ONE small change to start your weight loss journey

It can be overwhelming and very stressful to know where to start your weight loss journey. What should you do first? Where do you even start?

Well besides joining the 28-Day Weight Loss Challenge and downloading the app here are a few more ideas to help get you started on the right foot.

Discover below the ONE daily habit or tip that can make a difference to your weight loss journey with Healthy Mummy.

ONE small change to start your weight loss journey

Our Motivating Mums for April have shared with us the first thing they did to kick off their weight loss success with The Healthy Mummy. Read their fab tips below.

Jacqui Yole has lost 19kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

The very first change I made was committing to increasing my exercise – this looked like a short walk every 2- 3 days. Initially just a 3km walk that increased over time.

After that I addressed the food I was cooking, mainly serving sizes. This is where the Healthy Mummy recipes came in. I looked at simple swaps with family favourites. Eg. Devilled sausages, meatloaf, rissoles, etc. Just a direct swap to the Healthy Mummy version.

Fiona pictured above with 10kg sugar to compare her weight loss.

Fiona Redding has lost 10kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

I changed to only having Healthy Mummy dinners and using the app to exercise daily. Then when that became a habit I introduced Healthy Mummy lunches then snacks and Smoothies.

Katie pictured above with 12kg sugar to compare her weight loss.

Katie Leigh has lost 12kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

When I first started I set timers to remind me to eat. I used to skip breakfast and then binge eat at about 1pm as I was starving. So I set an alarm on my phone for the morning with “Smoothie” as the title to remind myself to have my morning Smoothie.

Amy Harper has lost 10kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

My journey started by replacing breakfast for a Smoothie. Setting myself a step goal each day and replacing my favourite recipes for the Healthy Mummy versions.

Krista Hatzakortzian has lost 12kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

Water intake and counting calories was my first step. Once I had that down pat I introduced some Healthy Mummy meals and walking.

Tahnee pictured above with 10kg of Healthy Mummy products to compare her weight loss.

Tahnee Anderson has lost 10kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

Water intake and 10,000 steps and also calories is what I did when I first started, then once I got the hang of that I started with the exercise and adding in my Healthy Mummy Smoothies.

Amy pictured above with 20kg sugar to compare her weight loss.

Amy Melillo has lost 20kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

Starting my journey, I had to know my why. Having a goal and breaking it down into smaller goals to achieve so I didn’t become overwhelmed.

Have a meal plan especially in the early days to establish a routine to help guide you. Education is your best friend for learning healthy habits and in order to live a healthy balanced lifestyle and not a diet cycle.

Elle pictured above with 15kg of chocolate boxes to compare her weight loss.

Elle Bullock has lost 15kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

Spending one day on the weekend meal prepping was a commitment that I made that would positively impact the rest of the week. The first two weekends, it was a whole day of cooking- but smarter recipe picking and planning and now I can do the whole week’s prep in 3-4 hours.

Tan Louise pictured above with 44kg sugar to compare her weight loss.

Tan Louise has lost 44kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

One daily habit was setting aside water bottles for my water intake for the day.

Chelsea pictured above with 60kg sugar to compare her weight loss.

Chelsea Dixon has lost 60kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

When I started my journey I cut my sometimes foods out slowly, then I could make the choice to either have them or not which made it easier moving forward.

But I switched all my meals to Healthy Mummy meals that I liked eg: rissoles & vegs, schnitzel & veg & Stroganoff and used the scales to see exactly how much I was eating. I used the Smoothies too because I don’t like breakfast.

Michelle Knight has lost 20kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

K.I.S.S method – Keep it simple sweetheart and be kind to yourself.

Gemma pictured above with 36kg sugar to compare her weight loss.

Gemma Corey has lost 36kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

The first “habit” I had to learn was that I needed to trust the process. At first I didn’t trust the target calorie intake from the BMR calculator. It seemed too high an intake to ever be effective for weight loss. Mainly because it was sooo different from the 1200 calorie diets I was used to seeing. I also didn’t understand the activity level. I worked an office job so “sedentary” seemed appropriate, when I really needed “lightly active” at least.

From this I thought that if I “should” lose weight eating 1800 calories per day, I WOULD lose even MORE if I ate less. Seems simple right? I was so wrong. I wasted the first few months intermittently starving myself and then often being so hungry I’d binge eat my Healthy Mummy chocolate snacks at the end of the day.

Needless to say, I gained even more weight. In the end it was watching the motivating mums in the Facebook community that helped me understand that yes, I needed to eat that amount of calories and I would actually start to lose weight! And here I am, 4 years later and 35kg lighter, still eating that 1700-1800 calories per day!!!

A quick tip is to “give yourself some grace”! You will most definitely stuff up, eat too much or miss a workout. It’s too stressful and hard trying to be “perfect”. Just move on and make a better choice for the next meal next day. Do not wait for the next week, month or challenge!

Carmen pictured lifting 22kg of sugar to compare her weight loss.

Carmen ChongNee has lost 22kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

My top 2 when first starting was Sleep! Both quality and quantity. So making sure I turned screens off an hour before bed to stop blue light from interfering with melatonin production and because viewing particular social media but sometimes shows too would keep my brain spinning and send my anxiety into over drive to help improve quality. And making sure I’m going to bed minimum 8hrs before I need to get up. Usually 10pm to be up at 6am. If I’m up with a baby through the night like I am currently I add an extra 30-45 mins to counter the time I’m up so trying to get to bed by 9/9.30 at the latest to be up at 6am.

The other tip is exercise. So many benefits for mood and energy. I started super small with literally 5minutes. Something that was small enough to know I could commit to doing it daily so I could just practice showing up for myself. With these as my foundation I have been able to build from there, progress was slow at first but with each new small habit progress is now building momentum.

Kate pictured above with 10kg of canned food to compare her weight loss.

Kate Niland has lost 10kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

Water was a huge one for me. Along with portion sizes!!

Using the recipes on the app helped me tone down a lot with how much I was plating up, for all of us not just myself.

From there, meal prepping. I’m still not a huge fan when doing it (I loathe cooking!) but during the week it is soooooo helpful and I thank past Kate.

Simple steps like this and joining in on the chats the Healthy Mummy Community page to see you’re not alone is great for mate-ship and keeping yourself accountable.

Jacqui Gubb has lost 14kg with the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge

Tracking my water on the app really helped me as I’d often forget to drink water throughout the day, plus now I also always have some type of water bottle next to me to remind me.

I often would skip breakfast so using the Healthy Mummy Smoothies and getting smoothie recipes off the app I knew I was starting the day right.

I didn’t use the Healthy Mummy workouts for a long time, at first my exercise was just going for walks, even if the walk was just around the corner taking the kids to the park or the shops (instead of driving).

Even now I’m still just taking it one day at a time, as we all know having kids our days don’t always go to plan so I’d try to give myself goals for the overall week not set days.

We hope these tips from our Community members help you feel more confident to start your weight loss journey.