Weight you can keep off
You want to get back to a healthy weight, but some people have been overweight for so long they don't know what their normal weight is. For the person who just doesn't know where to start, I recommend you set a small goal of 10 pounds. Lose the 10 and keep it off for 2 weeks and then work on 10 more. The second 10 will be harder and take longer, but by this time you should be feeling a little better and want to lose more.
Now that you lost the first 10 and you want to lose more, you'll have to do some exercise. If your not use to exercise you have to start slow. I recommend walking. A goal of 5 miles a day is what you want to achieve. But you want to start out doing about 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. It's easy if you have a dog. Take the dog for a walk at night. An after dinner walk will help you digest your meal, help the dog exercise, and help you. If the dog can only walk 15 or 20 minutes at first, you can both build up to 30 minutes. Don't give up because you can't handle the walk. Maybe you should begin at 15 or 20 minutes at a slower pace. Your not walking to sweat off weight, only to exercise your heart, and to burn some calories.
There's nothing wrong with a reward when you reach your goal, just not food. Break the habit of using food as a reward. Get a foot massage, a manicure, or get your nails done. Maybe just buy something you've wanted to buy. Rewards are a good thing. And you can dream up your next reward while you're still trying to lose more weight. Write down 2 or 3 rewards in the future and if you want make the goal for a specific weight like 130 pounds and another for 125 and so on. If you reward yourself every 5 pounds it might help you stay on track.
The idea is to make your goal count for something. Try an keep a log of the calories you eat. There are many computer programs and cell phone apps to help you track calories. This helps you tell how well your doing, but most importantly if you start to stray and aren't losing any more weight you'll be able to check back and know why. If you decide to use an app don't cheat and forget to record the small things that you snack on, those are the calories that hurt you the most.
Try and avoid those things that trigger snacking. For you it might be reading a book, or watching TV. That's another good reason to take a walk after dinner. If you don't like walking along ask a friend to walk with you. You would be surprised the number of people that would walk in the evening if they had someone to walk with. The break room at work is another place you can snack and not realize it. Your just eating out of habit, because the danish are sitting next to the coffee. Just pour the coffee and leave before your tempted.
Changing the way you eat is another way to lose weight. It takes 15 minutes for your brain to get the message that you've eaten enough. Just eating slower can help you reach your goal. If your eating at home take less food on your plate. You can eat again in a couple of hours. I'll let you in on a secret no one talks about. You don't have to eat less to lose weight. If you over eat at a meal your stomach won't have enough time to digest all of it. Why, you might ask. The rate that the digestive system works is the speed that your metabolism works. The older you get the slower your metabolism is working, mainly because you slow down. If your stomach isn't finished metabolizing your lunch (for instance) and you start eating again, then your liver will store the excess food in the form of fat.
So think about it, if you eat the same food but only half the quantity and eat every 3 hours over a 12 hour period you would eat the same amount , but this way your stomach would have time to metabolize the food instead of storing excess food as fat. Losing weight isn't that hard if you understand how you gain weight to begin with. Getting back to that healthy body weight is different for everyone. But a health size would be a waist line half your height. Example: I'm 6ft. tall that's 72 inches, my waist should be 36 inches or less. If your 5 ft. tall or 60 inches then your waist should be 30 inches.
Not all people who are my size with my size waist weighs the same as me. You might think if both of you are the same size why don't you weigh the same? Well it depends on your muscle mass and body fat. Muscle weighs more than fat, We all have a different amount or percentage of muscle vs. fat. More muscle and less fat and you'll weigh more. But that's not a bad thing, the more muscle vs. fat the faster your metabolism works and the faster you can digest food and the less fat your liver will store. You don't have to eat fat or sugar for the body to store fat. Your liver turns excess food into fat and then stores it.
