• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Organize Yourself Skinny
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Meal Prep
  • Freezer Cooking
  • Shop
menu icon
go to homepage
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Meal Prep
  • Freezer Cooking
  • Shop
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • About
    • Recipes
    • Meal Prep
    • Freezer Cooking
    • Shop
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×

    Home » Healthy Lifestyle and Weight Loss » How to Start Losing Weight: 5 Things You Must Do In The First Week

    How to Start Losing Weight: 5 Things You Must Do In The First Week

    Published: Oct 26, 2018 · Modified: Apr 26, 2022 by Tammy Overhoff

    Many people think they know how to start losing weight only to throw in the towel after a few days. Here are 5 things you need to do in the first week to set yourself up for longterm success.

    weight-loss-journey-first-week

    It’s completely normal to get excited when that a-ha moment hits and you’re finally ready to start losing weight. Sure, you’ve had moments like this before…but this time feels different. You want to jump in and get started! But hold on…

    I know exactly how you feel because I’ve been there. For years (decades) I couldn’t seem to make any weight loss efforts stick, even though I wanted it bad.

    Then, in 2010, it clicked big time.

    I finally got it together and committed to changing my habits. Instead of flying by the seat of my pants with food I started to meal plan and prep so healthy foods were ready to eat. This was huge! Actually, it still is. Then little by little I started to put in place other habits and routines and this made all the difference. For the first time I was losing weight!

    Grab Your FREE Freezer to Flourish Cheat Sheets!

    Learn the power of freezer prep and start making your life easier and healthier today!

    However, I needed to do things very differently. I couldn’t just wake up and expect change. I needed to take the time to set up my life so losing weight became a priority and my new hobby.

    That all started with the first week.

    Like I said, when you’re first starting to lose weight it’s easy, and totally normal, to jump in head first without really thinking past the Lean cuisines. But if you want get past the first week, and make real sustainable changes, then you must think about the first week differently. You almost have to relearn how to start losing weight.

    How to Start Losing Weight: 5 Things to Do During the First Week

    Get hot zones under control

    The first thing you need to do, before anything else, is get your environment set up to support your weight loss efforts. By environment I mean your home, work, car, and wherever you spend a lot of time. Essentially this means getting your hot zones under control.

    Hot zones are moments where you feel extremely overwhelmed and your decisions are more about survival instead of long term goals. For example, dinner’s not ready and kids are screaming, so instead of preparing a healthy meal you order a pizza.

    Healthy habits, routines, and changes are near impossible to make when you live primarily in the hot zone. Hot zones keep you dependent on old unhealthy habits. So, if you’re serious about losing weight, then getting your hot zones under control is one of the first things you need to do.

    This is some of the best weight loss advice I can give you. You can learn more about hot zones, and getting them under control, in this post.

    Think about this…

    If all your weight loss attempts have failed because food wasn’t ready, you ran out of time, and/or stress took over for whatever reason then you need to take a hard look at your hot zones and the role they have in your life.

    It’s one thing for hot zones to happen once in a while but if it’s the norm then do this first before trying to make any other changes.

    Mentally prepare for change

    The first week is tough, I’m not going to lie. Some old habits are hard to break and it takes a lot of mental toughness to break through it.

    During my first week I struggled terribly with giving up my nightly pig out session on pretzels. I used to sit on the couch with a huge bag of pretzels and just eat, eat, and eat some more while watching shows.

    That first week I gave up the 1000 calorie bag of pretzels I felt like I had legit withdrawal symptoms. I wanted to eat pretzels so bad and had to focus hard on staying away from them. I went up to my room and just fought through the cravings. Today, I don’t crave pretzels at all…but that first week was torture.

    Same with waking up early to exercise. The first week is tough. You’re tired and not used to it yet. However, if you can push through that first week it gets easier.

    Taking the time to wrap your brain around the new habits and routines you’ll need to put in place will be super helpful as you start to lose weight.

    If you need help with changing your mindset then check out this post:

    Attract Weight Loss Using Law of Attraction Habits

    Create a 2-3 week meal plan

    Food makes up 80% of your weight loss so eating the right foods is very important. I lost my first 30lbs simply by changing the way I ate. Exercise is important but when it comes to losing weight food matters more.

    So, after you have hot zones under control and your mind is in the right place, it’s time to start working on meal plans. A meal plan serves as your “food road map”. It tells you what to eat, how much to eat, and possibly even when to eat. Taking the time to put together a weekly meal plan is the first step in creating healthy food habits.

    To be honest, meal planning is one of my least favorite weight loss strategies. Which is the reason I recommend creating 2-3 meal plans at a time. This way, you only need to think about meal planning once every couple weeks or so. In my experience, anytime you can plan in advance is a good thing.

    I also suggest saving meal plans to be used in the future. You can easily save them as a document in Google drive or if you’re a Plan to Eat member you can save all meal plans and grocery lists to be used again. Here’s a 1-month free trial to Plan to Eat if you’d like to give it a test run.

    Of course, if you simply want someone to do all the meal planning for you then there are many options to choose from.

