You’re probably thinking right now that you’ve heard it all when it
comes to the subject of losing weight. I don’t want to suggest that I
have all of the answers, or that I am going to recount to you a method
of losing weight that is entirely unique, but I do think that my story is interesting. Pull up a chair, and let’s begin…
1. It Began With Catastrophe
Back in 2009 I had to deal with the extremely nerve-wracking
incident that was my father’s heart attack. Surgeons performed a
quintuple bypass to get his heart working properly again, and still it
was unclear if he was going to live. Luckily (to say the least), he
survived, but his heart continues to be a problem he deals with on a
daily basis. Around the time of the heart attack, I was dealing with
weight issues of my own. Though I had worked myself down from a
near-obese 200 pounds to a more manageable 175, I was still far too
heavy for my height. After seeing my dad nearly struck down by the
combined forces of an unhealthy diet and unfortunate heart-related
genetics, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
The first thing to understand when you’re trying to lose weight is
that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You won’t be able to starve yourself
for a day or two, do a couple pushups, and label yourself a healthy
individual. To use an analogy, I liken it to saving money. Sure, saving
up $1,000 sounds daunting, but if you look at it as putting away $10 a
day until you reach that mark, that’s something that is much easier to
take on. In a mere 100 days, you’ll have your $1,000, and all it will
have cost you is your daily trip to Starbucks! Losing weight is similar.
It will take about three to four months for you to really get where you
want to be, but it’s quite easy to get there if you look at each day as
fulfilling a small part of that goal. Or in other words, losing weight
is as much a mental process as it is a physical one. It will be hard for
you to visualize where you might be 100 days from now, but you just
need to remind yourself that if you do that one exercise today, and stay consistent, you’ll eventually get there.
This is basically what I did. It didn’t seem like I was making much
progress at all, but I kept pushing. I kept doing little workouts every
day, running a mile here and there, staying consistent. Four months in, I
was an entirely different person.
My next piece of dietary related advice is to cut out the desserts. This one is much harder than cutting out soda, but worth it in the end. Plus, wouldn’t you rather cut out soda and sweets than your other portions (not to mention that cutting out the former will please your dentist)? Here’s the best part: if you’re exercising and staying away from blatantly unhealthy things, you don’t have to regulate what you’re eating for lunch and dinner as much as you’d think you’d have to. Back when I was at my lowest weight of 140 pounds, I practically ate everything in sight around dinner time without ever gaining a pound. How is that possible? I maintained my exercises and stayed away from superfluous calories.
1. It Began With Catastrophe
Back in 2009 I had to deal with the extremely nerve-wracking
incident that was my father’s heart attack. Surgeons performed a
quintuple bypass to get his heart working properly again, and still it
was unclear if he was going to live. Luckily (to say the least), he
survived, but his heart continues to be a problem he deals with on a
daily basis. Around the time of the heart attack, I was dealing with
weight issues of my own. Though I had worked myself down from a
near-obese 200 pounds to a more manageable 175, I was still far too
heavy for my height. After seeing my dad nearly struck down by the
combined forces of an unhealthy diet and unfortunate heart-related
genetics, I decided to take matters into my own hands.2. Baby Steps…
The first thing to understand when you’re trying to lose weight is
that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You won’t be able to starve yourself
for a day or two, do a couple pushups, and label yourself a healthy
individual. To use an analogy, I liken it to saving money. Sure, saving
up $1,000 sounds daunting, but if you look at it as putting away $10 a
day until you reach that mark, that’s something that is much easier to
take on. In a mere 100 days, you’ll have your $1,000, and all it will
have cost you is your daily trip to Starbucks! Losing weight is similar.
It will take about three to four months for you to really get where you
want to be, but it’s quite easy to get there if you look at each day as
fulfilling a small part of that goal. Or in other words, losing weight
is as much a mental process as it is a physical one. It will be hard for
you to visualize where you might be 100 days from now, but you just
need to remind yourself that if you do that one exercise today, and stay consistent, you’ll eventually get there.
This is basically what I did. It didn’t seem like I was making much
progress at all, but I kept pushing. I kept doing little workouts every
day, running a mile here and there, staying consistent. Four months in, I
was an entirely different person.3. It’s About More Than Exercise
Exercise can only get you so far, especially if you aren’t a spry teenager or twenty-something year old. You’ll also need to regulate your diet, which is probably the most difficult aspect of losing weight for most people. If you’re smart, however, you’ll be able to cut calories in such a discrete manner that you won’t even know they’re gone. My main trick that I’ll suggest to you is cutting sweet drinks from your daily routine. This includes soda, especially, and also artificial fruit punches and the like. I went from 200 pounds to 175 pounds primarily by only drinking water and iced tea instead of sweetened liquids. That’s with basically zero exercise done on my end! The best part about this is that, after about a month of staying away from the sweet stuff, you won’t even want to go back to it. It’ll taste so horrifically sweet to you that you’ll literally crave a nice glass of ice water.My next piece of dietary related advice is to cut out the desserts. This one is much harder than cutting out soda, but worth it in the end. Plus, wouldn’t you rather cut out soda and sweets than your other portions (not to mention that cutting out the former will please your dentist)? Here’s the best part: if you’re exercising and staying away from blatantly unhealthy things, you don’t have to regulate what you’re eating for lunch and dinner as much as you’d think you’d have to. Back when I was at my lowest weight of 140 pounds, I practically ate everything in sight around dinner time without ever gaining a pound. How is that possible? I maintained my exercises and stayed away from superfluous calories.
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