Losing weight is a little bit like quitting smoking. You try and you fail, and you try and you fail, and then one day – kind of like the aligning of the planets – it happens! Was your success random, or were there things you did to make it easier to overcome obstacles to weight loss?

Losing weight is all in the mind. If you can psych yourself up long enough to lose a couple of pounds, you have taken a quantum leap to overcome obstacles to weight loss. That’s how you make it in the beginning. After that, it gets easier.

Here are some tips that will help you overcome obstacles to weight loss. These are based on my 1,200 calorie/30-or-less fat grams a day diet:

  1. Use smaller plates (It makes you feel like you are eating more.)
  2. Keep a lot of veggies on hand to snack on between meals.
  3. Drink water or iced tea throughout the day.
  4. Write down what you eat along with its calories and fat grams.
  5. Buy a dress one size too small. Wearing it will be your reward once the pounds begin melting away.
  6. Exercise.
  7. Plan out what you’re going to eat.
  8. Eat six small meals a day.
  9. Watch your junk food intake. A Triple Whopper with Cheese has 1,200 calories and 82 fat grams! But a Charbroiler BBQ Chicken Sandwich has only 380 calories and 7 fat grams.
  10. Don’t go to all-you-can-eat restaurants.
  11. When you are going to go out to eat, Google the restaurant before hand, if you can, to see if they have a nutritional guide that lists calories, fat grams, carbs, etc. Chili’s has one. They also have a “Guiltless Grill” where you can find very tasty low calorie/low fat items.
  12. When you go to the movies, bring along a bag of carrots.
  13. Salads are not necessarily low-calorie items. At Chili’s, their Lime-Grilled Shrimp Caesar Salad is a whopping 980 calories and 77 fat grams! But their Grilled Caribbean Salad is only 440 calories and 10 fat grams.
  14. Reward yourself daily. You can eat a dessert. In fact , you should eat a dessert – just not a big one! Skinny Cow mint ice cream sandwiches have only 145 calories and 1.5 fat grams.
  15. You need to give up 500 calories a day to lose one pound a week. To find out how many calories you need to sustain your current weight, click on the following link:

Calorie Calculator

  1. To find out what your ideal weight should be, click on the following link:

Ideal Weight

  1. If you reach a plateau in your weight loss and can’t get past it, make sure that you are adhering to your calorie and fat gram allotment. If you add a little more exercise, you will begin losing again.

It’s not hard to overcome obstacles to weight loss. With a little planning and the tools I’ve listed, you’ll be on the road to weight loss in no time!