A perfectionist's weight-loss plan

Change one thing at a time
Another great approach is to forget about how many pounds you have to lose and concentrate on changing your eating habits. But don't change everything at once, or you'll become overwhelmed and frustrated. Instead, pick one eating habit -- your nightly bowl of ice cream, perhaps -- and make a change. Switch to low-calorie ice cream, cut your serving size in half, leave off the hot fudge, or whatever it takes to make a small but definite change.

Stick with it for a week or two, and then make another change -- switch from half-and-half to whole milk in your coffee, for example. Sustain that change for a week or two, and add another. The idea is to pick small goals, achieve them, feel comfortable with them, and then add more goals. In other words, take baby steps.

Learn to take baby steps
The “baby step” approach is the complete opposite of what perfectionists are usually drawn to. We perfectionists don't like baby steps -- we like big, giant steps. We like to leap! When we set out to lose weight, we pick a dramatic weight-loss goal, an unrealistic exercise plan, and the diet of a penitent monk.

We start out full of excitement and purpose and stick to our goals like glue for three days. Then something happens -- the babysitter calls in sick or a meeting runs long -- and we have to skip a workout. Because we miss a workout, we dispense with our Spartan diet and gobble up a double cheeseburger at lunch. Then we give up on the whole thing because we weren't able to do it all perfectly.

Be patient with your exercise plan
It's a hard concept for perfectionists to buy into, but taking baby steps is an incredibly effective way to achieve weight loss or any other goal. Taking baby steps with exercise leads you naturally to weight loss and healthier eating -- not on day one, but eventually.

As opposed to thinking you have to lose one hundred pounds, think about taking a five-minute walk once a day. Next week, increase your walk to ten minutes. And so on. People who take baby steps can eventually run marathons. They can lose dozens of pounds. But it takes time and patience, two skills that tend to be in short supply among perfectionists. But don't worry -- you can find time and develop patience.

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Now that you're setting realistic goals, try keeping a fitness journal of your progress.

Excerpted from Be Happy Without Being Perfect by Alice D. Domar, Ph.D. and Alice Lesch Kelly, Copyright © 2008 by Alice D. Domar and Alice Lesch Kelly. Excerpted by permission of Crown, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.