    Emeals is a weekly meal planning service that sends a meal plan to your email every week. There are so many weight loss meal plans to choose from and it only costs $58 a year. I’ve had a subscription since 2012 and currently subscribe to the Eating Well meal plan but I’ve also tried the clean eating, low-carb, Gluten-free, Mediterranean, and a few others. This is just dinners but you can also subscribe to a breakfast and lunch plan too. If you just want a healthy meal plan sent to you every week then this would be a great option. Get a 14-day free trial to Emeal here.

    Maybe you just want healthy meals delivered. You don’t want to deal with meal planning or grocery shopping. Again, you have options. You can subscribe to Sun Basket or Green Chef which are meal kit delivery services that deliver healthy recipes, and all the ingredients, to your door for you to cook at home. If you’re interested in a meal kit delivery service then read my review on which meal kit delivery services are the healthiest.

    Regardless of whether you create your own meal plan, have it email to you, or have dinners delivered to your door the point is to have a meal plan. A meal plan is essential as you start losing weight and throughout your entire journey.

    Get all your exercise gear together

    During the first week, your focus is going to be on creating the exercise habit. This means waking up early to exercise or going to the gym after work. You shouldn’t be worried about training for a Iron Man marathon. It’s all about habit! Remember motivation gets you started but habits keeps you going.

    To make sure you’re able to stick with an exercise habit I recommend getting all your exercise gear together that first week. This means purchasing new sneakers and exercise clothes – that’s if you need it. Also, getting your music ready by putting together playlists and getting a pair of wireless earbuds.

    Last, have exercise routines put together. It doesn’t need to be anything crazy but you should have an idea of what you’re going to do so you don’t show up and stare at the treadmill with zero clue.

    The goal is to wake up and get right into exercise. You don’t want to worry about finding clothes, looking for earbuds, or attempting to exercise in beat up sneakers. Take that first week to get everything ready!

    Another tip is to have all your exercise gear ready the night before. So, whether you exercise in the morning or after work it’s ready to go.

    Review schedule and block out time for grocery shopping, meal prep, and exercise.

    Not having time is the #1 excuse people give up on any lifestyle change. Here’s the thing, there’s never going to be enough time so it’s UP TO YOU to make changing your lifestyle a priority. One of my favorite quotes is if it’s a priority then you’ll make the time, it’s it not you’ll make an excuse.

    Take time that first week to review your schedule and make time for everything that needs to be a priority. So, this means time to create meal plans, grocery shop, meal prep, and exercise. ←-those things needs to happen!

    Also, you need to make time to keep your hot zones under control. This means putting in place routines that keep chaos to a minimum. So, block time to do laundry, weekly cleaning chores, and other morning and night routines to keep life running smoothly.

    Of course, many of these things are going to take longer than a week to make habit but the point is to take that first week to get ready! This time around you’re going to do things differently.

    Like I said, you’re going to relearn how to start losing weight. Don’t just jump in without a plan. Take that first week to really set your environment up for success. In the end, this is will make the difference between “another failed” weight loss attempt and finally creating long-term healthy habits!

    Sharing is caring!

    449 shares
    • Share
    • Tweet

    Healthy Lifestyle and Weight Loss

    About Tammy Overhoff

    Hi, I’m Tammy Overhoff, a busy mom, wife, and entrepreneur. I am the owner, author, and recipe developer here at Organize Yourself Skinny. Since 2011 Organize Yourself Skinny has become a trusted resource for clean eating recipes to meal prep, reviews, and lifestyle hacks to help you fit healthy habits and routines into your busy schedule. Check out my online shop Reset & Flourish for all of my eBooks, Guides, and Bundles!

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, I’m Tammy Overhoff, a busy mom, wife, and entrepreneur. I am the owner, author, and recipe developer here at Organize Yourself Skinny. Since 2011 Organize Yourself Skinny has become a trusted resource for clean eating meal prep recipes, reviews, and lifestyle hacks to help you fit healthy habits and routines into your busy schedule. Check out my online shop Reset & Flourish for all of my eBooks, Guides, and Bundles!

    More about me →

    Soup Recipes

    • overhead picture of pasta fagioli
      Pasta Fagioli
    • Healthy zuppa toscana soup in a bowl.
      Healthy Zuppa Toscana
    • healthy potato soup recipe
      Healthy Potato Soup
    • healthy stuffed pepper soup
      Stuffed Pepper Soup

    Helpful Reviews

    • Tammy Overhoff with her box from Thrive Market
      Thrive Market Review 2023: The Best Thrive Market Products!
    • Tammy Overhoff holding a package of butcher box chicken things and butcher box bacon for her butcher box review
      Honest Butcher Box Review 2023: The Best Butcher Box Meats!
    • Tammy overhoff holding her daily harvest box for her review
      Daily Harvest Review 2023: The Best Daily Harvest Meals!
    • Tammy Overhoff holding her green chef box that she will review
      Green Chef Review 2022: My Honest Opinion
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
    • FAQS

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    Copyright © 2022 Organize Yourself Skinny

    449 shares