Take 7 small steps

Busy schedules and stressful shifts make it hard to lose weight. It can seem even more difficult on the job in an ambulance. The good news is you don’t have to figure it all out at once. Small changes make a huge difference in the long run, and it starts with taking a first small step that you can master.

Blair Brown, a dietitian and a professor in the Department of Nutrition and Metabolism at UTMB Health, breaks it down into baby steps you can tackle.

“If you try to change too much at one time, you’re going to get overwhelmed and you’re going to fail and you’re going to give up and say, ‘I can’t do this,’” Brown said. “Instead say, ‘OK, I’m going do this one day a week, I’m going to try to bring my lunch or I’m going to try to bring snacks.’”

After you get one day a week down, try for two or three days the next week.

“That’s a really good way to start making progress in a healthy way,” she said.

Plan your food

One of the easiest things you can do is plan your meals and snacks for the week. “If you have a couple of days off in the week, maybe that’s when you do all your grocery shopping and planning and pre-packing,” Brown said. “If Mondays are busier at work, maybe those are the days you tend to stop at fast-food places. But, if you can, make a simple switch and try to bring your lunch or snacks with you.”

In the beginning, you don’t have to plan out a whole week. Just take one day of the week and decide to bring your lunch or pack your snacks instead of grabbing fast food. Pick a time to eat something you prepared or eat something healthier than what you normally grab. Those small changes add up over time.