There’s no doubt about it that weight loss can be a very difficult thing to deal with, particularly here in the United States, where temptation tends to be everywhere. After all, the vast majority of us lead incredibly busy lives, juggling careers with social lives and family lives and trying to get everything else that we need done (from grocery shopping to carpooling). Cooking a healthy meal or finding a chunk of time to exercise can seem nothing if not completely and utterly impossible. And even when we do have the time to do these things, how many of us actually have the energy to do them?

But for far too many people here in the United States, weight loss has become necessary, as up to one third of all people are overweight and another one third of the adult population would be considered to be obese by medical professionals. Being obese can have a tremendously negative impact on your health, considerably raising your likelihood of having a stroke, having a heart attack, or even developing (and dying from) certain types of cancer. Obesity also puts a tremendous strain on your joints, leaving many obese people with considerable mobility issues after a certain point in time. Obesity is so dangerous as a long term condition that it has even been classified as the second leading cause of preventable death, behind smoking cigarettes alone.

So how can you lose the weight even while living an incredibly busy and fast paced life? For starters, it’s important to have a support network. In fact, up to seventy percent of people believe that having a support network in place is absolutely key to having a successful weight loss journey. However, up to eighty percent of all people who are currently attempting to lose weight are trying to do it all on their own, a method of weight loss that is not likely to be long lasting. In addition to this, up to half of all those who have failed (or are at a standstill) in their weight loss journey say that it’s because they weren’t able to self motivate and self discipline.

For many people, this support network will be made up of family and friends, who perhaps have struggled with similar things and even gone on a similar journey. If you don’t have such people in your life, consider hiring a healthy lifestyle coach. In fact, a healthy lifestyle coach might even end up being a better person to guide you than a friend or family member.

For instance, a healthy lifestyle coach can help you to devise a customized weight loss plan. This customized weight loss plan should incorporate a number of things, from your diet to your workouts and workout calendar. A customized weight loss plan will be tailor made to you, meaning that a customized weight loss plan is likely going to be easier to deal with than something that is much more general. A customized weight loss plan is also likely to be easier to maintain, meaning that weight loss maintenance will be much easier once the initial weight has been lost.

Aside from your customized weight loss plan, a healthy lifestyle coach can teach about the benefits of nutrition and exercise. On a whole, they will not only tell you how to care for you body, but they can teach you exactly why it’s important to do so. From the health problems you’ll face to the benefits of eating healthily past weight loss, a healthy lifestyle coach can do so much more than the simple creation of a customized weight loss plan.

In addition to this, a healthy lifestyle coach can provide you the support and the motivation that you need to keep going. They can help you to keep your eye on the prize, so to speak, always pushing you towards your goals. Giving up on weight loss can be far too easy, especially when other aspects of your life become stressful. However, sticking with it is well worth it, something that your healthy lifestyle coach will be able to remind you of on a regular basis all throughout the progress you make and the plateaus you hit.