One of the first things you’ll want to do is get in a long-term mindset. Too often, people get discouraged if they don’t see progress right away. You have to keep in mind that the overall goal is health and most of the time, you’ll see positive side-effects like weight-loss, reduction of aches/pains, increased energy, and more. But, depending on the person and their health condition, this can take time – maybe a long time. As long as you don’t only focus on one marker and look at the big picture instead, you’ll see improvement! Sometimes it’ll be lost weight, sometimes it’ll be certain joints don’t hurt anymore, maybe you’ll be buckling your belt a notch tighter! Bottom line is: you should enter into this as a new way of life – this is how you live now; it’s not just a diet that you’re trying for a week or two. Commit for the long-haul and be determined and you will see results!

A typical time-frame I recommend to make changes is a week.

Each week, try to make a change and commit to that for the entire week. Don’t try to add in 20 things or completely change your daily routine; this will make it difficult to adapt to your life and stick with. If you only have to focus on and/or adjust to 1 thing per week, it makes it a lot easier to do and less overwhelming. Plus, this helps with the whole long-term mindset, as you’ll need several weeks to really make major changes and it’ll be easier to fit into your lifestyle this way.