Healthy Weight for Life: The 5 stages of lifestyle change
Michael Hallinan

So youre determined youre going to do something about your weight. But what? Losing weight is not in itself a behavior. Releasing fat pounds is an outcome of many behaviors that add up to consuming more calories than your expending. (Yes, theres a genetic component too, but you cant change that.)

The good thing is that this gives you lots of places to start moving toward your goal of losing weight. The challenge is sorting through them all and finding what will work best for you. So heres the question: What are you most ready to change?

Behavioral researchers have identified five stages in behavior change:

1. Precontemplation: Youre not even considering it. No way youre gonna give up your pizza and beer. Gym-going is not for you. Why walk when you can ride?

2. Contemplation: Well, maybe you could live without pizza and beer *every* week. Gym is out, but you always liked swimming, maybe a pool. The walk in the park with your friend was pleasant last weekend, maybe you could do it again.

3. Preparation: Next week youre going to skip that pizza. You found out the local Y has a pool and their family rates are affordable. You talked to your friend about doing more walks sometime.

4. Action: Two weeks and no pizza. You joined the Y and youve swum laps there a couple times. You and your friend have gone walking the past three Saturday mornings.

5. Maintenance: The weekly pizza has been a thing of the past for six months. Swimming is so much a part of your daily routine that you dont feel right if you skip it. Those Saturday walks are dont-miss tradition.

In fact, this readiness to change model is behavior-specific. That is, you might be in the action stage with the pizza but still in precontemplation on that exercise stuff. Youre not likely to be very successful if you flog yourself for not swimming laps every day, what you want to do is move yourself to the next stage: List the pros and cons of regular exercise and guess what, youre thinking about it and that means contemplation.

So think about the behaviors you can change to lose weight. What stage are you in for each of those behaviors? In each case, what can you do to move yourself to the next stage? What are you most ready to change.

We explore readiness to change in my free teleclass, The Real Skinny on Weight Loss: Dont Diet, Do It. You can get details and register at www.teleclassinternational.com/catalog.phtml?keywords=MH-RS

About the Author

Michael Hallinan overcame a lifelong obesity, and the midlife discovery of health and fitness so changed his life that he established a coaching practice specializing in helping others find their own healthy way to a healthy weight. For more helpful tips, subscribe to the Healthy Weight Newsletter. For past issues and to subscribe see
www.healthyweightcoaching.com/Ezine.htm

Tags: Action Stage, Author, Behavior Change, Behavioral Researchers, Calories, Contemplation, Couple Times, Daily Routine, Exercise, Genetic Component, lifelong obesity, Lifestyle Change, Losing Weight, Maintenance, Michael Hallinan, Pizza, Pool, Saturday Mornings, Six Months, Swimming Laps, Tradition, Walk In The Park, Walks, www.healthyweightcoaching.com/Ezine.htm, www.teleclassinternational.com/catalog.phtml?keywords=MH-RS —

If you really want to lose belly fat you need to get something through your head, you cannot possibly lose weight in only one area of your body. You can exercise til you are blue in the face and eat healthy and you will lose weight all over, not just in one area.

You can concentrate different exercises to the area of your belly and these exercises will help tone the area more than other areas so it may look like you can just lose belly fat but that is not the case. Weight comes off from every where because it is everywhere. You did not just put the weight on around your belly and no where else, you put it on all over.

Start with easy walks around the block then build up to more intense walking. When you get good at that, walk with weights around your ankles and wrists. If your joints bother you, do your walking in a pool. The water will take the load off of your joints and give you some resistance, too.

I read in a magazine about these four women who walked off a lot of weight, one of them walked off 250 pounds in two and a half years. It is possible to walk off any amount of extra weight that you are carrying.

There are those who will tell you walking is the best exercise you can do, I tend to agree. There are others who will tell you that intense workouts are the best, and maybe they have a point but I would rather walk than try to do something I wasn’t sure of and end up hurting myself.

I do have bad knees so I am doing my walking in a pool. I just started but last week and with diet as part of this whole regimen, I lost four pounds. Now, I’m not going to lose four pounds every week but to start off, that is pretty normal.

In a couple of weeks when I am stronger I will probably get on the stationary bike for twenty to thirty minutes before I walk in the pool for twenty to thirty minutes. That would be a nice hour long workout and then I can treat myself to ten minutes in the hot tub to keep things loose.

Losing weight may take a while if you have a lot to lose but I keep saying it doesn’t have to be difficult. Human beings are inherently lazy and that is the main reason that pretty much everywhere you look you see someone who is overweight. I am not saying that people do not work hard for what they have it is just that the things that used to help us stay fit and trim have today become motorized or roboticized or can be run by remote control.

Have you seen the new automatic vacuum? There is a round one that has been around for a long time but there is a new one one the market that has it’s own navigation system and can tell where it has been. I am thinking about getting one, how pathetic is that?

I think we all deserve to be fat if we cannot even get off our butts to vacuum every couple of days. We make things easier for ourselves but that doesn’t mean we make things better for ourselves and when you want to lose belly fat better is easier.

