How to Lose Weight The Right Way

If you are anything like me you’re running wild from the time your feet hit the floor in the morning up until your head hit the pillow at night. I had to make a mental commitment to lose weight because the simple fact is, no one else can lose weight for me. I haven’t reached my goal weight but with the plan I’m following it’s working and I will reach my goal weight soon.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Commitment to yourself
• A place to log your food or calories
• 2 2-5 pound dumbbells
• Exercise ball
• Stretch bands
• Food measuring scale
• Good walking shoes

1. Before starting any weight regimen it’s advised that you contact your physician before doing so.

2. Sign up at www.shapefit.com
   Shapefit is a free website that has been extremely beneficial to my weight loss success. It’s also filled with weight loss tips from fitness models. Meal Plans that’s associated with your daily calorie goals. A place to record your exercises. Real people success stories that include tons of before and after photos that will definitely inspire your journey. It also includes a place to log your daily meal calories. If you prefer to use a handwritten journal to log your food calories / exercises; do whatever works for you and your schedule.

3. Plan and Prepare Your Meal Ahead of Time
   I can’t say this enough. If you don’t plan your meals, you’ll end up grabbing the first thing that’s most convenient; which isn’t always the most healthiest. Since I’m so busy during the week I use either Saturdays or Sundays to plan my meals for the rest of the week. I eat a lot of steamed chicken and vegetables; which I buy the microwave type frozen vegetables. On either Saturday / Sunday I measure my chicken out in 4 ounces and place them in freezer bags. (4 oz. Per bag). On days when I know I’m going to eat chicken (which I do almost everyday) the morning before heading to work I put the bag in the fridge and by the time I’m home and ready to cook dinner it’s already thawed and ready to wash and steam. My favorite dinner is 4 oz. Steamed chicken, lots of vegetables and brown rice. You should aim towards eating every 3-4 hours. You should also make breakfast your biggest meal. I eat breakfast, for a mid morning snack I eat a 110 calorie quaker oat peanut butter granola bar, for lunch I usually eat a subway sandwich or either a salad I made at home, for an after noon snack I munch on dry kashi heart cereal or a few almonds, for dinner it’s steamed chicken and vegetables and for a evening snack it’s a apple with natural peanut butter.

4. EAT BREAKFAST. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day; REALLY IT IS. SO EAT IT.
   So many conducted surveys have proven that people who are overweight never eat breakfast. I use to skip breakfast daily because when I would wake up I was never hungry. I wouldn’t eat my first meal of the day sometimes until after 1pm. By that time my metabolism is shot and my body is starving and holding onto more fat; that’s why it’s so hard for people who skip breakfast to lose weight. Load up your shopping cart with eggs, turkey bacon, skim milk or soy milk, oatmeal, whole grain high fiber cereal. Still when I wake up in the morning I’m not hungry but I eat anyway even if it’s a bowl of cereal and a piece of fruit. My favorite breakfast is 2 egg whites mixed with 1 whole egg scrambled using fat free spray butter, 1 packet of oatmeal cooked with soy milk and 2 slices of turkey bacon.

5. Cut the “I aint got time to exercise” crap and move your booty.
   Me being one of the people who use to say I don’t have time to exercise was me actually saying My health is not important enough for me to make time to exercise. For me the first 10 minutes of exercise is the hardest so once I’m through the first 10 minutes I’m good to go. Some additional tips instead of waking up to a boring alarm clock sound if you have a cd alarm clock set it to wake you up to your favorite dance jams so you’ll wake up listening to the music and ready to move. You have to make time for exercise. I admit that sometimes it’s still hard to get up and get going; some days are better than some. If I miss one day I just get up and get going to next day. I also try to work out using my dumbbells, stretch bands and exercise balls in the evening at least 3 times a week after work. I don’t want to lose weight and have saggy skin. Working out with weights really tone your body.

6. Don’t restrict yourself of foods that you enjoy, just eat in moderation.
   I still eat pizza; just a slice though and not the whole pizza. I still eat my favorite Mexican food, but as soon as they bring my order I ask for a takeout box and divide it in half and save some for later. I still eat restaurant food. Sonic being one of my favorite fast food restaurants I order the grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato only. The grilled chicken salad is also great. I take around with me my own reduced fat salad dressing…laughing…I really do. I used to drink sweet tea, diet coke all the time. I now carry around with me Crystal Light Packets that have no more than 5 calories in them or the Raspberry Green Tea Packets. Today my children and I went out to eat “Mexican” with my mom and I ordered water to drink and used one of my raspberry green tea packets for flavor. There are so many things you can do to cut calories out of your diet.

Tips & Warnings

• Do what best works for you and your schedule.
• Set small goals instead of large goals. A goal is more reachable if you say I want to lose 5 pounds opposed to saying I want to lose 50 pounds.
• Load your ipod or mp3 player with music that you like to move to. I’ve walked longer listening to music that makes me want to dance.
• Take the steps at work instead of the elevator.
• Park further away from the door when shopping.
• Drink more water. A lot of times dehydration signs (thirst) is mistaken for hunger.
• When you’ve had a setback one day, don’t let that one day stop you, simply start up again the next day.

[danicalifornia]

on 5/10/2009 Great article! Very sound advice. :)