This is for those of you who are tired of being overweight, out of shape, and not healthy… for those of you finally ready to lose weight and get healthy.
I’ve lost 120 lbs so far with a bit to go. If I can do this, you can do this. You just have to want to! Part of my weight loss is from using Nutrisystem for my meals. They have a 50% off deal going on right now. Check Out Nutrisystem – 50% Off
So to start this weight loss journey off, get yourself a notebook to use for a journal. You’re going be journaling every day for a while – maybe a few months, maybe a year. It all depends on how much weight you need to lose and how quickly you realize your eating and exercise patterns.
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The first thing you want to do is get your actual weight. So you’ll be posting your weight loss journal your weight, along with the date you weighed yourself.
To find out what your true weight is, weigh yourself in the morning after going to the bathroom, and without clothing. Clothes and water add weight. Also weighing in the day after eating will add the food weight. The best time is first thing in the morning after the bathroom visit and hours have passed without eating (since you were sleeping).
If you’re younger and still having periods (ladies, obviously), you know that you’ll have water weight gain during the time of month. I’m past all that in life now (thankfully LOL), so it’s not an issue for me. Just remember that a couple of pounds is likely from the time of month.
As you progress, it might be better to weigh once a week. I started out weighing myself every day to see how I was doing but after about 3/4 of a year of doing it that way, I now only weigh once a week.
To find out your eating (and drinking) patterns, you’ll want to write down everything (yes, everything!) that you eat and drink. Post the meal and/or time of day, what you eat and drink, and how much. This means breakfast, dinner, supper, and snacks – everything, and everyday.
Yes, this might seem like a chore. But trust me when I tell you that seeing what you’re putting into your body will help tremendously in your weight loss journey. Writing it all down will allow you to see what your problem foods (and drinks) are.
If you want to lose weight, you have to cut out the junk food (and drinks), and you have to get exercise. It’s really as simple as that. Yet so many people know they need to lose weight. They want to lose weight. But they’re not willing to change the way they eat. They’re not willing to get up and move. And so they don’t lose weight.
You can break this mindset! With a few simple goals, you can lose weight and get healthy. I’ll be making more posts about new goals, etc., but for now we’re going to focus on one main overall goal.
Your first main goal is to cut out most (if not all) sugar. If you’re diabetic, you don’t need to the sugar anyway. If you’re not diabetic but eating (and drinking) a lot of sugar, you want to cut most of it out. I’ve had literally less than adozen bites of sugar in the past three plus years. I don’t miss it. I went cold turkey, but if you don’t think you can do that (or you drink sweet tea LOL), try cutting down on the amount of sugar or how often you have it.
Change the way you shop for groceries. Check labels, check the fat content, check the carbs, check the sugar, etc. You want to only buy low fat and low carb products when buying processed foods. Fresh or frozen foods that aren’t processed are SO much better and healthier. Also, go for foods that don’t have added sugar or sugar alcohol. In short, buy healthy foods and leave the junk food.
If you eat fast food a lot, cut it out of your diet. You’ll be surprised at how much weight you can lose by not eating all that junk.
If you drink sweet tea or sugar loaded sodas, cut them out. All that sugar just piles on the pounds.
Next, you have to get moving to lose weight. When I started walking three plus years ago, it was all I could do to walk two minutes without being so out of breath that I had to sit down. Do what you can, move as you are able to move… it will get better as you go. Most days now I feel like I could bounce all over the place!
Last, I am not one to tell anyone to throw food out. Times are hard and food is not cheap. But here’s the thing – to lose weight and get healthy again, you have to eat healthy. Of course, you can have the occasional indulgence. But if you have a lot of unhealthy food in the house, you’re not going to lose weight nor get healthy again by eating that unhealthy food. You can either eat it (if you have no choice financially right now) and then start buying healthy or you can give it to someone else if you don’t want to throw it out.
So that’s it – a start to get you going on your weight loss journey. Set your mind to KNOWING you can do this! You can lose weight!