Tags: Ankles, Bad Knees, Best Exercise, Blue In The Face, Case Weight, Diet, Exercises, Four Women, Healthy Diet, Hot Tub, Intense Workouts, Joints, Losing Weight, Pool, Regimen, Resistance, Stationary Bike, Two And A Half Years, Walks, Weights, Workout —

If motivation for how to lose stomach fat was easy, no one would be overweight in our country. We would all be the ideal weight and pictures of fitness. In order for you to get and keep your motivation there are some tips you can follow.

Ultimately though, it’s up to you to figure out what things will not only help you get motivated, but to keep that motivation intact. Of course, everyone knows of the dire consequences associated with having too much body fat and living a sedentary lifestyle. It is one of those things though that until (or unless) it happens to you or someone you love, you just stay complacent and think that it will never happen to you.

Of course, it can and will if you don’t take control now. There are a few aspects to losing weight, such as eating better foods, less junk, and getting a lot of exercise. Believe it or not, for many people the motivation to lose weight will often start with working out.

I know that may sound ridiculous, but if you get past the idea that exercising is just jumping in the car and going to the gym, you may begin to understand what I mean about how to lose stomach fat.

For instance, if you enjoy dancing think how much fun you’d have going to a dancing class. What you might not realize is that that is a great way to lose weight, too.

If you enjoy getting outside, it is so easy to get some exercise by riding your bike, or just taking your dog for a walk. When you realize that exercise doesn’t have to be a chore, but rather some form of physical activity that you can actually enjoy you will see that the motivation may not be so hard to come by.

Another great way to get and keep your motivation is to find a friend to exercise with. It can be as simple as the two of you taking a class together, joining a gym, or just going for walks, having a buddy can make all the difference. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone.

There are a few reasons for this. One of them is that you will feel a certain amount of peer pressure when you start working out with a friend. You don’t want to let your friend down, you know they’re counting on you. By including your friend in your workout plans you’ll also be making it more of a social event rather than an ‘exercise’ session. No one wants to miss out on a chance to socialize!

One thing you don’t want to do is put yourself under a lot of pressure by setting up an unrealistic time frame. Don’t wait until a few weeks before a wedding, or vacation. If you do, you will just be setting yourself up for failure. It will be virtually impossible for you to meet your goal and once the event comes and goes you will probably be done working out. Instead just make a commitment to yourself to get healthy, that is the best way on how to lose stomach fat.

Tags: Amoun, Body Fat, Consequences, Dancing Class, Easy Exercise, Eating Habits, Exercise Bike, Find A Friend, Find Friend, Fitness, Fun, How To Lose Stomach, How To Lose Stomach Fat, Ideal Weight, Joining A Gym, Losing Weight, Many People, Motivation To Lose Weight, Physical Activity, Sedentary Lifestyle, Walks —

If you want advice on belly fat loss exercise, I say to you just get moving. Any way you can, walking, running, biking, hiking. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you keep doing it. Mix it up and try different things like swimming or boxing. Swimming and boxing are both great ways to lose fat quickly, especially the belly fat.

Great cardiovascular workouts, swimming and boxing will definitely make you feel like you have done something good for yourself. But you may want to start out a little slower right off the bat.

There are a lot of ways to get quick belly fat lose exercise. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle and are really out of shape, the way you should start is to walk. You might not think that walking would give you a good work out but if you are out of shape you will know you are working hard aboout ten minutes into your first walk. You may even feel some soreness the next day.

The best way to combat the soreness is to just get back out there and do the same thing that made you sore to begin with. If you ever played on a team back in high school you remember what it was like after the long summer off. Getting back to practice your coach would work you so hard that we could not hardly move you were so sore.

Then we would all show up and do it all over again the next day. Pretty soon the muscle pain and stiffness would be gone and you and your team realized that if you keep doing what you need to do then you do not get sore anymore and you do get much stronger for your efforts. Remember wht coach always said, “No pain, no gain.”

Anyway, soreness can be considered a good thing. If your muscles get sore you know two things, you worked your butt off and it did not kill you. That that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. So, work through the soreness and stiffness and soon you will be stronger, faster and able to get through your walks with no problem.

At this point you may need to increase the intensity at which you walk or add some other element to your work out because your body will not work hard enough if you continue to work out at the level you started at.

Maybe add running or jogging and free weights in to your daily routine. Make your walk a run/walk. Try walking for two minutes and then run for 30 seconds. Alternate walking and running. This is called interval training and is a great way to burn fat.

You will want to strengthen your core muscles. Your core muscles are the mid-section of your body and include your abdominal muscles, oblique muscles and lower to mid-back muscles.

These muscles help you maintain balance, not to mention help you with your posture. Get yourself an exercise ball and practice. A good core workout can be done quickly and easily on an exercise ball. They are available at your local department/discount store. To get quick belly fat lose exercise you need to concentrate on your core workouts and overall body conditioning.

Tags: Advice, Boxing, Butt, Cardiovascular Workouts, Coach, Different Things, Ele, Exercise, Fat Loss, Intensity, Lead, Lose Fat, Moving, Muscle Pain And Stiffness, Muscles, Right Off The Bat, Sedentary Lifestyle, Shape, Walks —