When it comes to losing weight, there’s one thing that will massively affect your chances of reaching your goal and getting the results you’re preparing for. That is whether you’re adopting a sustainable approach or not.

More often than not, when we’re looking to lose weight, we look to diets or quick-fixes that promise amazing results with little effort, all within a short time-frame. The problem with this is that, sure, it can give quick results, but it’s not sustainable. If the approach isn’t sustainable, you’re going to end up back to where you started, but this time left feeling defeated and fed up.

Sustainable weight loss will look different for everyone, there is no one size fits all. However, the key is to find something that fits into your own lifestyle and that you can see yourself keeping up for years to come. It shouldn’t feel like a diet, just like a new set of habits that favour your goals rather than hinder your progress.

My tips for sustainable weight loss are:

1. Start with adding things in, instead of taking anything out.

Rather than going cold turkey and getting rid of every bad habit you have, choose one thing you’d like to add in to your lifestyle. This can be as simple as drinking an extra litre of water per day or going for a 30-minute walk in the evenings. Focus on that one thing for the week, and then choose another the following week. Keep it going until you’ve acquired a new set of healthy habits. That way, you’re making it easier to achieve a realistic goal plus you’re not overhauling your whole lifestyle… meaning it’s a lot easier to keep it up.

2. Focus on health and the weight loss will follow.

Your health should always be the priority. Losing weight can be done in a healthy way, but it means prioritising your health and letting weight loss be a result. If you switch your focus from trying to diet and over-exercise, to making conscious decisions about what you eat, eating a range of nourishing foods and getting your body moving a bit more, you’ll start to find that weight loss will slowly come. Plus, slow progress is the aim for sustainable weight loss.

3. Adopt an 80:20 balance.

Another area that people can be caught when trying to lose weight is doing the “all or nothing” approach. This means they cut out all treat foods and socialising in an effort to reach their goal. While this takes a lot of willpower and will support your efforts to reach your goal weight, it’s not sustainable. If you’re restricting yourself of things you enjoy, you’re constantly feeling deprived and may lead to bringing you back to where you started, into a cycle of dieting. The solution to this is making healthy choices 80% of the time, eating food that nourishes your body and moving a little more, but allowing yourself some treats 20% of the time. 80:20 balance makes it a routine and a habit rather than just another diet.

4. Find exercise or movement you enjoy.

Exercise should be something you like to do rather than have to do. There are so many types of exercise, there’s surely one to suit everyone. Whether that’s dancing around your kitchen, lifting in a gym or hiking in the countryside, there are plenty of things to choose from. When you find something you enjoy, it’s easier to make a habit of it and keep it up as part of your lifestyle.

5. Choose happiness.

Sustainable weight loss is about enjoying the journey instead of looking to your end goal to give you happiness. When you adopt new healthier habits and know you’re on the right path to a healthier weight, try to enjoy the experience. At the end of the day, we all just want to be happy and we’ve got to look inside ourselves to find it. Being grateful that you CAN exercise, being grateful that you’re choosing to fuel your body rather than punish it. Mindset is a huge part of sustainable weight loss, and it is definitely something worth looking into and improving as you begin your journey.

About Jess Horgan Nutrition

Jess specialises in weight loss and healthy eating habits for female professionals. This includes weight loss and healthy habit formation. Jess gives you the fundamentals of building your own healthy lifestyle, one that’s not just a quick fix, but is maintainable. By co-operating with my guidelines and support,  Jess strives to make you more confident in making healthy choices be it in nutrition, fitness or overall health and wellness. For Jess, goals don’t have to be physical. For some of her clients, being able to run for a bus, climb the stairs without losing their breath or preventing back pain while standing are the main aims of their transformation, and the visual benefits are bonuses. Whether you want to gain muscle, lose a few inches from your belly or be able to run around with your children/grandchildren, she can help you begin your journey to reaching your own personal goals.

Find Jess here and on social media; Instagram & Facebook