Weigh-in Twice Daily

The old rule-of-thumb for weighing-in is once per week. This way you won't be discouraged by up-and-down fluctuations. But it is not often enough to reinforce the committment you made - to finally lose those extra pounds. If you are serious about losing weight, then you need to remind yourself of that committment twice a day by getting on the scale. Here's what you need to do:

1. Buy a scale and put it in or near your bathroom (always use same scale).
2. Make a weigh-in chart and post it on the wall at eye-level when on the scale. The chart should have an AM & PM column with 30 rows for each day of the next month.
3. Weigh-in completely naked (no socks) when you wake up, right after you go to the bathroom.
4. Weigh-in again before you go to bed, after you go to bathroom and again, completely naked.
5. Repeat for at least 21 days, or until you reach your target weight.

Why weigh-in so much? Because you need to be more in-tune with what's going on with your body. Inevitably, you'll weigh more at night, so compare your night weights to each other and your morning weights to each other. Eventually, you'll notice how different foods effect you and what impact exercise or an active day has on your weight. This is powerful knowledge that will help you take control.

Each step up to that scale reinforces your pledge to make change.

Great - that's how to weigh in, but how do you actually lose the weight? In order of importance, here's how:

1. Calorie-counting - don't eat anything you can't count - and count everything - even the skim milk in your coffee. After 2-3 weeks, you won't have to count anymore because you'll know precisely how many calories are in most of the foods you eat.
2. Exercise - you don't have to go hard necessarily, just get into a routine. Much more on this another time.
3. Food choice & portion size - why 3rd? Because it goes hand-in-hand with #1 If you're counting calories, then you're going to become pretty economical about your choices.