How many of you have ever said, “I know what to do to lose weight, I just can’t seem to do it?”

How frustrating it is to know the information but not know how to make it your new habit. So what’s the answer to “How do we get motivated?” In a word, practice.

What’s one thing we all know about losing weight? Let’s take cutting back on starchy carbs. How do you practice that? You could eliminate one carb serving per day. Have your sandwich on one slice of bread vs two, skip the rice at dinner and add in more vegetables, switch out the banana in your cereal for berries. Better yet with that last breakfast, skip the cereal entirely and replace it with eggs or sliced chicken or turkey.

You might ask, what good is one small change? It’s as good as it gets when you are stopping yourself with the reasoning, “I know what to do but not how to do it.” Not to mention that one thing will lead to another, and in this case, to lower blood sugar which in turn leads to less insulin resistance and less fat storage.

And, you will be practicing. Practice begets mastery and mastery is what we are all striving for in this lifestyle habits game. We want mastery in making health and weight loss promoting choices and in managing our energy.

Recently I attended a two-day event to learn to make my communications and presentations more “Brain sticky” as Lizabeth Phelps, the creator of the program calls it. I want to be a more powerful experience maker for my audience both live and on the phone during my Weight Loss Express. Saying I know I can do what she says and actually having to practice her techniques are vastly different. Rearranging my information using her template–which is based on the latest in brain science as it relates to learning–took lots of thinking and un-thinking. It felt awkward in my head. Standing in front of a small audience to practice delivering it unravelled all of the confusion and helped me see how best to do certain steps. In my head it was a challenge, with practice, it became not only easier but comfortable and preferable to what I had been doing.

How does this apply to your wanting to lose weight or change some not great lifestyle habits? If all you do is think about what you know to do, but don’t practice it in your day to day, it will always feel impossible or difficult. I heard this expression years ago and it is powerful: “Leaders take action because there is information in it.” You are the leader in your life and by doing, practicing, you’ll get information and even inspiration to move you forward.

What can you put into practice today? It only needs to be one thing. You’ve got the knowledge now get some practice and you’ll be celebrating results in no time!