How Planning Leads to Weight Loss

Embarking on a weight loss journey can often feel overwhelming and impossible, especially when juggling a busy life filled with work, family, and friends. However, one powerful tool can transform this daunting task into a manageable, even enjoyable process: planning. Today, I’ll share how planning was a critical strategy that significantly contributed to my 75 lbs weight loss journey and how it can help you achieve your health goals and make your journey more manageable and enjoyable.

It took me longer than I’d like to admit to come to terms with the fact that weight loss is not just about cutting calories and hitting the gym; it’s about creating a sustainable lifestyle that supports your health and well-being. Many people can lose weight, but only those who lifestyle and habit changes actually maintain the weight loss. When I finally accepted that I had to change my lifestyle, it was clear that planning was the only way I would be consistent with my new habits, and that’s when it all got a lot easier! Planning is what helped me establish a structured approach, making it easier to stay on track and reach my goals.

Planning Workouts

In the early years of my weight loss journey, I tried to fit in workouts when I felt I could after all my work, kids, family, and other responsibilities. My workouts weren’t during a set day or time and typically happened after I felt everyone else was taken care of and wouldn’t notice if I was gone for 45-60 minutes. This meant my workouts weren’t regular or consistent and felt impossible to maintain! It took me years, but eventually, I learned that my family would be okay if I spent a few hours each week in my workouts and let go of any guilt I felt about prioritizing my health. I started planning my workouts for early weekday mornings, which worked best for our schedules, so I had to prepare and get to bed early to make that happen. I had to treat these workouts like all other important meetings, plan, and move around when things came up, like sick kids, early morning meetings, and work trips. If I didn’t plan, the workouts weren’t going to happen!

Planning Walks/Steps

I had a desk job in my corporate life for over 20 years. Today, I still have a “desk” job running my own online coaching business. At the start of my weight loss journey, I was lucky to get 4K steps/day; many days, it was much less. Losing weight is about energy balance and consuming fewer calories than your body needs to maintain current weight. While many people think it’s the sweaty cardio sessions and hard-core weight-lifting sessions that drive the most calories burned, it’s actually from your overall daily activity that doesn’t come from workouts. Your general movement and activity has a greater impact on your calorie expenditure. I had to plan to fit in a few quick walks or one longer walk each day to move the needle with my daily activity. I had to schedule these walks just like my workouts. But I had to get more creative because I now had even less time with the workouts already taking up time on my schedule! So, I had to look at my schedule each day and plan which meetings I could turn into walking meetings? Which of my meetings didn’t actually need to be meetings? I had to get skilled at planning my time and work day to fit in my steps.

Planning Meals

I also had to accept that losing weight required planning my meals. I found sticking to a calorie deficit doable once I stopped trying to just wing it and decide in the moment what I wanted to eat. No longer could we arrive home late after a baseball game and stare into the fridge, thinking about what I wanted to cook for dinner that night! I had to start planning if I really wanted to maintain my weight loss, so I started planning out dinners for the week in a quick 10-minute meeting with myself. Over time, this little weekly meal planning session actually saved me hours of frustration every week. Today, it’s still a non-negotiable for me to take a few minutes and plan out our weekly dinners.

Planning Groceries

To feel confident with my weekly meals, I had to plan our grocery shopping list to include foods that supported my calorie deficit and fueled my body. This also required planning! No more randomly throwing foods that looked good and interesting in the cart while I strolled the aisles of my local grocery store—I planned ahead and ended up saving money and wasting food by only buying what I needed and planned to use that week. It’s also reduced all the last-minute extra grocery runs each week when we didn’t have an item we needed!  

Planning Metrics

Over the years of my weight loss journey, I realized that tracking different metrics supported my progress. The more consistently I tracked my steps, workouts, and food intake, the more I saw the scale move and my body change. Tracking does take some planning, and I found logging my food the night before and having a weekly check-in with myself where I added my data and reflected on it for a few minutes helped me plan ahead to see if I needed to make any adjustments to continue to see progress.

Planning my workouts, walks, meals, groceries, and metrics was the key to my weight loss success, and it can be yours, too. In my 10-week group program The Weight Loss Blueprint I give out all of my easy-to-use planning tools like grocery shopping lists, meal planning templates, habit trackers, in addition to live support from me to help you develop planning skills to support and celebrate your weight loss and health goals. By planning and keeping things simple, you can create a sustainable, healthy lifestyle that supports your weight loss journey.

Learn more about the Weight Loss Blueprint here to take the next step toward a healthier, more confident you!

We start September 9th and I’d love for you to be part of our group.

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hi, i'm lauren!

I help successful, high-achieving women like you implement efficient, proven and sustainable ways to prioritize your health and find your confidence again.

Hi, I'm Lauren!

I help successful, high-achieving women like you implement efficient, proven and sustainable ways to prioritize your health and find your confidence again.