One of the most important pieces of advice I can give on losing weight and maintaining that weight loss is this; Be consistent. Simple, straight forward and best of all, very easy. Or is it?

Unfortunately, it isn’t very easy. The hardest part about change is making better choices and being consistent with those choices.

Consistency is the core of any work-out or diet plan. You just have to be consistent. The time you eat/workout, what you eat, how you workout, where you eat/workout all need to be consistent to see real results and to make a real change, especially in the beginning.

With eating, it can be hard to be 100% consistent, as life will always find a way to get in there and jab a stick in your spokes.

It’s difficult to deal with changing eating habits for several reasons, most of which are social.

Eating at restaurants is not always a great idea, but it’s normal, it’s socially acceptable, sometimes it’s even expected.

You can get around the restaurant conundrum by choosing healthy menus options and eating half of what you are served, instead of the entire too-large portion. This is difficult, especially when you are trained to clean your plate. But, look at it as a battle of wills that you must win. Short of that you can always call the server over to take your plate after you’ve eaten half, leaving behind no temptation.

Eating six meals a day is hard, as the world is built around a notion of three meals per day. Your job probably isn’t going to give you two additional breaks a day to eat, but they already give you a lunch break and probably two fifteen minute breaks, one before and one after lunch. Use those breaks to eat a small nutrition bar or a banana and some cottage cheese, something small and nutritious to keep your body fueled.

What about smoking, when will I smoke? Guess what, you won’t. Stop smoking, it’s counter intuitive to losing weight and so bad for you. Really if you still smoke in this era of knowledge you’re being an idiot, in the 1950’s maybe I could let it slide, but enough is known now to factually state it’s just plain stupid behavior.

I digress.

So eating consistently is not easy, but it can be done if you plan for it. Just like working out.

You get up a bit early to get a workout in or maybe you go at lunch-time or in the evening after work. Doesn’t make a difference so long as you go. Be consistent.

I work out six times a week, three days are cardio and three are weight training, alternating days of course. I always workout before breakfast, always. even if I wake up late from a long night of coding, I still workout before breakfast, consistency.

Never skip the gym. It’s a total of one hour per day, sometimes as little as twenty minutes—on cardio days. If you don’t have a spare hour per day, get up earlier, or go to bed later, but don’t skip it, never skip it.

Working out consistently will help you a lot on those days where the eating consistently fails you. You need to build and strengthen your muscles in order to efficiently burn fat.

I eat six meals a day and drink sixteen cups of water each and every day, consistency.

My point is this, it does not matter when, how or why you eat or work-out it only matters that you do it consistently and without excuses. Making an excuse for why you interrupted your new life change only sets you back another day from reaching those goals and days add up.

Also remember, long term you cannot be successful without both right eating and daily exercise. Sure you’ll shed pounds doing one or the other in the short term, but in order to make a life long change you need both consistently.