Changing your life is more than wish fulfillment and positive thinking.  Motivation might get you started, but YOU must keep YOURSELF on track.  Anything worthwhile is not easy, and despite all of your determination and perseverance, you are going to have setbacks.  You are going to make mistakes and have failures, and there will be days when you just don’t feel like it.  What, besides the force of your willpower, is going to help you push through? -- the structures you put in place.  Here are some things you can do to clear the hurdles you are bound to face on your way to better health and fitness:

7 Tips to Help You Clear The Hurdles

1. Define your goals: Lose weight? Give yourself a realistic goal and start with small attainable goals to reach your end point.  Develop strength?  Define what that means to you in detail and resource your personal trainer about the methods and expectations of both parties involved on how to achieve this goal as well as how to measure your progress going forward.
2. Develop a detailed plan and stick to it: Take time to think about your goal and give yourself a realistic timeline to achieve it.  Determine what potential obstacles you may encounter and create a plan on how you can circumvent them (i.e. re-organize your day or week or modifying your caloric intake based on your activity level)
3. Manage your time: Align your day to get your most important things done.   Sleep.  Work.  Exercise. Family time.  Down time.  If you need to, schedule these things out daily on your calendar in allotted time slots and stick to it.  You’re a priority. You’re important too.
4. Take control: What are your nutritional challenges – identify those (i.e. do you have an affinity toward chips, ice cream, soda, beer?  Rid them from the house so if you want them you HAVE TO MAKE the CONSCIOUS DECISION to buy them and then consume them!).  Be scrupulous about what you tolerate in your mental environment:  Pay attention to the self-talk that guides your focus.  Pay attention to your positive self-talk and do not dwell on the negatives; being aware of your mental habits is the first step to changing them.
5. Celebrate your successes: Develop a ritual celebration for when you reach an important milestone – is that a massage, buying a new outfit or shoes, allowing yourself a small indulgence whether it be a dessert, adult beverage, or small serving of your favorite side dish like French fries, mac and cheese, or a slice of pizza? Learn to appreciate the internal feeling of accomplishment you get after a hard workout is completed or reaching one of your small attainable goals on your journey – it takes DISCIPLINE and DEDICATION to get there!
6. Commit to constant improvement: As you achieve your small attainable goals along your journey, you will realize that you are capable and your progress will accelerate.  You are taking control of your destiny and living the life you want.  Trust in yourself and those professionals with whom you are seeking support to keep you on track, follow the daily habits and your plans as they will guide you to the outcomes you want.  This is about developing new life habits.
7. Create a vision, and put structures in place to achieve it: Be mentally aware and ready to adjust, adapt and overcome. As trite as it sounds, you must seize the day, every day. Do it today!

How to do it all w/out getting overwhelmed