5 Must-Do's for a Healthy Lifestyle

Happy Monday!  

I had an awesome weekend.  We went to a parade and rodeo with my family.  I can usually handle one rodeo per year and this was it.  

Sophie's first sucker.

Morgan cooling off.

I thought this "float" in the parade was awesome.  It is for a gym and they had people weight lifting on it.

I had a friend ask me (on Instagram @losscausekelli) for my top 5 must-do things to start a healthy lifestyle change.  I thought it was worthy of a blog post for anyone else wondering how to start and succeed.  

And here's my list of must-do's:

1. Have a goal.  Weight, size, race, etc.

2. Measure your body in a few ways so you can see numbers going down when the scale doesn't.  I took some string and measured around my waist, legs and arms.  I cut the string that length and now I can see how many inches I have lost.  

Check your starting weight and check once a week.

And go to a gym and get your body fat checked.  Do this once a month (or week if you want).  

3. Have a plan.  

What are you going to eat every day for every meal?  Write it down.  Prepare the meals or make sure you have the ingredients the day before.  This seems like a big feat, but it works.  Even if you eat the same thing every day (like I do), plan it.  If you are going to have a treat, plan it -- i.e. birthdays, holidays, Saturdays, etc.  Don't deprive yourself but don't just munch on things.  

Keep meal replacement bars or shakes in your car/purse in case you unexpectedly get stuck away from home.  

Be excited for the treat you have planned.  I find that once a week on Saturdays is great because I look forward to it all week (I'm not doing that now but when I'm not training for a show that's what I do).

Remember that "he who fails to plan plans to fail" (or whatever that quote is).  I should be a motivational speaker.  :)

4.  Don't let people/commercials/media/etc make you think that carbs and fat are bad!  They are good.  Eat well rounded meals with carbs, protein and fat.  But also remember that calories are what matter when you are losing weight.  

5.  Have someone to be accountable to.  If you can hire a trainer, I recommend it.  Generally if you have a monetary investment in something you will use it more effectively.  I can get my weight down on my own but having a trainer really helps me stay on track 100% of the time.  I don't want to disappoint (or waste my money).  

If you can't or don't want to hire a trainer, get a friend (specifically one who is reaching his/her fitness goals) to be the one you tell where you're at at once a week.  

These are the first five things that came to my mind.  

Now I'll leave you with a shameless selfie...