Your body has only one way to store the excess food, it must turn that food into fat then store it. You want the liver to turn that food into energy and it will given enough time, and there lies the problem. When our creator created your body he did it the right way, no doubt. But I don't thing he ever figured we'd be eating three meals a day. Not these kind of meals we eat. People were Nomads at the beginning, roaming the earth and living off the land. That's one reason we have the weight problem we have today. We eat too much and have far less exercise. If you know that we do wrong, it's easier to fix the problem.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that you lost the first 10 and you want to lose more, you'll have to do some exercise. If your not use to exercise you have to start slow. I recommend walking. A goal of 5 miles a day is what you want to achieve. But you want to start out doing about 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. It's easy if you have a dog. Take the dog for a walk at night. An after dinner walk will help you digest your meal, help the dog exercise, and help you. If the dog can only walk 15 or 20 minutes at first, you can both build up to 30 minutes. Don't give up because you can't handle the walk. Maybe you should begin at 15 or 20 minutes at a slower pace. Your not walking to sweat off weight, only to exercise your heart, and to burn some calories.
There's nothing wrong with a reward when you reach your goal, just not food. Break the habit of using food as a reward. Get a foot massage, a manicure, or get your nails done. Maybe just buy something you've wanted to buy. Rewards are a good thing. And you can dream up your next reward while you're still trying to lose more weight. Write down 2 or 3 rewards in the future and if you want make the goal for a specific weight like 130 pounds and another for 125 and so on. If you reward yourself every 5 pounds it might help you stay on track.
The idea is to make your goal count for something. Try an keep a log of the calories you eat. There are many computer programs and cell phone apps to help you track calories. This helps you tell how well your doing, but most importantly if you start to stray and aren't losing any more weight you'll be able to check back and know why. If you decide to use an app don't cheat and forget to record the small things that you snack on, those are the calories that hurt you the most.
Try and avoid those things that trigger snacking. For you it might be reading a book, or watching TV. That's another good reason to take a walk after dinner. If you don't like walking along ask a friend to walk with you. You would be surprised the number of people that would walk in the evening if they had someone to walk with. The break room at work is another place you can snack and not realize it. Your just eating out of habit, because the danish are sitting next to the coffee. Just pour the coffee and leave before your tempted.
Changing the way you eat is another way to lose weight. It takes 15 minutes for your brain to get the message that you've eaten enough. Just eating slower can help you reach your goal. If your eating at home take less food on your plate. You can eat again in a couple of hours. I'll let you in on a secret no one talks about. You don't have to eat less to lose weight. If you over eat at a meal your stomach won't have enough time to digest all of it. Why, you might ask. The rate that the digestive system works is the speed that your metabolism works. The older you get the slower your metabolism is working, mainly because you slow down. If your stomach isn't finished metabolizing your lunch (for instance) and you start eating again, then your liver will store the excess food in the form of fat.
So think about it, if you eat the same food but only half the quantity and eat every 3 hours over a 12 hour period you would eat the same amount , but this way your stomach would have time to metabolize the food instead of storing excess food as fat. Losing weight isn't that hard if you understand how you gain weight to begin with. Getting back to that healthy body weight is different for everyone. But a health size would be a waist line half your height. Example: I'm 6ft. tall that's 72 inches, my waist should be 36 inches or less. If your 5 ft. tall or 60 inches then your waist should be 30 inches.
Not all people who are my size with my size waist weighs the same as me. You might think if both of you are the same size why don't you weigh the same? Well it depends on your muscle mass and body fat. Muscle weighs more than fat, We all have a different amount or percentage of muscle vs. fat. More muscle and less fat and you'll weigh more. But that's not a bad thing, the more muscle vs. fat the faster your metabolism works and the faster you can digest food and the less fat your liver will store. You don't have to eat fat or sugar for the body to store fat. Your liver turns excess food into fat and then stores it.
Your body has only one way to store the excess food, it must turn that food into fat then store it. You want the liver to turn that food into energy and it will given enough time, and there lies the problem. When our creator created your body he did it the right way, no doubt. But I don't thing he ever figured we'd be eating three meals a day. Not these kind of meals we eat. People were Nomads at the beginning, roaming the earth and living off the land. That's one reason we have the weight problem we have today. We eat too much and have far less exercise. If you know that we do wrong, it's easier to fix the problem.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My new ebook is in online bookstores now. You can go to Amazon.com and type the title in the search bar: How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight? The price is $3.99. I think you'll find it interesting. I write about myself and my battle with weight and all the mistakes I made and how you can avoid the mistakes and lose the unwanted body fat.
The ebook is also at http://barnesandnoble.com and they have a special introductory offer right now $2.99. Also available on iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, and others worldwide.
Comments