Lose Weight & Keep it off in 2026!

A phenomenon that has become commonplace amongst today’s population is to set a New Year’s resolution in late December or early January. Likewise, the goals and ambitions included in these resolutions also remain pretty consistent.

Goals such as quitting smoking, getting out of credit card debt, or living life to the fullest continues to make up a high percentage of resolutions. However, losing weight and becoming more physically fit never fails to take the top spot on this list.

Staying on the topic of statistics, here is an unfortunate one: 80% of all New Year’s resolutions fail. What we can deduce from these numbers is that many individuals plan to lose weight every year and consistently come up short.

If you are reading this, there is a good chance that you are one of these individuals. Maybe you have set a goal to lose weight in years past and were unable to do so, or maybe you did lose the desired amount of weight but could not keep it off, finally, 2026 may be the first year you have decided to shed some pounds.

Whatever the case may be, this article will provide some helpful tips on how you can really lower your body weight this year and keep it off!

Exercise Alone Is Not The Foundation

A common misconception is that your favorite piece of cardio equipment or a strenuous workout can make up for your poor diet. Think again! While exercise is certainly something you should include in your lifestyle, if you are routinely eating high-calorie foods and drinking soda, you are basically trapping yourself in a perpetual hamster wheel of weight loss failure.

Physical activity does in fact burn calories, but not nearly to the extent to which you can consume them! For example, the average human burns about 100 calories during a mile on the treadmill, while a normal piece of chocolate cake contains over 300 calories.

Do you see the issue here? Exercise alone is not going to get you where you want to be regarding weight loss. Nutrition is the foundation.

Avoid Crash Diets At All Costs!

Society today has an obsession with getting what we want and getting it now. Losing weight is certainly not immune to this trend. If your goal is to decrease your body weight this year, you have probably done some research into what diet plan or list of foods to stick to. Unfortunately, a Google search containing any of those keywords are going to bombard you with the latest fad diet or magic pill promising to transform your body in no time.

The problem with these things is that they either do not work, have the potential to negatively affect your overall health, or are so extreme that there is no way to stick to them long-term. While we won’t get into specific diets to follow or foods to eat, there is a universal principle that needs to be made clear.

Most of us know what types of foods are considered healthy and what is complete junk. Eating healthier and losing weight is far from rocket science. Instead of buying into a fad diet, take a day-by-day approach in which you eat only wholesome foods and drink the recommended amount of water.

Don’t completely deprive yourself of your favorite snack; just reduce the frequency with which you give in to your guilty pleasure!

Nutrition includes proper supplementation

The food we buy in the stores, even organic food is not as nutritious as they once were. The fact is that the soils are depleted and the fruits and vegetables are picked and shipped prior to their full maturity. This means you are not getting the vitamins and minerals that your body requires to function.

Before you head to the store for supplements, most of those supplements are only absorbed 5-15% by the body and a lot are synthetic and are not identified or absorbed.

What you want to look for are supplements that include all-natural ingredients that the body recognizes and can absorb, but also delivery systems that will optimize the size and ability of the nutrients to be released at levels above 85%. I have been taking supplements for years from different sources and my health still plummeted and I was injured or sick all the time. It wasn't until 2023 that I found supplements that I could feel the difference as well as see the difference in my bloodwork. This line of supplements can be viewed at this link.

Stress reduction

Stress increases cortisol levels and inflammation within the body. As well toxins are stored in fat cells and leave fat cells being harder to leave the body due to the stored toxins. When cortisol levels are high that means melatonin levels are lower and then sleep is affected.

Learning to reduce your stress from all areas of your life will be helpful in your overall health and weight loss routine. Stress comes from physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, relational

Get 7-9 hours of sleep

Sleep plays a critical role in overall health, as well as in weight loss. Getting solid sleep for 7-9 hours is important as deep sleep is when your brain detoxes and the brain runs the rest of the body systems. For optimal health and weight, the body needs to keep the organs and hormones functioning optimally. Some people would benefit from a sleep supplement, my favorite is Dream

Let Your Results Become A Lifestyle

Let us now assume that you have stuck to a consistent, sustainable, and healthy diet, and committed to an exercise routine and the results are starting to show. This is certainly an achievement and you should be proud of yourself! However, this is when another, just as important issue needs to be addressed. If this New Year’s resolution that you have worked so hard to bring to fruition doesn’t transition to an overall lifestyle change, regression is inevitable.

Don’t let your success cause you to become complacent and fall back into your old habits. Instead, use these results as a tool to transform your newly established health habits into a part of your lifestyle.

This is the only way to maintain and continuously progress with not only your weight loss but also any other fitness goals you set for yourself in the future!

I use the simple system of Plan, Do, and Review to adjust and set a new Plan to Do and again Review.

Make it Magical

Kathleen

Stress Reduction Ninja

Functional Wellness.Coach