Positive Health Steps

Another weigh-in day rolls around and the scales tell me that another kilo is gone. Today’s weight is 85 kilos / 187 pounds, giving me a weight loss for the week of 1 kilo or 2 pounds. Fantastic!

This figure of 85 kilos also marks a mini goal I set for myself. If you remember, I set the mini goal of being 85 kilos or less by the 1st of December. I have reached that goal a few weeks early so am quite happy with the progress.

Do you remember the starting weight? Just to rehash, I started the weight loss program on August the 9th, weighing in at 97.2 Kilograms - 213.8 lbs.

In 12 weeks I have lost 12 kilos or 26 pounds. I have done this primarily through counting calories and keeping the total amount of calories consumed less than 1500 per day. With a little moderate exercise included, a game of golf and encouragement from my family, life feels so good.

What I am learning is that I can go out for a restaurant meal, I can have that take-away, and I just have to eat something else for the day which is almost calorie free. I am learning the basics to maintaining a healthy weight once I attain my absolute goal of weighing 75 kilos. Unlike a fad diet or one of those diet drink programs, counting calories is making me very aware of exactly what is going in to my mouth, so I can apply this for the rest of my life.

The rules are simple really. If you eat some rubbish for lunch, make sure your evening meal is very low in calories. Fatty foods and sweet things are your worst enemy, so avoid them as if your life depends on it, because ultimately it does.

We all need role models, no matter who we are or how old we are. Using a role model as an example of what we want to achieve, can help us keep a focus on the road ahead.

When we are losing weight, a role model will help us stick to the path and not succumb to the many temptations along the way. We can use a photo of someone we would like to look like at the end of our journey, a story from a magazine or the television or someone we know personally who has lost a lot of weight or is on a weight loss program.

I like the "Biggest Loser" television show. While I believe they lose weight a little too quickly, it is a good motivator in that you can actually see them working hard and getting their weight under control. And there is a word in that sentence that holds the key to all our weight problems, "control"

We need to learn to control our desires. Just like the contestants on the biggest loser, it is entirely up to us to control what we eat, the amount we eat and the amount of exercise we are prepared to do. While they have personal trainers to push them harder each day, we only have ourselves to keep us motivated, so we need to use everything available to us to keep on the path of becoming healthier, slimmer people.

Get yourself a role model and try to emulate their success in your daily life. You can do it!

Another Monday rolls in and another kilo has been lost. At this mornings weigh-in, the scales show 84 kilos or 185 pounds. It seems that though my goal was to lose just half a kilo per week, watching the calorie intake allows you to lose more. This is wonderful.

Last Saturday I went to a local beach to take a few photos. I wanted one of people walking along the beach exercising for the index page of this website. (I managed to get one of a young couple walking their dogs which I will post today.)

After wandering around the beach for over an hour it was time for my partner and myself to pack up and head back to the car. Anyone who has walked up a fairly steep sand dune will know that it can be a bit tiring. As we reached the top of the dune my partner asked to stop to catch her breath and I noticed I wasn't even puffing. Just a few months ago I would have been almost collapsing.

Those 13 kilos that I have lost really was a large burden. Imagine carrying 13 kilos of potatoes up a sand dune, because that's exactly what I was doing those few months ago. I have no doubt that if I had not given up smoking and then decided to lose weight that there would be a coffin being made for me earlier that I would like. Now I feel as though I can live to 100.

Imagine how I will feel when I lose another 10 kilos. Have you started on your own journey yet?

You need to make breakfast the most important meal for the day.

Why? Because eating breakfast kicks the metabolism into gear and starts the body burning calories instead of storing fat.

Now I don't mean you should sit down to a huge helping of fatty bacon and eggs, just a simple slice of toast or a small bowl of cereal is the ideal way to get that metabolism racing. If you are counting calories you should be able to fit in around 200 calories for breakfast easily into the daily intake allowance.

If you are doing some morning exercise like walking for 30 minutes, you should have breakfast within an hour after the exercise or workout to get the full benefit to your metabolism rate. Eating breakfast not only gets the metabolism started, it actually helps your resolve to stick to a planned eating program. As you are less hungry you will not overeat at the next meal or will be less likely to snack before lunch.

These are just a couple of reasons for having breakfast. Breakfast is another tool you can use on the road to becoming a slimmer, fitter person and let's face it, the more tools we use on a weight loss program the easier it will be to get down to your goal weight.

Today’s weigh-in was something I wasn't really expecting yet something that will happen from time to time when on a weight loss program.

I didn't lose any weight this week, yet didn't do anything different from other weeks, perhaps exercising more if anything.

Now I am not unhappy that this has happened. Why? Because it is something that all the experts say will occur from time to time and I have been losing weight faster than what I was planning. To stay the same for a week in a way is a good sign as it shows my body is getting used to what is happening. Now I can push onward to reaching that magical goal I have set.

