We all want to be healthier, but sometimes it can be hard to know where to start. Not to worry, use Freedcamp and follow these simple steps to start your path to better health.

1. Organize your weight loss research

With so much great information on weight loss it’s very important to organize what you find in one place while you generate your getting fit routine. From the right diet option for you to the best workout routines it’s crucial to review all your options and see what fits your lifestyle.

Create a Discussion group about research. Suggested topics include:

• Caloric intake to lose desired weight. Find a good calculator that lets you input your weight and your desired weight to see how many calories you need per day to reach this goal in your time frame.
• Workout routines/ Walking schedules. You have many options when it comes to staying active to help expedite the weight loss process. Please keep in mind that the most important factor here is to ease yourself into any routine you are going to follow. Rather than try to walk 5 miles day one, you should probably just start by walking until you feel good. Pushing yourself early on can easily cause harsh muscle fatigue that ends up causing you to cancel your routine all together. But if you start slow and work your way up you will feel a lot more confident. If you go to the gym, never compare yourself to others. You don’t know if they’ve been in the gym for years or use to be a professional athlete. Move at your own pace and care only about your own results.
• Free online videos. Find good online videos that you can follow to do exercises at home in front of the TV like yoga or other types of dance exercises.

2. Create your action plan

Create a Task group with all the different routines and diets you would like to follow. You should have a place where you can see at a quick glance everything you are trying to achieve. Create Tasks with your desired workout routines and another group with diet options. For example:

• Fitness:
  • Week 1-4: Couch to 5k (iOS app)
    • Week 1: Walk 0.5 miles a day
    • Week 2: Walk 1 mile per day after a 3 day rest after week 1
  • Week 4-8: Gym routines
    • Week 4: Light exercises in the gym
    • Week 5: Start gym routine
      • Monday: Legs cardio
      • Tuesday: Arms
      • Wednesday: Break
      • Thursday: Upper Body
      • Friday: Legs machine exercises and abs
• Diet
  • Week 1-2: Reduce current calorie intake by 1000 calories
    • Meals under 2000 calories
  • Week 2-4: Reduce calorie intake to 1200 calories
    • 1200 calorie meals
    • Cheat day every Sunday

It is absolutely crucial that you have an action plan you can follow. If you don’t know exactly what to do and when to do it you will get stressed out and stop progress.

Any uncertainty in what you should be doing will cause you to move on from your goals.

As mentioned above in step 1 you should be very careful with how fast you get into your ideal weight loss schedule. Give yourself some time to get started and include things like cheat days where you can eat whatever you want.

You can also utilize Freedcamps Calendar to schedule all your walks, workouts, and meals. For example:

• [03/01/2017]: Walk 0.5 miles
• [03/01/2017]: Broccoli dinner meal
• [03/02/2017]: Walk 0.75 miles

3. Set Milestones to stay on track

It can be very hard to stay on track if you can’t see results that you can understand. For example a simple goal like loosing 10lbs in 2 months will help you strive for something when you weigh yourself on the scale. By being able to check these Milestones off you will get a special type of fulfillment which motivates you to hit new goals. Without Milestones your sense of accomplishment will be basically nonexistent. Sample Milestones:

• Lose 10lbs in 2 months
• Walk/run 1 miles in under 12minutes
• Eat 1200 calories per day

The milestones app will let you add Tasks you’ve created above into these Milestones so you have a clear picture of how you will get to this goal.

4. Track progress

You can use Tasks or Discussions to create logs with your progress. This can include your weight every week, and a selfie in the mirror. After 2-6 months seeing your first selfie compared to now will give you a whole new burst of energy to continue on your way to your goals. Sample Task group:

• Progress
  • Week 1 [02/01/2017]: 195lbs / 14%body fat /  1 mile walk {attachment selfie}
  • Week 2 [02/08/2017]: 191lbs / 13.5% body fat / 2 mile walk {attachment selfie}

It is very important to ignore comparing week 1 selfie with week 2, progress takes time. Weightloss is a long term game of dedication and consistency.

5. Include friends and family to help keep you motivated

Sometimes our own self motivation is good enough to keep us on track, but we can always use a little help and a nudge at the right time. Use Freedcamps collaboration features to add a friend or a family member to stay updated with your progress. Even better if they are interested in loosing weight with you. You can keep each other motivated and have twice the resources in doing research.

Alternatively adding your personal trainer can be even better, they can add Tasks for you and stay up to date with your progress so they can talk to you the next time you meet.