10 Weight Loss Tips

I have lost 110 pounds in about a year and a half.  These are my current best tips.

1.         Pick a diet and follow it for a month.

The diet that has worked best for me is eating South Beach Phase 1 Foods, 5 times a day, no more than 300 calories a meal.

2.         Exercise hard and regularly.

I’m not saying be a runner.  I am saying you need regular physical exertion.  Please don’t tell me housekeeping is enough.  I go to a gym.  It’s measurable exercise.  Measurable is important as in measuring your food, your exercise and your weight.  My goal is to exercise one hour a day 5 days a week.  When I started at the gym all I could use was the stationary bike and pool, just do it.  I promise if you exercise 5 days a week for an hour a time after 30 days you will feel so good you will not want to stop.  As you keep on the path things may come up that keep you out of the gym for a week, like the flu.  Then you may be reluctant to go back.  Force yourself to go back.  I have a friend who has also lost more than 100 pounds.  The last time I saw her she said she looked like a cancer patient and I look good, why is that?  I think it is exercise.  She is not doing it.  She actually went to the doctor to be checked for cancer.  Thankfully, she does not have it.

3.         Weigh yourself daily.

Weight loss is measurable.  It’s not a feeling.  You can no more tell me that you feel like you are losing weight when the scale says you are not, than you can tell me you are making money as you have less and less.  Permanent weight loss is a downward trend over time.  Learn how your weight loss works.  Learn that it’s normal to drop a couple pounds and see it spike the next day, even though you did everything right.  Learn about yourself.  Figure out what works for you.  You need data to do that.

4.         Track your weight on a wall calendar.  It will show you trends.
            Knowledge is power.

5.         Measure yourself monthly.

The smaller you get the harder it is to drop pounds, but if you are still exercising you will still see inches coming off.

6.         Diet contests did me a world of good.  I use DietBet.com.

7.         Avoid temptation.

What tempts me?  Parties.  Travel.  What used to tempt me?  Restaurants.  Restaurants are fairly easy to work with because most menus are on line.  Look at the menu before you go, determine what you are going to order and stick with it.

8.         Buy yourself new clothes as much as you can afford and will wear.

This is so important psychologically.  When you know you look good you feel good.  Looking good in new smaller clothes keeps you on track.  Clothes at Goodwill and Ross are cheap.

9.         Do not expect perfection of yourself.

There are no perfect people.  Did you eat too much on Sunday?  Oh well.  Monday is a new day.  Did you not get in those 5 hours of exercise last week?  Do you need to modify your plan because you are never going to get in those 5 hours of exercise in a week?  Whatever.  Modify your plan, but stay the course.  You can’t eat too much every day, then you’re not working your plan anymore or your plan isn’t working.

10.       Focus

One of the most frequent question I am asked is if it is hard to lose weight.   Think about running a marathon.  Losing a lot of weight is not like the pounding your joints take running the marathon, but it is an endurance challenge as is a marathon.  Losing weight is such an endurance challenge it continues the rest of your life, may it be long, healthy and prosperous. 

My daughter had braces, and then invisalign, which was a thousand times better.  I never had braces.  So many people warned us that she must wear her retainer when she is done with treatment because those teeth want to go back where they were.  The weight wants to come back.

In order to achieve long term weight loss you must keep focus.  You must prioritize.  You must put yourself first.  You absolutely have the skills to do it, because you already do focus and prioritize on other things.  Do you go to work when you are supposed to be there?  You have the skills.

The challenge reminds me of something I have read about poker.  Most of the hands you are dealt are not winners.  You need to fold.  The winningest poker players only play good hands.  The greatest challenge to poker players is called “going on tilt”.  They go on tilt when they can no longer stand sitting at that table folding hands and want some action.  Then they lose.  The hardest part of weight loss is maintaining focus.