It's that time of year: Summer is coming to an end, last minute vacations will be wrapping up, and the kids will be going back to school over the next few weeks. What better time than now to begin focusing on yourself, your health, and your weight loss goals? Start your preparations and planning and be ready for the upcoming holidays!

The holidays seem so far away, yet they will arrive sooner than you think! Plan now so that you can lose those extra summer pounds and feel and look great for all those holiday family pictures. On the ITG Diet, women could lose up to 2-4 pounds per week and men could lose about 3-6 pounds per week. Let's get out our calculators and crunch some numbers!

If you want to lose just 20 pounds, and can lose at least 2 pounds per week, you will knock off those 20 pounds and be ready to move into Step 2 of the program, adding more fun foods back into your diet, in about 10 weeks. Starting this week, that puts you at mid-October. Step 2, Transition, lasts four weeks, so you will be finished with the program and able to move into Step 3, Maintenance, the week before Thanksgiving. Wouldn't it be great to show off your new figure at the big family dinner, as well as have your very first Reward Day on Turkey Day? Now that's a fun reward for a little bit of persistence over the next two months!

The ITG Diet is all about planning and prep. You must plan and prep to begin your weight loss journey, and you will also need to plan and prep to keep hitting those new milestones from week to week while on the program. Remember, the longer you wait to get started, or each time you deviate from your plan, the less likely you will be at successfully reaching your goal weight by the time you would like to do so. If you set that goal of 20 pounds by October and want to go further, continue on and hit more milestones by Christmas and New Year's Eve. ITG can help you get there, but take that first step by making Back to School time "Back to YOU" time!