Then came last year when I decided to quit smoking and to reward my good efforts, my body decided to gain 10 pounds in a short span of 2 weeks; it was at that point that I realized something had to be done. I have managed to lose 30 pounds since then, and although I’m still overweight, I will continue moving in the right direction.
I will warn you ahead of time that this article contains no magical diets or advertisements for miracle weight-loss pills, rather its whole-hearted advice from an everyday overweight person, who happened to lose some extra weight fairly quickly. Here’s a few of the guidelines I followed to achieve my goal.
Setting a Goal
This seemingly simple step is actually extremely crucial, especially if you are lazy or have a weak willpower as I once had (click here to learn to build your willpower). It’s important to remember that your goal must be realistic. For example if you are 60 pounds overweight, do not aim to have a body like Brock Lesnar; the time to set that goal will come on its own accord.
Rather, start off small with goals such as 5 or 10 pounds and work your way slowly towards it, once you arrive you can take it a step further. You will be astonished to see how quickly you will see results when you set smaller goals, and this will of course lead to you setting higher goals with much more motivation.
My initial goal was just to lose the excess weight that I gained from quitting smoking, but I soon realized how easy it was and pushed for more. After losing the 10, I aimed to lose 20 more and I did. I have set one last goal of losing a final 20 pounds, after which I’m hoping to be satisfied with my weight. J
Food Substitution
Think of everything you normally eat everyday and make a list. Take note of the ones that easily add unnecessary fat to your diet and try to think of similar, less fatty alternatives. One of the big examples in my case was potato chips; I used to eat a small bag of chips nearly every day as a snack at work. This of course was an easy extra 16 grams of fat that I really didn’t need. I went into the snack isle at Walmart and settled with unflavored pretzel sticks. These had no fat, no cholesterol, less calories, and best of all they still provided me with the salty, crunchy taste that I craved.
Your substitutions may seem much more boring and less satisfying at first, but you will get used to it. These minor substitutes are really powerful, as I ended up losing a substantial amount of weight just by doing this alone! Of course this involves a great deal of self-control so…
Have Some Self-Control
When it comes to changing around the things you love to eat for healthier, beneficial substitutes, it will be hard….if you want it to be. You must be firm with your goals, and work towards them relentlessly. I eat out every Thursday and Sunday, so I had to make some adjustments with which restaurants I visited. I ended up pushing for restaurants that don’t even carry that many unhealthy items; that way, I wouldn’t even be tempted to get something unhealthy, since nothing really unhealthy was on the menu to begin with!
Yes…Exercise
Unfortunately, there is no secret way around this step, so long as you want to lose weight the natural way. Even so, many people misinterpret the amount of exercise that they need. Working out 25 minutes a day, 3 days a week will suffice. Of course you can adjust the amount so that it corresponds with how much weight you would like to lose and how fast you would like to lose it.
This also doesn’t mean 25 minutes of passive exercise such as walking. Walking is great and all but if you want to invest the minimum amount of time in working out, then rigorous exercise where you begin to sweat within 5 minutes is necessary. If you do have the time then exercising once per day is great, just be sure not to over-exert yourself. You should find your limit and stick with it, lest you burn yourself out.
Supplements
I’m not big on all of the weight loss pills that people are going crazy over these days. I can’t even watch an episode of Dr. Oz without him advertising a new and better pill to aid in weight loss at least once. Although there is one product that I do recommend, L-Carnitine. L-Carnitine is a substance that helps your body turn fat into energy. So not only are you burning fat, you are burning fat into energy which can be used to burn more fat. This is like killing 3 birds with one stone.
I have been using this product for nearly a year now and it’s great. I take it 5 or 10 minutes before my workout and I feel the effects within minutes. Your body naturally produces this substance in your liver and kidneys, but you can take extra to aid in weight loss. You can purchase it and most vitamin stores or online (see link below). It comes in either pill or liquid form. I have never tried the pill form, so I can’t vouch for its effectiveness, but I can say that the liquid absorbs much quicker into your system, so it will start working quicker.