Remembering that my mini goal was to be below 85 kilos by the 1st December, being 84 kilos a few weeks early is fantastic. Now perhaps I need to zig zag my eating patterns and trick the metabolism and get it racing again. I Can't wait to see the results next week.

I don't consider counting calories as a diet. What I am doing is training myself for a lifestyle change once I attain my goal weight. You lose weight by eating fewer calories than is required for your height and age. You maintain a good weight range by only eating the amount of calories experts suggest. If you go over one day, you adjust accordingly over the week to compensate and maintain your healthy weight range. Simple!

By counting calories I know what I can eat and what will blow my daily allowance. It's like knowing that you can have a small piece of chocolate, but eating the whole block is why I was so fat in the first place.

For most of us, eating salads and staying away from the fatty pastries, ice cream and chocolates is hard. We have trained our taste buds to look for those foods and anything not sweet or full of fat tastes like, well yukky. But there are some things that can help.

Counting calories is also a good way to find things you can eat and enjoy. One of them is those tiny Tic Tacs. They are sweet, will satisfy your cravings and they are only 25 calories for the whole packet. They contain just 1 calorie per pellet.

Now there is something for those who are struggling to keep their craving for sweet things out of the picture. Have a Tic Tac or 2. They won't blow your daily calorie allowance.

I am excited today. This week the scales say that I lost 1.5 kilos or 3 pounds. I weighed in at 82.5 kilos which is spot on 13 stone. Fantastic!

After not showing any weight loss last week, it was particularly pleasing to see that figure come up this morning. Now I know I can be under 80 kilos for Christmas.

So what did I do differently. Well nothing different at all, kept an eye on calorie intake and made sure it was always around 1500 per day. Walked for at least 30 minutes 4 or 5 times for the week and kept an absolute positive mindset towards the weight loss goals.

I am excited.

Over the next couple of weeks I will give what I regard as the 10 best tips on weight loss. These tips are based purely on my own experience and what I consider is the reasons why I have lost 15 kilos in around 3 months. Today we start the ball rolling with what I consider the most important tip.

#1

Counting Calories

There is no secret to losing weight, you simply need to eat less and exercise more.

If you don't know the amount of calories that you are consuming on a daily basis, then it is hard to say that you are eating less food overall. It's like somebody saying "well I will cut my food in half, so I should lose weight" but what if they were actually eating so much before that even halving the amount is still too much. They will actually still gain weight, just slower.

Most foods are now labeled with nutritional information, read it and learn how many calories are in the foods you are eating. Buy a little calorie book. Learn how many calories are in everything you consume. If you don't know what you are eating, are not aware how many calories you are consuming you are running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Again I reiterate, You Need To Know How Many Calories You Consume Daily!
We have a kilojoule to calorie converter if the food is labeled in kilojoules, a rough guide is divide the kilojoules by 4 to get calories. (Actual conversion is 4.2 calories in one kilojoule.)

Our bodies need a certain amount of calories each day to keep us living. On average, men need roughly 2500 calories and women need 2200 calories. These figures will maintain a person’s weight, not put more on and not take any off.

To lose weight you must eat fewer calories or exercise more to burn off the calories that you put in. If you want to lose one pound a week or half a kilo, you need to reduce your calorie intake by 500 each day. To lose 2 pounds a week or 1 kilo, reduce calories by 1000.

So there you have my best tip for losing weight. Learn how many calories is in everything you put in your mouth and reduce your daily calorie consumption. It's easier than you think once you make it a habit.

High on my list of the most beneficial things you can do to lose weight is to get a "before" photo taken.

Why a before photo? Because you really need to know what you look like at your worst and you need to know how good you will start to look as the weight comes off. Most people who are overweight don't like looking in a shop window at their own reflection. When you get a photo of your self in swimming gear or underwear, if the frightening photo doesn't motivate you into action then you really don't have enough resolve to lose weight on your own.

I posted my "before" photo on this website. Believe me, I hate that photo because it shows how bad I allowed myself to look. I am not proud of it and that spurred me on to really be single minded about losing weight. I will never allow myself to look like that again. Of course you don't need to go public like I did, but you do need to see the person who you have become.

Another thing a before photo does is it makes a statement to yourself that you realize the need to lose weight. If you are too ashamed to let someone take your photo in your underwear, then you need all the help to lose weight you can get. Your self esteem needs it, your self image needs it. You need to want to be a different person than that big blob who is looking at you in the photo. Swallow your fears and get that shot.

If there is one single thing that can motivate you into sticking to a weight loss program, having a before photo stripped down to your underwear is high on the list. You don't have to look like that. It is your choice. Be proud of yourself, you want to look nice and you can. Organize your photo soon.