The advice thing is always tricky. Since losing weight is such a personal thing—such a tough personal thing—it’s hard to give blanket advice to someone.
But, if I had to do it, here’s what I would say.
1. Tell people. The more people that know, the more likely you are to follow through. While will power and the desire to make your life better should be enough incentive to make you get it together, the fact of the matter is that you are going to need fear, the fear of letting everyone down, to keep at it sometimes. If you are out with your friends and they know you are trying to lose weight, you won’t order the fried chicken and french fries and Dr. Pepper and dessert because you will be ashamed if you do. It’s hard to tell people, it’s embarrassing to tell people, but tell them; you’ll find out that they are excited for you and will help you in any way that they can.
2. Don’t fall for gimmicky inspiration. I remember so many times watching people’s weight loss videos on Youtube. Most times they were set to some sappy, inspiring background music like “I Believe I Can Fly” or something. These videos work superficially, for about two days. It’s like a quick fix. The truth is this: inspirational quotes, feel-good videos, and heartwarming weight loss reality TV are good for entertainment, but losing weight and taking control of your life is deeper than them. Losing weight because other people lost weight is not going to work. You have to find your own reason, your own inspiration. There’s no other way.
3. You’re going to miss a workout. But don’t let it affect your next workout, or the one after that. As a fat person, I like to rationalize my behavior to make it OK. Let’s say it’s a Thursday and I miss my daily run. I’ll wake up Friday and say something like, “I missed yesterday; I should take today off as well and let my body heal.” And then it’s the weekend and I say, “I missed the last two days, I’ll start back on Monday. Monday is a good day to start back.” Then I’ll look up a realize I haven’t run in two weeks. The same goes for eating. You’re going to have bad meals, but to let snowball into four or five—or a week’s worth—of bad meals is just stupid and will lead to quick weight gain which will turn into quickly quitting on yourself. Trust me.
4. Get involved in something organized. I joined a running club, but there are countless other ways to get involved. Join a weekly weight-loss group, overeaters anonymous, or even start a Tumblr or Youtube account. Anything that surrounds you with people that are going through the same thing is going to be a positive experience.
5. Just do it Nike was on to something here. There are going to be times that working out sounds miserable. But I promise you, after the 45 minutes of running or biking or swimming or ellipticalling or whatever-it-is-you-do is up, you will be glad you did it. If you are sick, work out. If you are hungry, work out. If your sister is in town and you have no time to work out, work out. You have to do it. There’s no excuse not to.
Bonus: Fall in love or get your heart broken. Yes it’s gimmicky, but whatever. If you get the opportunity, get your heart broken; it works.
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