Good at something? CTRL +C, CTRL+V

Think about how you organize your thoughts regarding and act in the most successful area of your life—those same thought patterns and habits will work in the less than sparkly realms, too.

SURPRISE! You can paint everything wondrous with the same brush.

Great at biz, but sucking at bod? Attack fitness & nutrition like you would a new consulting project. Plan. Measure. Manage. Iterate.

Killing it with family, but can’t make money? Give it the same attention to detail and care. Hold yourself accountable. Think ahead of customers’ needs. Be there.

Why don’t we do this naturally?
My guess?
Blocks.
Big, ol’, beautiful emotional or mental boulders of varying shapes and sizes.

But fear not! If you’re ready, you can start renovating today.
No psychological-archeology tasks to perform.
You can simply choose to step around said blocks.
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Do the things and you’ll have the power.
#LIVINTHATCOPYNPASTELIFE

I think a better question is, “how do I lose a minimum of 10lbs of fat for good?”
‘cause let’s be serious, if you lose it in one week, it will come back with friends and vengeance.*
*note: if this is for an athletic competition or astronaut job interview weigh-in or other extraneous, finite event, your question is fine as it is. My answer is for the general population aiming to turn a few more heads than last week.

To lose 10# of fat for good, try these steps:

1. Figure out why it really matters to you if you lose the fat or not. If you have a luke-warm reason like, “I don’t want to be fat,” you will get luke-warm results. If you have a real reason that resonates like, “I want to spend more quality time playing with my children and set an example that great health is a discipline,” or “I want to feel confident in my body so I can be my best self in the dating world and find a life-long companion,” you’ll get real results. Write this realllly real reason on your bathroom mirror with dry erase marker or all over your cube walls in code.
2. Commit to keep trying until you do it. Most people fall off around week 4 or 5. They figure, ‘I haven’t lost any weight, I’ll never lose any weight, forget it.’ This couldn’t be further from the truth. It takes your body a while to become ‘ok’ with using fat as fuel because it’s probably been abused for at least 5 or 50 times that length of time. You can lose the weight. Other people have done it. You just need to find your special formula. Doing everything right for longer than that and still not getting results? Try looking into your digestive health. This is a little thing that makes a big difference for a lot of people.
3. Go to sleep earlier. Do this for your hormones, which ultimately regulate whether you lose fat or not. Only sleeping 5 hours now? No probs. Try for 5.5 first. Then 6. Then 6.5. You’ll know when you’re getting enough sleep when you feel happier and say stuff like, “what the heck was I doing before?”
4. Figure out how much, what, and when you are eating. It’s great to have map, but unless you know where you currently are, it’s not going to help you much. I recommend making an album on your phone and capturing everything you eat and drink for 7 to 10 days. We all know what good nutrition is (a variety of unprocessed, organic protein, carbs, and fat) or can google it (I love Precision Nutrition’s blog). How closely does yours resemble that? Super far off in left field? No probs. Start with subbing out one meal or plugging in one snack. Master that. Do another. Often, the biggest obstacle for people nutritionally is lack of planning which results in diets deficit in one thing or another (see: protein). Don’t expect yourself to be a hero. Pack a lunch and snacks you’ll want to eat and leave will-power for the clergy.
5. If you follow those steps, you’ll naturally want to exercise more because you’ll feel better and have more energy. This will seal the deal. Which exercise is best? Whatever one you’ll do consistently. Progressive strength training is the most effective in changing your body shape, but any exercise is better than no exercise. I like Bigger Leaner Stronger or Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle books for an idea on how to program exercises if you want to give strength training a whirl.

Above all else, be patient and keep it real.
A goal like “lose weight” is ambiguous and non-actionable.
A goal like “sleep 7 hrs 5 to 6 days per week” is something you can have a strategy for and track.
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When you take the time to develop these habits, you’ll lose more than weight. See: stress, struggle, strife.

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