Small Changes Reap Big Results: 10 Simple Ideas for Weight Loss and Health

We can visualize the goal. The arms thrust in the air as we cross the finish line, zipping up the smaller jeans or finally achieving an unassisted pull up.

The only thing we need is a step by step guide that will lead us to the promise land.

Do x = achieve y.

If we just quit all our bad habits and do exactly what they say, success is guaranteed. Who cares if that means turning our lives upside down, committing to working out everyday, never touching sugar again and working past dawn to dusk?

It sounds ridiculous, but how many 30 day challenges or running streaks have you joined? How many diets? And the truth is usually that massive overhauls don’t last because the discomfort is too great.At the end of the day we fail because we cannot sustain the requirements.

They’re such a drastic deviation from our lives that it doesn’t take much to pull us off course and then it feels too hard to start again. I’ve certainly fallen in to this trap with my race training and even with my diet at times.

When I look back at what has been successful, it’s NEVER been a massive change. It has been making small changes and allowing them to add up over time. I have maintained my 35lb weight loss for 12 plus years because each new change was small, it didn’t require me to overhaul my life. Instead it became my life.

This part of what I hope to share in the Running For Weight Loss Ebook because I’ve seen it work repeatedly for myself and others.

The idea is to make changes that feel so insignificant you barely notice they’ve shifted your life. Big sweeping changes absolutely work in the right circumstance

It shakes up life and gets you to refocus on a goal…but more often than not it follows a very similar pattern of initial excitement followed by a road block in the form of daily life and then a return to old habits.

Examples of Small, but Big

Breakfast
If all you do this week is add shredded carrots/ground flax to your morning oatmeal that’s unlikely to generate either high or low, but now you’ve started your day with a veggie and added some bulk to your morning meal that might help it last longer.
97 ideas for protein packed breakfasts >>

Evening Routine
Or maybe you commit to doing some squats/leg lifts while you brush your teeth before bed…no added time to your day, but working your biggest muscle burns calories and starts to shift your mental patterns.
More ways to activate those glutes >>

Parking
Stop circling for a spot, just park in the very first one you see. Usually means walking a little farther and saving a lot of time/frustration.

They seem silly they’re just so small!

However a breakfast that keeps you from reaching for the candy jar could mean 50-100 calories a day saved on snacks and firing up the glutes is good for runners to prevent injuries which could derail your training or weight loss efforts.It’s why they call it a Yoga Practice and why I’ve relabeled the Clean and Lean Challenge to  the Clean and Lean Blueprint…because it’s an ongoing process of making small tweaks to grow.

I know Transformation Thursday posts and other dramatic stories, make us all crave BIG shifts. But the real story is it took time and for many people there were a lot of failures before success.

Start your journey today with just one little change and you can post your own WOW moment in a few months.

10 More Small Changes

Start thinking about your small changes! Here are some ideas to get you going:

• Stand up to make phone calls
• Pack lunch the night before
• Eat an apple every afternoon
• Fill a water bottle upon waking with water and lemon (good for flushing the body)
• Commit to walking your pet daily (take that chore from someone else)
• Park in the first spot you see no matter how far from the door
• Read something positive each night before bed
• Reach for a cup of tea when munchies hit that aren’t hunger driven (read why!)
• Wait until at after lunch to have any sweets (hmm imagine if you could easily bypass pastries at morning meetings)
• Set a daily reminder on your phone, when it goes off take 5 deep breaths

What small changes have you made over time that added up to big results?

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