Monday, June 14, 2010

The Magic Pill

If tomorrow they came out with a magic pill that would instantly let you lose weight with zero effort the lines would be around the block at the pharmacy. But the problem is there is no magic pill. There is no secret. There is no magic diet. There is only shortcuts and the right way. The problem with diets, and the shortcuts is that they don't work forever because you are not finding the right way to not only lose the weight but keep the weight off forever. Sure you can go get on that HCG diet and eat only 500 calories a day while injecting yourself with steroids since you just became anorexic and the weight will just fly off just like the money will fly out of your wallet too. But the moment you come off that diet the weight will come home again as all you did was send it on an expensive vacation. You can go spend thousands of dollars and get numerous crazy surgeries lap band, gastric bypass and even liposuction but you are no healthier after than you were before. You won't be able to run that mile or even do a sit-up better than you could before.

So then what is the right way, how do I find that weight loss without having to take a shortcut or cheat. The answer is so simple that your probably already knew it, burn more calories than you are eating. And the great part about that is that it is so simple that you can do it your own way and customize it to work for you. Say your like me and you love food and the thought of a diet seems likes death well no problem I will just workout harder at the gym, I will run that extra mile on the treadmill and burn that extra 200 calories. Or maybe you just don't have as much time for the gym as you would like well no problem maybe you will only eat half a portion of that yummy meal and skip that extra mile on the treadmill. The trick is too put the effort you want into it to gain the results you so desperately want. If you eat whatever you want and never work out or put some effort into losing or maintaining the weight you will always be looking for that magic pill or that awesome diet that is so going to work this time around.

I have lost 164 pounds in eighteen months and I am constantly asked how did it I do it, well simple I burned more calories than I was eating. I made small but manageable changes to my diet and work my butt off in the gym. But I will give a few tips here, a few things that might work for you on your journey.

#1 If you can give up empty calories, soda pop, coffee, tea basically anything you drink that has no nutritional value to you. Water is better for you, so much better for you and you are not wasting 100-200 calories on something you drink you can save those calories for the food you eat. And after awhile you won't even miss it. I was addicted to Dr Pepper it was my drug of choice and yet I haven't had one in eighteen months and I don't even miss it. Take your body weight divide it by two and that is how many ounces of water everyday you should be drinking so if you weigh 300 pounds you should be drinking 150 ounces of water every single day. Does that mean you have to give up soda forever, no, if you can great if not reduce it as much as you can. When you got to dinner order a soda and a water that way your less tempted to get a refill on the soda as you can drink the water too.

#2 Snacking, oh how we all love to snack 4pm, 10pm, midnight, whenever. Snacking is where we gain a lot of our weight and something that is easy to change. You don't want to not snack what you want to do is snack better that way you still get your snack and aren't as hungry at dinner time. Carrots, grapes, apples, oranges, nuts, yogurt all make great snacks as they are easy and quick and so much better for you. Snacking is a great way to get in your fruits and vegetables for the day and then you don't have to sacrifice your dinner on calories wasted snacking.

#3 Find alternatives. Love potato chips (I sure do) why not try the baked chips, love ranch dressing buy the light kind. Small things like that add up your not giving up what you like just finding alternatives. Like tostinos pizzas flip the box over and look at the fat content. Say the pizza has 300 calories but 150 calories from fat that's not a good thing but there is another flavor you like and it has 320 calories but only 100 calories are from fat go with that kind even though it has the higher calories its got a lot less calories by fat. The lower the fat content percentage the better off you are and its such a simple thing to look for.

#4 Workout, notice I didn't say go to the gym because you don't need a gym membership to lose weight all you need is some hard work and effort. I lost my first 105 pounds without ever stepping foot in a gym and doing it all at home, I only joined a gym because I needed the weights to do toning for the excess skin and once I am done toning the gym will likely go away again. If you have to drive a half hour to the gym then work out then drive the half hour back home that is an hour you wasted that could have been spent more productively. If the gym is more than a 5 minute drive you are better off spending that time at home working out rather than driving. Go for a walk, or a run, do sit-ups, I love the Wii and the EA Active and the Cardio boxing I did that for six months, do jumping jacks or my favorite squat thrusts. Buy your self a pair of 5 pound weights squat to the floor with them, then bring them back up to a bicep curl then thrust them over your head, rinse and repeat over and over. Its a great workout that can be done from your living room while watching TV and works multiple muscle groups and all it will cost you is less than $20 for the two weights.

#5 Push yourself and make goals. You don't need a Jillian Michael's yelling at you to accomplish something all you need is to find away to push yourself and goals are a great way to do that. My goal was at first to run a mile under 11 minutes, then under 10, then under 9 and now I want to run one under 8. Notice how I didn't start with saying I want to run a mile under 8 minutes now I started realistically saying I want one under 11 snd then worked myself to the point where I could run an 8 minute mile. Make your goals something that is hard but not too hard that you give up on them and then just keep making new goals. My new goal is I want to run a 5k in under 30 minutes, I can run an 8 minute mile but I can't keep it up for 3.1 miles so my goal is to turn that 8 minutes into maintaining it for an entire 5k.

Know where you want to go and find a way to get there. And just keep sweating it off.

1 comment:

  1. Patrick I really enjoyed this post. I have been wondering how you did it or should I say what your "tricks" are. I am running again and trying to meet certain goals. You gave me some great ideas so thanks!!!

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