Take Baby Steps to Lose Weight - Gradual Stomach Fat Loss Approach

When you finally make the decision to get rid of your stomach fat for good, it is easy to dream of the finish line – 100 pounds lost, size 4 jeans, running a marathon. Achieving big goals takes time and extraordinary effort. That’s a tall order, and it’s easy to see how initial enthusiasm can quickly wane in the face of such a herculean task.

Very often, large victories are never gained, because it seems too hard, too far away, or you just don’t know how to get there. A better way is to take baby steps to achieve weight loss. This gradual approach builds good belly habits.

Try This Powerful Psychological Tool

Imagine a staircase in your mind: At the top of the staircase sits your goal. Make sure the goal is something quantifiable – meaning it can be measured. This can be a specific weight, a clothing size you want to fit into or some sort of physical achievement such as completing a marathon.

Draw the staircase on a piece of paper: Make sure you can erase and redraw as you go.

Break your goal in half: If you want to lose 100 pounds, then the halfway mark is 50 pounds lost. If you want to run a marathon, then a half marathon is the midpoint toward your goal. Take these halves and place them in the exact middle of your imaginary staircase.

Cut your halves in half: Half of 50 pounds is 25. Half of a half marathon is a 10k. Place these halfway between the bottom of the staircase and the middle.

Keep breaking your goals in half until you arrive a point where the goal is achievable within one to two weeks of training.

Lose 100 pounds 5 Pounds at a Time

Losing 100 pounds may seem impossible, but losing 5 pounds can certainly be done. You may have no idea how you will ever manage to run a marathon, but one mile doesn’t seem too far.

Put these bottom goals on the first step of the staircase. Now fill in any empty stairs with gradually increasing goals until you hit your quarter, half and final goals.

For instance, a staircase to lose 100 pounds could looks like this: lose 5 pounds, 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20 pounds, 25 pounds (Quarter Mark), etc… Make sure you have plenty of room to add or erase stairs.

Use as many stairs as you need. If running a single mile still seems too hard, maybe your first stair is walking a lap around the track. Your second step is walking two laps and so on. The key to this exercise is that each step is slightly more difficult than the previous and that it eventually leads to the top – your goal.

Once your staircase is complete, you have created a roadmap to success. Suddenly a large goal doesn’t seem too difficult to achieve.You now know exactly how to do it – just walk up the staircase step by step.

Tuck your overall goal into the back of your mind and concentrate on that first step. If it is to walk a lap around the track, keep working until you get there. As soon as you achieve one step, concentrate on the next step up.

View each step as a mini-goal and reward yourself accordingly as you slowly progress up.

As you get more used to the staircase concept, you may want to attach dates to each stair or a certain time period – two weeks works well - for each step to keep yourself on track. This will also allow you to plot an end date when you predict your will finally reach the top of your staircase.

We all have big dreams in our hearts that we may be afraid to even try because it just seems too hard. If that belly fat seems too much to conquer, start with one pound at a time.

Remember, most great achievements are made up of many much smaller victories, of thousands and thousands of steps in the right direction.