Creating a health plan for losing weight and finding other ways to get healthier in our day-to-day lives is something that many of us strive for. For some of us, it’s more important, a matter of life and death even. But, even in the most dire of circumstances, it can be hard to stay on the healthy path. We are bombarded on a daily basis with temptations. Television, fast food, even people who live in our homes can make things very difficult for us. And let me ask you this question: Why is it that unhealthy food is so much easier to consume than healthier food? Maybe because it’s absolutely everywhere you turn! Think of the last time that you stopped at the grocery store for a few items. Every aisle if filled with something unhealthy. And then, right before check out, there are those impulse items just staring at us in the face as we are waiting to pay.

Be encouraged, friend. If you are serious about getting healthy, there are some ways to make it easier. I am a firm believer in accountability, not only from people who love us and want to help, but from ourselves. And I have found that one of the ways I can keep myself most accountable is by making a health plan and using a tracking tool to record my goals and progress.

Tips for Creating a Health Plan for Losing Weight

Today, I want to share a few tips for how to set goals and record progress.

Goal Setting

Start by setting your own personal goals for what you will achieve. This can be ANY goal that you are reaching toward. It’s your goal, not for anyone else to see. Both short and long term goals are a good idea, but I highly recommend thinking in terms of about 12 weeks at a time when mapping out your goals and how you will achieve them. If you make the time to achieve your first goal too far out, you’ll be tempted to procrastinate on your action steps. Suddenly 11 months in, you’ll be racing to meet an unachievable goal that needed 12 months. Most people will be able to stick to a plan for 90 days at a time. Once you achieve your goals during your first 90 days, set a new set of goals for the next 90 days.

Make certain that you are setting a goal or goals that will challenge you, and push you to your ultimate goal! Don’t create a goal that is so easy that you lose focus easily. And make those goals measurable. If you have more than one goal, write them all down. Set yourself up for success on your health journey by choosing your goals, making them challenging and measurable, and writing them down.

Watch Your Diet

It’s time to get serious about what you are eating. So easy it is to fall into the rabbit hole of eating food that isn’t good for you. One day of poor choices leads to another, and another and before you know it, you’ve completely lost track of your health plan altogether. The best way to get serious about what you are eating? Track the food that you are consuming. Maybe you aren’t even aware of all the times throughout the day that you are snacking. Trust me, it’s so easy to grab a handful of something here and there without even realizing how quickly it all adds up. With a food tracker, you can write down everything that you are eating all day long.

Create Your Personal Health Plan

Once you understand the foods that you have been consuming, it’s time to create your health plan. Creating a health plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s a simple process where you jot down a few areas to focus on so you know how healthy you are truly being. Recording your progress every day is important so you can see your overall progress and know if there are certain areas that you are needing to improve in. Start by tracking your calories, your water intake, what sort of exercise you did during the day and how many steps you were able to log. Write those numbers down each and every day to be aware of how it varies and what areas you need to really focus on. Some people are really great about their caloric intake for the day, but fail to follow up with any type of activity as well. Writing it all down really helps to show you where the need for improvement lies.

Don’t forget to address how you are feeling throughout your health journey. Writing out your thoughts and emotions is important to help you understand how your emotions affect the other areas of your life — especially your food choices. Write down your wins and challenges, the highs and the lows of the week, to get it out of your mind and down on paper. Remember that every day may not be a win, but if you can show yourself that you are trying your best each and every day, that’s an amazing motivation to keep going to reach your healthy lifestyle goals.

Last but not least, write down your measurements with your weekly progress. While it may not always feel like the most fun part of the journey, it’s an important one because it shows you that what you are doing is paying off. The scale will not always show your real progress. Tracking those measurements is the proof that what you are doing is working and will give you the motivation to keep going.

The best part about creating a health plan for losing weight and recording it? It’s down on paper to help you keep it real and to have to refer back to. It’s easy for us all to say that we are going to do something, but it can also be easy to fool ourselves. But when you make a plan and write it down, it’s more concrete and not something you can lie to yourself about. Believe in yourself and all you can accomplish on your healthy lifestyle journey, and write down those goals in your health plan! There is no better time than now to get started!

To help you meet your goals, I’ve created a 6-page Weight Loss Journal and Food Tracker. To download it, enter your email below!