Think about the times that you might have subjected yourself to a bizarre list of foods to eat, promised yourself you’d exercise 3 hours a day, or decided you wouldn’t eat a certain type of food, only to “fail” three days later … sound familiar? The reality is these types of unrealistic expectations don’t lead you to learning why you’ve gained the weight and they don’t set up tools to help you discover what your body needs and how to restore yourself to health. And they certainly don’t restore your self respect or self love.

It’s time to let go of past failures, disappointments and defeats. All of that is in the past, and nothing can be done about it. It’s empowering to put your past in its proper place and start anew.

The practice of Gradual Progress offers you some guidelines to help you create a lifetime of fitness healthy living, rather than going for a quick fix. When it comes to your health and your diet, short-term solutions don’t work. We’ve outlined a few strategies to help you begin your weight-release journey:

• Set incremental, attainable goals for yourself
  Instead of focusing on your total weight loss, set incremental goals with realistic timelines. It’s a lot easier to imagine and plan on losing 10 percent of your weight than to consider your total weight loss, especially if it’s more than 30 pounds.
   
• Start tracking your food
  Begin to understand what exactly you are eating and how much of it. Tracking your food is an invaluable tool for weight loss. You can make this as simple or elaborate as you have time for, but find some way to record what you eat. Eventually we’ll start to incorporate how the food you eat makes you feel, but remember Gradual Progress – simply tracking is a great start.
   
• Add one healthy action per week
  Consider things that you can add to your daily life that can ultimately improve the quality of your life. You might consider drinking at least eight glasses of water, eating a fruit and a vegetable each day, taking a multivitamin, walking daily, or eating whole grains. Write down your list and choose one action to start with. Do that action everyday for one week. At the start of the second week, pick the second thing on your list and you incorporate that into your daily life. With each week, you will gradually add in healthy habits that will help change your life. 
   
• Eliminate one unhealthy action per week
  Next consider things you should remove from your daily life that will help you move into a healthier lifestyle. This list might feel endless … but some things might be to stop drinking soda, reduce caffeine, limit sugar, or stop eating processed and refined foods. Consider your list and start where you can. Eliminate one item the first week, another the second week, and so on. 
   
• Get support
  There are plenty of resources that can assist you in your weight loss. Reach out to supportive friends or family, seek comraderie on message boards, or read something inspiring. Find ways to nurture yourself as you begin this process of self-discovery and reconnection. 
   
• Start moving
  If you are not currently practicing a workout program, have never had a workout program or are not able to remain consistent with your program, you are not alone. It’s important to start moving, wherever you are. If you can walk for ten minutes a day, and that’s more than what you are doing now, that’s great! Again, using realistic, attainable goals will lead you to greater long term success. The Chi Walking technique is a pain-free, efortless way to move your body, at any size, in a pain and injury-free way. 

By beginning your weight release in this graceful and nurturing way, with the philosophy of Gradual Progress, you’ll find that your decisions in all aspects of your life will start to naturally become healthier and more holistic. This is just the beginning, and a perfect way to start moving towards overall health and fitness.  

The Chi Walking technique is a way to move your body ... at any size. Sometimes the gym can be intimidating, and the thought of trying to go out for a run might seem like a far-off, crazy dream. You can begin a Chi Walking program. All you need is the intention, a place to walk and walking shoes. The Chi Walking technique helps you learn how to connect with your body in a way that helps you learn how to connect with yourself. We’ll revisit this idea as time goes on, but for now … let’s get you moving!

The Chi Walking book, DVD and Workbook are the best places to start. The Chi Walking book outlines the philosophy, ideas and the focuses to give you the full Chi Walking program. The Chi Walking DVD helps you visually see the focuses so that you can best practice them in your own body. The Workbook is a great, efficient way for you to really build a full practice of movement. It helps you develop a steady walking practice, guided by 8 weeks of workouts, giving you the tools necessary to get moving. If reading an entire book feels too daunting, you can get started just with the DVD and Workbook.

Part of developing a health and fitness practice is doing something regularly until it becomes routine. The Chi Walking program will help you get into a routine that can help you develop a lifelong practice of healthy living.

Three reasons why The Chi Walking technique will work for you:

• The Chi Walking technique starts with teaching you good posture. When your posture is aligned, it dramatically helps your body move with extra weight making walking easier when you’re just getting started.
   
• The Chi Walking technique encourages you to focus on strengthening your core muscles, just like Pilates or yoga, but while you walk. Strong core muscles improve balance and reduce leg and knee and ankle stress.
   
• The Chi Walking technique gets the chi flowing throughout your body, revitalizing your mind and body. This mind and body connection is essential for you to begin your exercise program in a healthy and sustainable way.  

There are two major aspects to the practice of weight release. The first is that you implement good health habits so that you develop the practice which you will need throughout your journey. The other aspect is that at some point you might need to do some deeper examination into the mental and emotional aspects of how you gained the weight and how to process your feelings in a healthy way as you release it.

First, let’s focus on the health habits. In order to create the conditions that will lead you to successful weight release, you must gather your health and fitness tools and resources. This is done by eliminating foods and triggers from your home, car and office. Then create a healthy, realistic and nourishing meal plan that is workable for you. You must prepare yourself both physically and emotionally for the transformational fitness work that you will begin.

Prepare yourself emotionally for the changes that your body will experience. The space that our physical bodies take up in the world has a profound effect on our emotional body and this aspect of weight release and physical transformation should not be taken lightly. As you implement these good habits, start to restructure your lifestyle, plan and prepare your meals and your mind for weight release, something will happen … you’ll start to release weight.

The habits that you change can be the beginning to a successful weight loss journey. As weight starts to come off, you might notice something else exciting happening. As you start to feel successful in your endeavors, you’ll start to feel empowered and approach your health in a more proactive way. These are powerful feelings and should be honored. You are in a good place in your journey.

This is also a good time to consider what some of the underlying factors are that have contributed to your weight gain. Every person has personal and significant underlying reasons with any health issue. This is an important and potentially life changing aspect to your continued progress.

The examination of these underlying issues can be uncomfortable and difficult. You may find that your excitement about your program is challenged because of the difficult work that you are doing. That’s when the good habits that you have worked to develop will become an essential tool for you. Even if the work is challenging, you will have a well established routine, and consistent and structured habits to help you through the rough times. The ultimate goal is to release the weight, and to let it go for good. Acknowledging these underlying issues – while still maintaining your practice – will help set you up for greater success, not only releasing your weight but in not gaining it back. This is big, important work and we encourage you to honor your process and your journey.  

Resources to help you master the Chi Running basics:

• Chi Running Book: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless Injury-Free Running
• Chi Running DVD: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless Injury-Free Running