight lost, but our psyche is what makes it hard for us to handle. We always want more, faster! While at the same time, we want our cake, and pizza too!