Weight Loss on the Cheap - Part 1

Unless you’ve had your head stuck in the sand, you already know that weight loss is a multi, billion-dollar industry. I get it. People get fat and they don’t like the way they look or feel. They want to get rid of the extra pounds and either doesn’t know how or don’t have the discipline to make it happen. They want to feel better, look better and feel stronger. 

Weight also does other things that aren’t good for us. It gives us high blood pressure, coronary disease, diabetes and a host of other complications. It changes our weight distribution, thus causing our joints to inflame and cause pain at multiple locations throughout our bodies.  

Frankly, I don’t see why anyone would ever allow themselves to get fat.  

Of course, I say that with tongue-in-cheek because I’m one of those, a fitness challenged individuals. I’m carrying an extra 50 pounds and I don’t like it. I hurt in places I never knew existed. My clothes are too tight. And I’ll be damned if I am going to buy “fat” clothes. So, I’m going to do something about it.  

I’m writing this for purely selfish reasons. It gives me a way to track what I’m doing, but mostly, I’m sharing it so that, if you want, you can join me.  

Two years ago, I weighed in at 265 lbs. and knew that I was slowly killing myself. I hurt everywhere. My energy level was at an all-time low. I was totally self-conscience. And I knew that if I didn’t do something about it, the life I dreamed about would be over.  

Over the course of the next year, I dropped 37 lbs. I was jogging several miles a day. And I was feeling great. The best part was that I didn’t pay anything for the program. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. I can’t get it any cheaper for you, but I think that if you work with me, you’ll think the price is pretty good for you too. I’m putting that out there early in the discussion so that you don’t think I’m trying to get you to buy anything. I’m not. This information is free to you. And the only thing you have to lose by joining me it the weight you don’t want hanging around your body. 

So now for the disclaimer:  

My no-cost program is brought to you by me. I am not promoting anything or selling anything. I am sharing with you what I am doing only. There are some things that I believe you should do before getting started. You should visit a doctor and make sure that what you are planning is right for you. If you have health issues, make sure that your doctor knows about them and that your plan to get better is right for you. During the course, I will be sharing the information I receive from my “Fitbit” watch. That’s the monitoring device that I use. You can use a free app on your phone that will do nearly the same thing. I like it because of its convenience. However, it isn’t necessary. Finally, when I say the program is free. You still must eat. The food you choose is still something you must pay for. That’s it. Now for the fun part. (Once again...tongue in cheek.) 

There is a simple truth about diets and weight loss programs. If you take in and burn off the same number of calories in the course of a day, your weight should remain static. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances that could a variation on a daily basis; ie water retention, etc. But, over several days, the premise is valid. Should you take in more calories than you burn off, your weight will increase. If you burn off more than you consume, your weight will drop. It doesn’t matter what exercise program you are on. The fundamentals are the same.  

In order for you to figure out a game plan for yourself, it’s important that you determine where you stand. Are you currently gaining weight? Losing weight? Or, is your weight static?  

What I discovered is that without this knowledge, you can’t move forward. So here is your assignment: Don’t do anything today or tomorrow that you haven’t been doing. Do it all the same. Eat the same. Exercise the same (even if that means no exercise.) Do nothing different than what you’ve been doing other than weighing and record your weight every day. Record what you eat and drink every day. Then...after two weeks, determine what the average is so that you can see where you stand.  

I’ve used a nutritionist for the last two years (Connie) and she has taught me some very important facts about what I eat and how to exercise. However, it wasn’t until just recently that some of that information made sense to me. One statement, in particular, is, “Regarding weight loss, 80% of a good, successful, weight loss program happens through proper eating habits and the other 20% comes from exercising.” Normally, I’m good with statistics and though on the surface, it seemed logical, I didn’t take the information any further or try to figure out what it meant to me.  

Recently, I had a “light bulb” moment. The whole 80 /20 message finally became clear and I realized that if I took it at face value, it could be something that I could use to enhance my goals toward a better physical me. 

When I told you that the first thing for you to do was to take a couple of weeks and compile your own list of normal, that it was important for you to do. And here is why. I’ll use my own list so it will make a little more sense. 

No one knows me as well as I do. I’m sure the same goes for you. I know what I eat. I know when I snack and take in junk that I shouldn’t eat. I know when I exercise and when I put it off or maybe not go as hard as I should. I know everything there is...about me. However, I don’t know about you. So, the question is...can you be honest with yourself? Because if you can’t, there will be a cost. The cost of failure. Frankly, I don’t care if you succeed or not. Sure, I want you to succeed, but your success won’t influence what I do. I’m only sharing this with you in hopes that I can do something to help others.  

As such, I went back for thirty days to see what I had been doing. I know that my weight has been steady during that time, so I had a baseline to work from. I knew that given everything else that due to my eating habits, daily activities, and the fact that my weight hadn’t changed, my caloric intake was identical to the number of calories that I burned over a 24-hour period.  

That’s important information.  

Remember what I said about the 80 / 20 rule? Here’s the thing. During the 30-day period I reviewed, I didn’t do any “exercise.” That doesn’t mean I laid around all day. It means that I simply did what I always do. I get up in the morning. I eat breakfast. I go to work. I come home. I take out the trash and do other chores around the house. But, that’s it. I didn’t walk on a treadmill or up the mountain behind my house. I merely did the routine. And that’s what I measured. 

Here are the results: 

On an average day, I take 3,196 steps. I walk up 2 flights of stairs. I burn 2,700 calories. And finally, I increase my heart rate over 120 beats per minute and an average of 22 minutes a day. 

I’m telling you this because before I figured out the 80 / 20 rule. I considered myself a failure. Not when I lost weight. Then I was succeeding on a regular basis. The problem came when a series of life events, physical, emotional and psychological, came into my life last year and threw me off my diet or anything remotely close to a diet. I gained back most of what I had lost and now I need to get back on track.  

For several months now I have been trying to go back to what I was doing only to be thwarted by my efforts. My body wouldn’t cooperate. I was sick of every type of diet food and just couldn’t wrap my head around the problem. That’s what I was failing at. 

So now, I have something I can do that will help. And that’s what we are going to discuss with this series. If you’re interested...please let me know and we can talk about it. If you know somebody that might be interested...please let them know.  

All of my thoughts and my progression will be on my blog at www.lanniewrightadvisor.com  

Thanks for reading. 

Lannie