You have a goal of toning your body. How are you going to start it. Do you prefer to start it right away or you spoil yourself for a given time, eat just as you please with all those sinful foods and the rest that make you guilty and after make your plan come to life, which when started, you wouldn't spoil yourself anymore. As for me I prefer it to start right after. I wouldn't wait anymore to make my goal happen, so I'd work hard for it as early as possible.
If your goal is to lose fat and gain some muscle, which is what toning is, then depending on your current lifestyle there are numerous ways to go about this. Ideally, you would not overindulge in 'unhealthy' foods before starting to lose fat, although cutting out junk food from your diet immediately is also unreasonable for most. It is generally recommended to gradually change your lifestyle, whether that is to slowly decrease the amount of soda you drink or starting a exercise regime. By gradually changing your lifestyle, you are more likely to keep those changes which makes your goal much easier. A diet with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit and minimal processed foods will improve your nutrient intake and aid in your fat loss. Further, daily physical activity is also ideal to help with toning.
As a personal wellness coach, I actually offer a 10-day program to my clients. Literally within 10 days, they will have guaranteed results if they stick to the plan strictly for 10 days. Some people indulge before starting the program, but once they start, they have to be strict. On the first day, we check their fat percent, muscle mass, metabolic age, waist, etc. If they cheat within the program, that affects their result on the 10th day weigh in. Basically, I just want to say that cheating when trying to reach your goal won't get you anymore. It will just encourage you to cheat again, then eventually give up because you love eating food so much. The best advice I can give you is to reach your ideal weight first, then reward yourself with occasional cheat meals as a celebration.
It depends on what you actually mean you are trying to do, as someone said above. Toning doesn't actually mean losing weight- usually it means maintaining your weight (or close to it) but re-compositioning your body so that you have more muscle and less fat. I think the best way to start, actually, is through a weight lifting regiment. Pull-ups, dead lifts, and squats are a good starting point.
I think if you are at the point of "setting a goal" for anything, you should be past the "spoil yourself" time. Otherwise you aren't really making a goal at all, right? As far as how to go about accomplishing goals, I think it depends very much on what motivates a person. Many are motivated by peer pressure. For them I'd recommend joining a gym and going to group fitness classes, or getting friends involved in working out and accountability. Others are motivated by competition. For them, I'd recommend running races or entering competitions that force them to train before competing. Still others are motivated by rewards. In that case, there are different programs to join that reward milestones with different things.
I think the best way to start is with a trainer. If you're just starting out with workouts and exercising often times you can actually accidentally injure yourself, which will only result in a longer time of not being able to work out (and maybe even fear of doing certain exercises because you don't want to get hurt. If you're a part of a gym, see if they have programs where you can work with trainers one-on-one for free. That, or if you have a friend who has been lifting weights for a long time maybe you can ask them for tips and a few training sessions?
It's about setting reasonable goals for yourself. People often overshoot their initial goals like "I will lose 25 pounds in 2 months." or something to that extent. Something that's helped me get healthy is setting much smaller and quicker goals that I can attain every week or two weeks. When I first started exercising, my first goal was "Workout 5 days this week and drink 4 full containers of water in my 24 Oz bottle each day." It wasn't about setting some arbitrary weight goal, it was about me getting my body ready to get healthier. My most recent 2 week goal is to run 20 miles during these 2 weeks. Not anything crazy, but it keeps me on schedule of running and working out everyday.
For me, I would also want to start asap and not indulge myself anymore and just go straight to business. Toning your body takes time, so you wouldn't want to delay that, right?
Last week, my husband bluntly told me that my tummy is getting bigger. I couldn't disagree because I was 166 pounds over my usual 160. And to encourage me, my husband would tell me in the morning to have a little exercise. It is the hand grip for me. I would lie on the bed, face up, and do some hand grips with my hands in different positions. That would give me strong muscles in the tummy part.
