Change starts from within and the sooner the better

If you're looking to lose weight, become stronger, healthier, and happier you need to know a few things. The path you're about to embark on is more than just 45 minutes a day, it is a complete paradigm shift. You will make new friends, engage in new activities, and in return influence and motivate others, but first you have to start.

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
In the beginning it will be slow. You will experience fatigue, muscle soreness, and some frustration, but those are obstacles for your mind to conquer. You may feel like you're dying only five minutes into that run, and you are. Well, the part of you that doesn't want to move. You know that stubborn teenager in the back of your mind who doesn't want to clean their room. Well it's your mess and you need to start picking it up. Much like that teenager tough love, persistence, and patience are key to success. Mental toughness will ensure you the path to better workouts and even better results. I'm not saying it will be a couple weeks down the road, or even a couple months, but you'll never know if you just quit.

Misery loves company.
We are less likely to push ourselves out of our comfort zone without a little bit of encouragement. Whether it is an actual person telling us or a recent turn of events our decision for change tends to stem from an outside source. If your friends jumped off a bridge would you? Of course not, but in this case the bridge, sedentary life, sucks and will eventually kill you, so jump. Find a lunch time group exericse class and share your disdain for the peppy overly enthusiastic instructor. Don't  worry about hurting their feelings, we tend to be a pretty tough bunch.

Eat your heart out.
That is exactly what you are doing when you eat out. When you stop at your local eatery you are signing up for added sugars, fats, and sodium. These three common trouble makers wreak havoc on your health. Instead of heading out for food, make your own. Pull out that cellphone, tablet, or fire up the desktop and start that pinterest board. With today's technology you can find easy healthy recipes anywhere, anytime. If time is an issue lookup crockpot recipes and never look back. Which ever route you decide remember that eating healthy is only hard because you're creating a habit by breaking a bad one.

Finally, GET REAL!
By now you should understand that I'm here to be honest with you. I'm a personal trainer and group fitness instructor who has seen clients come and go with the unrealistic idea of losing all their weight in a matter of a month or two. They follow crazy fad diets that want to get rid of one thing, eat only this, or do a full on juice cleanse with no real food for days. I'm here to tell you that the weight didn't appear overnight and therefore won't be going anywhere soon, but now is a great time to give it that eviction notice.