Eating healthy and staying fit is difficult, especially during the holidays. I returned to school from winter break to find that I had gained close to 10 pounds. Instead of eating those depressed feelings away, I decided it was time to make a drastic change in my lifestyle and improve my health.

I have definitely been seeing results.

Weight loss is an incredibly difficult journey for anyone. Whether you need to lose 20 pounds or 120, it is a long, drawn-out process that can take months to accomplish. This process demands patience not only in seeing results, but persistence to keep at it until you have finally reached your goal. That is why I have been following the “Three P’s” –- poise, patience and persistence.

Sarah Hlusko photo: Eating right and exercising not only can improve your health, it can improve your mood and motivation as well.

Besides these three great actions, I have found many helpful things that are available to assist in losing and tracking weight loss.

First, I began the Weight Watchers diet, a program developed to help fight the pounds by counting things like fat, carbohydrates, fiber and protein.

If you sign up for this program, it is $50 for the first three months and then $15 a month after that – a relatively inexpensive plan.

There are multiple iPhone apps for Weight Watchers that I use daily are free when you sign up for the program.

One is the Weight Watchers Mobile App to track your daily eating habits, and the other is the Weight Watcher Scanner that scans bar codes at stores for nutritional information. Both tell you how many “points” a particular food item is worth.

The thing that I like the most about this program is that it lets me eat whatever I want. It just makes me extremely conscious of portion size.

If Weight Watchers doesn’t sound appealing, there are many other roads to take when it comes to losing weight.
Simply supplementing your diet with more fruits and veggies is definitely key when trying to achieve a goal weight. Most of these delicious foods require more calories to burn off than what they actually consist of, making them filling, but not something that will cling to your hips.

Becoming active not only helps you burn fat and stay trim, but gives you an awesome energy and mood boost to keep yourself mentally healthy during this process.

I highly suggest the Nike Training app for the iPhone. This is like having your own personal trainer free of charge, and the exercises are easy enough that you can do them in your apartment.

It goes through workouts, whether it’s toning or cardio, has different levels of intensity and consists of videos that show you how to do each exercise. The best part is that you do all this to whatever playlist you select from your iTunes library.

The athletic center also offers a variety of classes every day in which students can participate. They consist of anything from yoga to kickboxing and really get your heart pumping. To find a class that interests you, visit the Recreation Center’s website located on the portal.

When I started trying to lose weight, I didn’t bombard myself with everything all at once. I began with the diet and slowly started implementing physical activity so I wouldn’t get burnt out. This has really worked well for me.
So far I have lost a total of 11 pounds over four weeks.

The thing that I have noticed more than the weight loss is my sense of drive, concentration and attitude have increased drastically in the last month.

Being healthy not only decreases your waistline, it makes you more focused and happier.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your life, a healthy diet and exercise can really be an easy way to boost your mood and keep you motivated.

There is no doubt that it has been working for me. Just remember to not get discouraged when you don’t see results right away. Practice the three P’s: poise, patience and persistence, and with enough time you will see many positive outcomes.