Sunday, January 27, 2013

Where to start….


Where to start….

Ok, so you have decided that you want to make a change, now what!  First of all, congratulations on deciding to make a change.  I am always encouraged by those who are willing to do something to improve their own lives.  Keep in mind it is a journey.  It will take time, so stay off the scale, do not expect immediate results in your weight loss and be patient.  You are making life long changes.  Always know that quick fixes are short term and are not sustainable for the rest of your life.

For me, I started by making a few small changes, it is very hard to change everything at once, that creates frustration and disappointment.  Who wants to go from eating all the bad stuff to only eating the good stuff all in the first week!  Small changes that are easy to keep will encourage you to make much larger changes as you progress.

I would suggest two initial changes to start.  First, drink water; give up the sodas, juice packs, kool aid, and anything with sugar or other additives.  Do not drink your calories, it will not satisfy you and only makes you crave more food.  If you cannot give it all up at once, then change something.  Drinking water will help to cleanse your body; this will satisfy your thirst and not add empty calories to your waistline!

Next, I would eat lots of fruit, especially for breakfast and mid-day snacks.  Never start your day with a heavy breakfast that will slow you down.  Fruit is best eaten by itself.  If you eat it with other foods, it will not digest properly.  You can mix different fruits together, just do not add cereal, bread, eggs or anything that is not fruit.  This will help your body get off to a good start.

Other changes can include the following options:

Eat smaller meals

Limit deserts & sweets

Reduce or eliminate fried foods

Limit meat consumption
Reduce packaged foods like crackers, sweets, or snacks, just remember you won’t find any health food in a convenience store.

When you eat better you will eat less becasue you are proviing the body with the nutrition it needs.  I never skip meals and I do not go hungry.  If you do, then your body will do everything it can to hold on to the fat becasue it does not knwo when you will eat again.
To help get you going you also need to start moving, while exercise helps with weight loss it will not make up for a bad diet.  Start with running, walking, biking, rollerblading or anything that will help you sweat!  If you are not sweating then you are not raising your heart rate up to a point to work out aerobically.  While lifting weights is ok, it will not help you lose fat as well as aerobic activity will.  You MUST exercise 20-40 minutes at a constant rate.  Be careful not to go out to hard, you never want to be in a state of huffing and puffing.  If you are, then it means you are working out anaerobically and you are not helping yourself.  Anaerobic activity is useful for gaining speed but it is a short-term exercise.  Start with aerobics – just go get your sweat on!

The benefit of small, slow change is you will start to feel the results in about a week and it will actually help you do more.  As you feel better, you will become motivated to do more, trust me on this.  If you go all out and overdo it then you will quit from exhaustion or injury.
Good luck!

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