Most of us have seen some weight loss program or another or have been bombarded by all those commercials coming out now about how you can "Lose up to 20 pounds a week!" We watch the contestants on the shows exercise until they throw up, eat very little or don't actually see the food part of the program, then comes weigh in day where they lose 10 pounds and it 'still isn't enough'.

So you think you need to get into a workout routine that you run 'till you drop, while eating the minimal calories for the day, then you only drop a pound.

You think, it was only a pound, why should I kill myself over this? It should have been more, I feel like a failure.

Tv has warped our sense of reality. It's rare that one can consistently lose 10 pounds a week, even the morbidly obese that tend to be on these shows. They have nothing to do all day but work out.

Let's come back to reality. We have lives, we don't have the time to workout 8+ hours a day. If we were to workout that much in a day, we would certainly have to eat more than 1200 calories in a day or our bodies would shut down.

We know that one pound a week is not only feasible, it is one of the better ways to be losing the weight. You may think you did everything right to lose more than a pound in that week, but to think you 'only' lost a pound should not come as a failure. Every pound lost should be celebrated and a success when you're trying to lose excess weight. Never think "it was only a pound".

The next thing is the working out. Seeing the shows, they make it look like you need to work out so hard that you pass out/puke/break something. In reality, you just need to move. You need to move more than you did when you started. Doing arm/leg lifts is better than sitting there completely still. Taking a walk is perfectly acceptable, no matter how fast you're going. It is helpful to push yourself, but don't feel the need to injure yourself. Find something enjoyable and you'll stick to it for life.

Eating should be something enjoyable too. Yes, you need to eat less than you were when you hit your heaviest, you may even have to avoid certain things the majority of the time, but don't think the less is more thought. Your body still needs calories to exist. If you don't eat enough, your body will eat away at more than just the fat reserves. You'll start to become tired all the time and it will become harder to think.

The more you workout, the more energy your body will need. If you're working out that 8+ hours a day, you can get away with 2500 or more calories a day and still lose a lot of weight. I find having a device that accurately measures your full day movement is the most accurate, but if you're tracking your movement here, you can still estimate the amount of calories you need. Your fitness tracker will let you know in red type that you need to eat more for the amount of fitness you're doing. It works better when you stay in the ranges given. You'll be amazed at a better weight loss when you give your body the nutrition and calories it needs in a day. So if you're 'only' losing a pound, you may not be feeding it enough. There are so many factors in losing weight.

When all is said and done, we need to celebrate moving toward a healthy weight, one pound at a time. Even a half pound in a week is a step in the right direction. Some weeks you may not lose anything while you're gaining muscle. Celebrate the fact that you are healthier and better able to move every week than you were at your heaviest. You are getting better every day that you try. You are incredible!