Making a Permanent Change

When starting a healthy lifestyle, a few things need to be changed. At the very beginning of your journey you have to just simply change your mindset. This is something you are doing for yourself-nobody else! You are wanting to change yourself to make yourself happier. They say if you don't like something about yourself-change it! And if you can't change it, learn to love it! Make sure you understand the difference between self-loathing and hunger for improvement. Make sure you are not doing this for a girl or a boy or another person's opinion of you. If you do that, you are just setting yourself up for failure.

Take some steps when wanting to change your lifestyle:
1. Have a positive outlook on life. This could help spread to anything you set your mind to do.
2. Get rid of junk food. Getting rid of food can help prevent future binges and/or overeating on junk. These things are toxic to your health and to your new goals.
3. Plan ahead! A common mistake made my many people is that they do not plan out their daily schedule. When attempting to make a resolution or a new lifestyle change, you can't simply say "I am going to eat clean and exercise" without really establishing what that means. The best way to go about a lifestyle change is by writing everything down whether it is on an app or the good-ole' fashion way (pen and paper).
4. Establish your goal. (bulk, cut, lose weight, gain weight, etc)
5. Make a meal plan. Since diet is about 80% of fitness, you need to make sure this has been taken care of. Workouts are easy, it's the diet that is hard. Decide how you want to eat. Do you want to go low carb? Paleo? Clean eating? What is it you want to do? Next, sit down and literally plan every meal. Write down the food you are going to eat, the serving size, the frequency you're going to be eating; just jot everything down. This will help you stay on track on be less tempted by spontaneous unhealthy food choices.
6. Exercise! Establish a time for your workout. This time has to be permanent. If you want to do your workout before this time-great! However, no later. This prevents you to procrastinate your way to being lazy and skipping a workout altogether. When I started, my time was 6 PM. If I had not completed my workout by 6 PM, I had to get my butt into gear and exercise. I'd drop any homework, social activity, or anything else going on at that time and get into gear. This has to slowly become a part of your routine. Exercise should be just as urgent as brushing your teeth, eating a meal, or taking a shower. You need those things in order to survive in this world healthily. Exercise should not be any different. Always remember, the worst exercise is the one that never happened.
7. Plan out your workout. What are your goals? What workouts are best suited for accomplishing those goals? How many reps are you going to do? What area of your body are you training Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? Etc.
8. Set realistic goals/track your progress. By setting smaller goals and working your way up little by little, you are increasing your odds of success. Do not overwhelm yourself with a big and out of reach goal. Instead of saying "I'm going to lose 100 pounds," it is probably better to say "I will lose 10 pounds by next month." A huge far off goal may not only scare you but it has a higher odds of setting you up for failure.
Once you have completed each of these steps, you are well on your way onto a healthier lifestyle and a newer and happier you!

If you really want this change then you will do anything in your power to get there! If you are dedicated, anything is possible! Please do not sit there and say "it is too hard, therefore I just stop trying" or "my body just isn't built to change." True, some people have a harder time changing their bodies (me!) but it is all possible. With dedication and motivation, you can do whatever you set your mind to (as cliche as it may sound). Get up, plan out your meals/exercises, execute them, and watch your body change!