Planning…planning…planning! An important first step to being healthy and losing weight is to plan. Whether you are talking about eating healthy or starting an exercise routine, you will not succeed without making a plan and sticking to it!

This is where you will have to do a little bit of work. You have to look at your day, your life, your schedule and decide when you can prepare and eat your mini meals. You have to look at your day and decide when you can get your body moving. I’m telling you it will be worth it. You will not regret it. Remember in order to change your life you have to DO something different. Just going along doing the same thing day in and day out will never get you a different outcome.

An easy way to make sure you do not overeat is to measure out serving sizes and store them in plastic bags or containers, ready to go when you’re hungry. Make a quality decision to think smaller.  Sometimes it takes visual cues to get our minds and bodies to cooperate with our spirits.

Another recommendation that I often give people, is to keep a healthy snack and water in the car for the ride home from work or school in the afternoon. That way, when you get home, you are less likely to give into emotional eating at the end of a stressful day. Let’s face it, if we are really stressed or hungry we have both emotions and low blood sugar levels working against us. Even the greatest of intentions can succumb to the temptation to overeat at the end of the day. Take the offensive approach and do not allow yourself to face the evening hours on an empty stomach. Smart eating is one key to successful weight loss.