Week #1: Are You Ready for a Change?

The first step of the EatingWell Diet is deciding whether you're actually ready.

READER'S COMMENT:

"quick question regarding the dinners specifically. it appears that there are about 2 options for the main entree for dinner and then everything else below those 2 items... are those everything else you can eat? or do you need to choose...

EatingWell Diet Challenge
Week #1: Are You Ready for a Change?
Week #2: Set Goals
Week #3: Boost Exercise
Week #4: Make Smart Choices
Week #5: Outsmarting Eating Triggers
Week #6: Get support
Week #7: Recharge Your Weight Loss
Week #8: Embrace Challenges
Week #9: Solve Problems
Week #10: Think Big Picture
Week #11: Be Nice to Yourself
Week #12: Celebrate Success

More Resources
Healthy Diet Recipes, Menus and Tips
EatingWell Diet Challenge Recipes
Essential Weight-Loss Tools
EatingWell Menu Planner
Diet Meal Plans

Most diet plans tell you to start losing weight right NOW. Never mind that you’re working 70-hour weeks or you’re taking care of two toddlers and a sick parent, and that right now, quite honestly, is not a very convenient time to start to follow a strict diet and hit the gym every day. What you really need to do to lose weight successfully is figure out what’s realistic for your “real” life. (Are you ready for a complete lifestyle overall right now? Take our quiz.) No matter what’s going on in your life, a good first step to making healthy diet changes is starting a food diary where you record everything you eat and drink—and how many calories these foods and beverages contain. Do this for a week to get a sense of what you’re eating now.

Articles, tips and community discussion:

Are you ready for a change? Take our quick quiz to figure out if this is a good time for you to start a diet.
Consider the pros and cons of making a strong commitment to losing weight.
Learn why starting your food diary is so important.
Community discussion: Tell us what you’ve learned from self-tracking.