make 1 change 2 day

Watching others always gives me new perspectives on how we can make changes.

A few years ago, my wife decided to run a half-marathon. That is a race where she would run 13 miles (or about 21 kilometers) continuously. Now, she hadn't run for a while and she went down to the local running group to get some guidance and joined a program like this one. https://www.events.runningroom.com/training/?id=5157 . It provided her with a training guide that she could use to go from Zero Kilometers a week running up to being able to run those 21 Kilometers in 18 weeks of training. From week 1, she followed the guides instructions and made small, incremental changes to her behavior to allow her to eventually complete that half-marathon.

The lessons I learned from watching her train was that the trainers didn't ask her to to try and run those 21 Kilometers on the first day. They encouraged her to understand the goal and to understand that some the work ahead would be difficult. She started by making a small effort on a daily basis (even if the effort was doing a recovery activity like, ironically NOT RUNNING) to reach her goal. She changed how she ate and how she stretched. She bought some new clothing to make it easier to run. As the weeks progressed, when it started to get difficult (more time was needed, recovery was more difficult, the runs themselves started to stretch her resolve) she found new strategies to reach her goals. She changed how her mind perceived the discomfort, to allow her to continue to run through the desire to stop. She learned to run that half-marathon by making small changes to her daily habits and mindset and when the final challenge came, she was ready.

For you, about to embark on a weight-loss journey, it is similar to learning to run a marathon. You need to have a final goal in mind, a strong enough reason that will let you endure when you get the habitual equivalent of a foot blister or the spiritual equivalent of a cramp. When you have a 'why', whatever that 'why' is, write it down.

"I want to feel like ..."
"I want to look like ..."
"I want the scale to say ..."
"I want my clothes to fit like ... "
"I want my heath to improve by..."

With a strong why, the discomfort of the what, when and how will be less.

Now, having any "why". You will pick the next thing to do/try.

You will begin your journey of losing body-fat by trying the next thing that you are able to do.

Based on my experience of fat loss, you can really make simple changes to either

What you are eating or When you are eating
and Why you are eating

Remember, just like most people cannot run a marathon on the first day of their training, you will not be able to change a life-time of habits that gave you all the excess fat (and other health issues) in one day.

So, decide what you want to try this week.

If you are going to try "When you are eating" go and have a read on "Intermittent Fasting". Start with googling "Jason Fung" on youtube and go from there. The simplest way step to try is to skip 1 meal a day (and based on the science I have seen, the easiest is breakfast).

If you ware going to try "What you are eating", I recommend trying the simple attempt of not drinking any calories. Another simple idea is to stop eating anything outside of sit-down meals (stop snacking).

For the "Why you are eating", there is ultimately only 1 question that you will ask for the rest of your life. Am I eating because I am hungry (because my body is giving me an accurate signal that I need more energy from food to continue to live) or am I eating to feel something (or to not feel something).

Getting started on weight loss is that simple. Just like it is simple to start training to run a marathon. But, like I will say over and over while I coach others, simple does not mean easy, BUT
You CAN do it.