I lived most of my life in the hot desert of Arizona. I loved the hotter and drier climate and growing up, fell in love with the desert and eventually became a trained desert survival instructor. Yes, the summers were blazing hot, but we didn’t have to deal with snow and ice in the winter. It wasn’t unusual for the family to have Christmas dinner outside. The most dangerous driving conditions were the dust storms that rolled in every summer.

The wonderful winter climate was also a draw to millions of older folks. The area I lived in swelled by as much as a million ‘winter visitors’. Some retired to the desert, but most lived further north or in the east, but wintered in the desert. We affectionately called them snow birds.

Seeing so many older people, it seemed that there were two main body types among the snow birds – those that looked under nourished or ill or those who had spent a lifetime of enjoying their favorite foods as they were pleasantly plump.

The older we get, the harder it is to lose those pounds that we spent so many years accumulating. Many turn to fad diets and diets recommended by friends and they will lose some pounds but in time, those lost pounds are found and perhaps more. Some get desperate and turn to more drastic measures such as gastric bypass surgery, stomach stapling and others.

I know some who have taken the more drastic steps to lose their weight and a few claim it was the best decision of their lives and others say it was the start of a cascade of other health problems that all started due to the drastic step the took, causing them to regret it.

If are one of those who are entering your later years and carrying too much extra baggage around the middle and other body locations, here are some tips to help you lost those pounds in a more natural and healthy way.

1- Set Smart Goals – Too many people who try to lose weight, set their sights or goals on a final weight which may be a long way off and thus they get discouraged and return to their old ways. It’s recommended to set shorter reachable goals. For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds, set your first goal of losing just 5 pounds. When you reach that goal, you will feel like you have accomplished a great feat and then it’s time to set a new goal of just 5 more pounds. You’ll find that losing 5 pounds at a time is much easier than setting a quest to lose 50 pounds. You won’t get discourage and quit nearly as easy.

2- Plan Ahead – if you know you want to lose 5 pounds, think of the healthier foods you need to start eating and then plan a week’s menu. Take that menu with you when you shop and just buy per your menu. Plan to spend more time exercising or being active. Perhaps, plan to spend 10 minutes a day walking in your neighborhood or at your local mall. Follow your plan and after reaching each short-term goal, plan to spend 15 minutes and then 20 minutes walking or exercising.

3- Involve Your Family – having the support, help and encouragement of your family is a huge motivator. Have them walk with you or help you with your menu planning. In a number of cases, some or all of the family will join you on your new menu and exercise, benefitting them all.

4- Weekly Check-ins – set a day every week where you check to see how you are doing. Many people designate Saturday morning, before breakfast to step on the scale and even take measurements of the waist and other areas that need reducing. Many find it helpful to keep a written record of the progress. I personally like to use an Excel file on my computer where it is easy to see the progress.

5- Cheat Meals – many people end up stopping their diets because they cheated and ate a meal that wasn’t on the diet. Once they cheated, they feel guilty and end up putting the weight back on. Perhaps, make you Check-in Day a day for a cheat meal. Don’t go whole hog with 3,000 calories, but when you plan you weekly menu, plan for a meal with some of your favorite foods, but also keep mind that the more you overeat, it just makes reaching your next Smart Goal further off.

6- Moderation – no more seconds at meal time. Don’t fill your plate to overflowing, but start reducing the amount of what you eat. If you do this gradually, you’ll soon discover that you are eating less and losing more weight.

7- Forgiveness Plan – we are all human and we all will slip up from time to time. Instead of allowing the guilt of cheating or slipping up overwhelming you, learn to forgive yourself and even use it as motivation to get back on track. It’s also important to learn why you slipped up and then consider ways to prevent that kind of slip up from happening again. If it was due to a change in schedule and time constraint, have a back-up plan or even a quick and healthy meal kept in the freezer that you can put in the microwave, heat, eat and run, if necessary.

8- Rewards – I know so many people who set rewards with a binge of their favorite foods, but that is obviously counter-productive. Set up affordable and non-caloric rewards – a movie, new dress-blouse-slacks-shirt, or whatever is special for you. When you reach your final goal, have a bigger reward waiting such as a new slimmer wardrobe.

Start your life-changing journey with baby steps and before long, you’ll be taking bigger adult steps with the new slender you.