Starting a weight-loss journey can feel daunting. Fortunately, we’re here to help. Whether you’re approaching it the old-fashioned way or using medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, or semaglutide to help, understanding how to properly begin the process of losing weight is essential to ensuring success.

There are a few simple strategies you can follow to make the most out of your weight loss plan. By doing these, you’re more likely to stick to your goals and find consistent motivation. Studies have found that mentally prepping yourself to build a healthier lifestyle is the key to both losing weight and maintaining your goal weight.

If you’re about to take on weight loss, try implementing the following tips into your daily life.

Set Goals and Expectations

The first step is creating realistic goals and setting expectations for yourself. Many people want to shed as much weight as they can as quickly as possible, but this often isn’t realistic and can actually make sustainable weight loss harder in the long run.

Weight loss is a gradual process that takes time, sometimes months or years. It’s vital to understand this before starting so you don’t get frustrated with your progress and give up before you meet your goals. Healthy weight loss typically means losing one or two pounds per week, but some people may start smaller with one to two pounds per month. Talk to your doctor to determine what a healthy, reasonable amount of weight loss looks like for you.

Create Healthier Habits

Incorporating healthier habits into your daily routine is one of the most important elements of weight loss. However, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, so aim to slowly replace bad habits with good ones.

Before you can begin leaving old bad habits behind, you must identify what they are. Are you a couch potato who enjoys late-night junk food? Do you have a tendency to consume high-calorie drinks like soda right before bed? Do you often drive short distances instead of opting to walk? By finding the places in your life where you may skimp on health, you can begin to change them.

For example, first, you can try switching unhealthy, processed snacks with options like fruit or nuts. You could then work on adding 30 to 60 minutes of exercise and physical activity to your routine. Other healthy habits to incorporate can include taking the stairs instead of the elevator, cutting back on alcohol consumption, or using nightly television time to stretch and do light exercises.

Think Positive Thoughts

Having a positive mindset is a crucial part of any successful weight-loss journey. You can find motivation by following people on social media who are on similar paths, creating a vision board of healthy habits, or writing down your intentions.

Picturing yourself at your goal weight can also help make losing weight a more concrete action with a clear result in mind. Visualize how you’ll look and feel when you reach your ideal size. If you have pictures of yourself at a more ideal weight, you can keep them in a place where you’ll see them often to remind yourself what you’re working toward.

Keep a Journal

Tracking your actions helps make your journey easier to follow. It’s a valuable tool that can assist you in staying accountable and motivated as well as track your progress over time.

Some important things to include in your weight-loss journal include your food and calorie intake, your exercise routine, your weight, your evolving goals, and your emotions. Seeing the improvements in your health and mood can directly benefit your desire to continue working toward your goal weight.

Seeing your progress written down also helps to identify any places where you may feel as though you are lacking, such as if you begin working out less or stress eating high-calorie foods.

Find Your Support System

There are many ways to receive support while you lose weight, and finding people who will encourage you on your journey can help you stay inspired and on track.

Whether you reach out to friends, family, or your healthcare professionals to let them know about your plan or you join a regular fitness class or group activity, studies have found that tackling weight loss with others yields more success than attempting it alone. If you’d like to keep your weight loss journey private from people in your life, you can seek out online support groups.

Reward Yourself

When you reach a goal, rewarding yourself can help you stay motivated to keep going. Find non-food rewards, such as treating yourself to a spa day, going to see a movie, planning a night out with friends, or buying that new item you’ve been eyeing.

Celebrating your accomplishments doesn’t just help you stay on track–it also benefits your mental health, which in turn can aid your mood and weight-loss journey overall. Sustained weight loss can be tough, so congratulate yourself every time you reach a milestone!

By starting off strong in your weight-loss plan with the above tips, you’re sure to find success and reach your goals. Remember not to get discouraged–good things usually don’t come overnight, but the benefits and how good you’ll feel will be well worth the effort.