Losing weight is hard to do. Anybody who tells you differently is lying to you. Some may think it would be a good idea to jump on one of the fad diet bandwagons, but that’s probably the worst thing you can do. I don’t know anyone who has had consistent success with a fad diet. Ultimately, once the fad diet is stopped, the weight returns. Losing weight truly is a lifestyle change, and it takes a lot of work.

Last year, I had more success than I’m having this year, but I know it’s because I worked harder at it last year. I had finally become frustrated enough to do something about it. I’m glad I did. I feel much better, and it’s nice to go to the doctor for those checkups and have her say nice things about your weight being down. It was also nice to finally clean out the closet and get rid of all the clothes that were too big. I don’t plan to need them ever again. However, I still have a lot of weight I want to lose. Ideally, I’d like to lose another 60 pounds and would be thrilled to lose 40 of that this year. For that to happen, though, I’m going to have to get back to doing what I did last year. And I’m frustrated enough with myself now to do that. I’m getting tired of getting on the scale and seeing no change, and I realize that I am the only one who can do anything to make it change.

One thing I need to do is get back to menu planning, a week at a time. I plan my meals for Monday through Friday, which gives me a little more leeway on the weekends. The thing is if I follow my Monday through Friday plan, I can treat myself a little more on the weekends, as long as I keep it reasonable. It’s not a free ticket to gorge myself with whatever I want. When Monday rolls around, I will have a menu for the week.

The next thing I need to do is get back into writing down what I eat in the Lose It! app. Yes, I have the menu planned, but it is just that – a plan. Sometimes things happen and the plan doesn’t become a reality. By logging what actually goes into my mouth in the Lose It! app, I can know for sure how many calories I’ve actually ingested, and that is very helpful to losing the weight because the food log is for every day of the week, not just the five I have menus planned for. It’s a way to keep me honest and to make sure I don’t go overboard on the weekends.

Another thing I need to do is get back to my exercise program. I haven’t done any walking at the track this summer, and I’ve done very little (and I mean hardly any) with the exercise DVDs I have. That will change on Monday. I’m also going to do a weekly exercise plan. I’ve made monthly plans before, and that never seems to work out the way I want, so I’ll just do these plans a week at a time, the same way I do the menus a week at a time. This will include something from the exercise DVDs and hopefully a return to the park. I don’t want to walk the track alone, so I’ll have to find someone to do that with. Hopefully, Nic will be up to it. If not, I’ll have to find someone else, or I’ll have to suck it up and walk by myself.

A part of the exercise plan will also be the infamous Squat Challenge you may have seen posted on Facebook. I got a late start on it, starting July 6 instead of July 1, so I’m a little behind, but I have managed to do the Squat Challenge for 7 days. That means I’ve already done 90 squats today (not all at once; that would have killed me. Break it up throughout the day, and suddenly the number becomes more manageable.). I will finish the Squat Challenge on August 5. I will then put it aside until October 1, the next month with 31 days. My plan, as of now, is to do the Squat Challenge in every month with 31 days.

In addition to the Squat Challenge, walking the track, and/or doing the exercise DVDs, I’m going to add some arm toning exercises. I’ve done enough of the Denise Austin DVDs that I know several arm toning exercises, and when I do the Squat Challenge, I’m going to add arm exercises to equal the number of squats I have to do. Since tomorrow’s number of squats is 50, that’s a small number of arm exercises to add. By following the schedule of the Squat Challenge, I’ll be working on both my arms and my legs, and hopefully I will see the results of that soon.

Finally, there are a few other little habits that I’ve strayed away from over the past few months that need to become an important part of the plan again. One of those is no eating after 9:00 P.M. With my summer sleep schedule, this one becomes more difficult, so I’ll say that until school starts, it will be no eating after 10:00 P.M., but when school starts back, it’ll go back to 9:00 because I’ll be back on a regular schedule. Another thing is I’d been drinking my Diet Dew only on weekends, and I’ve had a lot more pop during the week for the last couple months than that. It’s been nothing like the four or five per day I was drinking before I went to the weekend only plan, but it’s still too much for successful weight loss. So, starting Monday, Diet Dew is only allowed on Saturday and Sunday again, and no more than three for the entire weekend. As a result of having more pop, I’ve had less water, so the final habit I need to get back to is drinking more water. I add the drink mixes to my water because I’d never be able to drink as much plain water in a day as I’d need to. Doctors recommend we drink eight cups of water each day. That’s 64 ounces. I drink bottled water. My goal will be to drink four bottles of water each day, for a total of 67.6 ounces of water per day.

As I said at the beginning, losing weight is one of the hardest things you will ever attempt to do. However, it is also one of the best things you can do for yourself. I’ve gotten off track, and as a result, I’ve hit a huge plateau. I’m the only one who can fix that. I intend to do just that. I will reach my goal weight. I will lose that additional 40 pounds this year, and the remaining 20 next year. When I do that, I will be just 20 pounds over my high school weight (I think it’d be a bit unreasonable to try to attain my high school weight), but I will still be at a healthy weight. And when I get there, I’ll work hard to stay there. I know I can do it. I’ve watched what my baby brother has done with his weight loss, and when I become frustrated with myself, I remind myself what he’s done. He’s proof that you can decide to take control of your health issues and do something about it. It’s time for me to stop slacking, get back on track, and do just that.