Want Weight Loss Success? Take these six steps first!

Are you ready to make some changes in your life? Do you have challenges in any of these areas?

* Nutrition

* Fitness

* Stress control

* Emotional health

* Relationship wellness

* Spirituality

You don't have to wait until New Year's Eve to make significant changes in your life. Any day can be the first day of your new lifestyle. But to make it really happen, you need a plan for success!

STEP 1: Evaluate

Take a step back and honestly look at the few months and ask yourself, " "How did it go?" Take note of how you handled challenges that came up. Are you happy with how things have gone? I'm guessing if you are still reading this post, you are interested in changing some things. So based on your thoughts about your recent past, next determine what you want within each of those six areas moms struggle with.

Nutrition:

Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to eat healthier? Do you want to cook better meals? Do you want to food shop more effectively? Do you want to take more time to pre-plan your meals and snacks?

Fitness:

If you have not taken the time for fitness, think about what you want to do differently. Do you want to create a more exciting workout? Do you need more motivation? Would a workout buddy or new exercise program help?

Stress:

Do you need a more effective outlet for better stress control? Do you want to learn to journal, meditate or to do yoga instead of eating or doing another destructive self soothing behavior when you're stressed? Do you want to focus on becoming very familiar with the signs and signals that let you know that your body's under stress?

Emotions:

Do you want to become more optimistic, positive, less serious or just more fun? Do you want to react differently to challenging situations?

Relationships:

Do you need to reset boundaries, would you like to have a closer connection with your partner or do you want to have stronger, more fulfilling friendships?

Spirituality:

Is it time to pursue that goal, feel the joy, fulfillment and satisfaction that occurs when you're truly in the zone because you're doing what you absolutely love to do?

STEP 2: Set Goals

Once you come up with all those answers, set specific goals for where you want to be in the next year (or six months, or whatever time frame makes sense for you.) Be as specific as you can so that what you want becomes clear and it feels real down to the very last detail.

STEP 3: Consider Obstacles
This next step is crucial but often overlooked. You want to consider every obstacle you may encounter. When you consider all of your obstacles, you're not as thrown when they arise. They're already somewhat familiar to you and they will not derail you so easily.

STEP 4: Plan to Overcome Obstacles

Once all obstacles are considered, come up with a strategy to overcome every one of them. We often don't think of what may derail us or what may sabotage us. That's why when we're faced with it for the first time, we fall off track. Without planning, we fall off and we haven't considered how to get back on. If your goal to exercise daily will cause conflicts with your child's sports schedule, can you ask someone to carpool? Can you exercise during the sports event (walk around the soccer field)? Will you have a supportive community to turn to for support? What else can you do overcome obstacles?

STEP 5: Set Milestones

After you've discovered what it is that you want, set small, manageable goals based on what you want to achieve and the strategies you just created. The reason why you break it down into small, manageable goals is to prevent overwhelm and encourage success. When you set a goal and you reach it, it builds your confidence and motivates you to continue. If your goal is to lose a significant amount of weight, set smaller goals along the way and then...

STEP 6: Measure and Reward Success

How will you measure and track your progress? Will you be tracking your clothing size? Your weight? Your mileage? Will you monitor your progress daily or weekly?
How will you reward yourself? Will you reward yourself when you reach a specific goal or when you handled something in a way that made you proud? Will you treat yourself to a manicure when you manage a week without desserts?

What's important is that you determine, set up and implement a tracking and reward system for many reasons. Besides keeping us motivated to continue, monitoring our progress and rewarding our efforts validate our progress, help us see what's working and what's not, helps us stay encouraged to continue, focused and on track.

If you are ready to start making some changes in your life, these steps can give you a roadmap to success. With clear goals and some advanced planning, you can make progress in building a better, happier, healthier and more fulfilled life.

While many things are out of your control, your thoughts, behaviors and actions are things you have complete control over. Destructive behaviors can lead you to continue down a negative path while taking the steps towards creating new, positive behaviors can bring you closer to becoming the woman that's patiently waiting to be unleashed.

As always, the choice is yours.