I am sure you already know that weight loss and improving physical fitness do not happen overnight. But did you know that there are steps you can take to improve your chances of success in losing weight before you even start a healthy eating and exercise plan?

There are five distinct stages of behavior change. Knowing where you are now will help you create a road map that helps you achieve futureweight lossand improve fitness goals.

Stage 1 - Pre-Meditation:
This is the point where you don't feel any change in your lifestyle is necessary. You might think that exercise is taking too long or that fast food is very appropriate even to contemplate surrender. Starting a fitness or healthy eating program during this stage is likely to lead to failure. The best thing you can do during this stage is to reassess your life goals and educate yourself more about health, disease and risk.

Stage 2 - Meditation:
During this stage, you may start thinking that change is necessary.

So, you think it may not be so bad to cut fast food just three times a week and you may be able to walk at least once in some time. This is the time to find out more about the benefits of eating healthy and exercising regularly.

Stage 3 - Preparation:
At this point you become more serious about taking action. I took off on a picnic with your friend for the next week and plan to go grocery shopping to cook a homemade meal. You may want to search for exercise equipment, gyms, personal trainers and healthy eating programs to learn more about what you can do to get betterweight loss

Stage 4 - Action:
Here's where you really take the first step. The first step may be as simple as walking a day, which reduces your visits to fast food to twice a month or just shrinking soft drinks and unhealthy snacks. Or you can go as far as hiring a personal trainer or join the gym. During this stage, weight loss it is very important to learn coping mechanisms that will help you avoid relapse in your old ways. One way to avoid leakage in exercise is to form new healthy habits that lead to permanent lifestyle changes.

Stage 5 - Maintenance:
This, of course, is the stage that everyone should strive for. Being here means you exercise regularly and eat healthy most of the time. It is important throughout this stage (which should continue for the rest of your life) to include a variety of types of exercises that change relatively frequently. You should also seek to support, encourage and encourage friends and family where possible in the health aspects of your new life.

What stage are you in now?
So, now you can decide which stage you are in? You may find that you are in the pre-meditation stage for nutritional habits, but you are in the preparation phase for exercises. Okay. It is not important for you to force both regions to the same stage. You can work on changing your eating habits and exercising separately.

The key to success is determining your stage first and then taking steps to advance to the next level (unless of course you are in the maintenance phase).
Use the suggestions above in each stage to help you move to the next one.