Hi! I’m Donna Reish, IF teacher, weight loss coach, blogger, and half of “The Minus 220 Pound Pair” as my husband and I have lost over 220 pounds together (160 of that in the past couple of years through the Weight Loss Lifestyle habits and strategies I teach!).
In this episode, I present the First Four steps of weight loss.
When we set out to lose weight, we often want to “do it all.” We want to make all the changes and do every single thing that will cause us to “lose weight fast.” But we usually find that we can’t sustain all of those changes all at the same time—and we often find ourselves going too low in something to continue, so we give up.
Habit formation teaches us that these “all or nothing” approaches usually do not work—and seldom last if they do work.
So enter The First Four—four easy-to-implement, yet still effective steps in the right direction for life-long weight loss.
These four steps are
Number 1: Decide ahead of time for food
Number 2: Monitor sleep
Number 3: Drink water
Number 4: Time your eating
They are effective because they work on specific key areas of weight management:
1) Help in controlling total intake—through timed eating, sleeping enough, filling up with water, deciding ahead of time what we will eat (which helps us with cravings and overeating)
2) They help us burn more calories
3) They help us with cravings
4) They help us by causing us to use our pre-frontal cortex for decisions rather than using our “toddler brain” to decide on things in the moment
5) So much more!
Additionally, when we implement steps that are completely doable, we start to build habits—not just short term solutions.
AND…. Success breeds success. As we are successful in the First Four, we will develop confidence and have success in harder areas!
Grab my handout/daily journal page (two to three minutes a day!) to make the First Four YOUR first four!
Find all of my episodes, outlines, and articles for my two weekly broadcasts:
(1) Weight Loss Lifestyle broadcast (formerly Donna’s Intermittent Fasting Broadcast)
Sign up for my free intermittent fasting webinar
Think Feel Eat 32 More of the First Four (First Four Things to Do in Order to Lose Weight)
A. Weight Loss Decisions
1. Weight loss is not one BIG decision (though Picking Your Protocol is ONE big decision but you can change it as needed)
a. It is a series of little decisions that we make over and over again
b. It is a series of little life-changing decisions (we eventually change sooo many things to make weight loss our lifestyle)
c. Almost every time we gain weight or lose weight, it is because we have made a decision either ahead of time (or with willpower in the moment) or we have made a decision in the moment without willpower.
2. In the Perfect Storm, we start with the FIRST FOUR
a. Four decisions that are easy to make
b. Four things to implement that are not hard
c. But four things with huge impacts on weight loss
d. Four things that we want to develop habits of while they are easy
B. Willpower Gap—See Weight Loss Lifestyle 60 and 61
1. Research shows that we spend four hours a day resisting temptations and have up to 120 food-related decisions a day.
2. We simply don’t have the willpower for that! Thus, we have a willpower gap.
C. Decisions Ahead of Time
1. Pre-frontal cortex
a. Unaffected by emotions, willpower, cravings, etc.
b. The planning part of our brain
c. The part that has our best interest in mind
d. The part that cares about our future self
2. Decisions in the moment are made with our primal brain
a. Avoid discomfort
b. Seek happiness and immediate gratification
c. Toddler brain
3. First Four Decisions for Weight Loss: Decide ahead of time! (Free Journal Sheet!)
a. Number 1: Decide ahead of time for food
b. Number 2: Monitor sleep
c. Number 3: Drink water
d. Number 4: Time your eating
D. Join the Drop 8 Pounds by Christmas challenge! Join today—we start on October 1st!
a. Join at the blog to get all of the email updates and training
Watch the short info video here:
