Category: Weightloss.

Happiness · Health · Weightloss.

Learning from the Successful: 5 Weight Loss Tips from Women Who Have Managed to Shed More Than 100 Pounds

Jayne2 Comments
Photo by Justyn Warner on Unsplash

Losing weight can be hard, a lot of people struggle with it. But the good news is, it’s not impossible; not even remotely. Sometimes all you need is a little inspiration to see the light that awaits you at the end of the tunnel. So, we did a bit of digging to find out what successful people do to shed off that much weight and decided to share five of the tips we learnt.

  1. Set a goal and break it down into small milestones

Weight loss is a journey towards one big goal. But you don’t want to bite it whole as one big morsel. Instead, it helps to break it down into several, small, easily attainable milestones to motivate you with each completion. Skip the elevator, for instance, on your way to the office today, then make it a routine to use the stairs for the rest of the week. Once this milestone is complete, you’ll have gained some good knee power to hit the treadmill, get into jogging every morning, and more. Frequency and consistency, and not intensity is what yields progress.

  1. Make physical exercise part of your life

Cardio exercises can be such a quick way to burn fat. Lifting weights at the gym (or even at home) with the help of a trainer will help you not only lose fat but also build the power to work out more and shape up into the look you desire.

Make it gradual and fun. Your workouts can be as simple as taking a 15-30-minute walk during your lunch breaks. Just be sure to do it even on rest days. Taking a hike or yoga class on weekends or holidays should be ideal for women.

  1. Start with one small lifestyle change at a time  

Starting small, one-step-at-a-time, is the order of the success game. Ideally, you want to avoid anything that would set you up for discouragement. It could be about the amount of sugar in your diet that you want to cut, or the sedentary lifestyle that you want to change first. Challenge yourself to replace the soda with water. Success. Take on another challenge: Swap the regular rice with brown rice. Success. Drop the white bread for turkey sandwich made from slices of whole wheat bread with mustard…

  1. Stock only healthy foods at home

When you can see carbs in sight, you’ll want them. And since carbohydrates like pasta are known to create brain-altering cravings, the best way to avoid their temptation is to make sure you won’t be seeing them every time you open the fridge or kitchen cabinet. Just don’t stock foods that you’re trying to avoid.

  1. Eat smaller portions more frequently

Instead of doing three large meals a day, switch to five to six healthier alternatives every day. You could carry stuff like protein bars or nuts with you to eat whenever you want a meal. This can effectively help you avoid the temptation to settle for a quick snack on your way home.

Wrap up

Whether a health scare or preferred piece of clothing is your motivation, you may hit a plateau in your weight loss journey that can feel like all hell breaking loose. Just never give up. Refer back to these tips and keep the effort going – success will come eventually.

Weightloss.

Taking Weight Loss to the Next Level

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Your diet and exercise program may not be enough to help you lose the weight you want to. Maybe you aren’t losing the weight as quickly as you would like, or every time you get rid of the fat, it comes back a few weeks or months later. You may just constantly feel in need of an Energy Renew. Your problem is likely that your methods of weight loss simply are not effective enough. You need something more serious to combat this problem.

Major Diet Change

What a lot of people will do when they try to lose weight is just cut back on the amount of food they eat. That’s not going to be enough, in most cases, since the body may alter the rate at which it absorbs and retains fat to compensate for dietary changes. Instead, you may need to drastically change what you are eating. The biggest culprits for weight gain are fat, sugar and carbohydrates. If you can just about eliminate them from your diet, then you are going to make some serious progress on your weight loss. Supplements that assist with fat burning, according to Dallasnews.com and similar review websites, can really help you get results, too! Consciously cut out foods that contain these ingredients from your diet, or at least seriously reduce them, and you will have no problem shedding the fatty weight.

HIIT Workouts

One of the most effective exercise routines for fast weight loss is the HIIT workout. That stands for high-intensity interval training. These exercises get your heart pumping and jump start your metabolism, forcing your body to burn fat. By doing them in short intervals, you not only give yourself some breathing room and make the exercising easier on yourself, but you also get the body used to the idea of burning up fat instead of storing it. There are lots of different maneuvers you can use as part of these exercises, so if something seems too hard for you to do, just move on to a different exercise until you find the right fit for you.

Orlistat

Out of all the medications, supplements and weight loss pills you could take, Orlistat is one of the safest and most effective. The treatment method ensures that your body doesn’t hold onto as much fat as it used to, burning it off instead of storing it up. That’s great for shedding pounds, but it needs to be used in connection with a low carb diet and exercise. That way, you can reap the most benefits. If all you do is take Orlistat and you don’t change anything else about the way you live, then you won’t see hardly any results. It needs the power of an effective metabolism behind it, and it needs to have less work to do and less fat to get rid of, which comes from eating a healthier diet.
All of these methods will only work if you stick with them, go through the effort required to pull them off and be cautious about how hard you are pushing yourself. You want to get results, but not at the risk of losing your health, so if you have any medical issues, you should talk to your doctor first before you begin any of these extreme weight loss methods.

Health · Weightloss.

Ignoring the Scales (For Now…)

Jayne3 Comments

Ignoring the ScalesAs most of you probably know by now, I’m on YET another weight loss mission having failed about a million times in the past, but I’m doing something a lot more enjoyable and sustainable this time in the hope that I can stick to it. I’m following a low sugar, high fat (ketogenic) diet as it’s been proven to reverse type 2 diabetes, something which is hugely appealing to me. I’ve got a family history of type 2, so theres still a chance I’ll need to be medicated even when I’m down to a healthy weight, but there’s also a good chance that it will reverse altogether.

Willpower is something I’ve struggled with in the past because food is as much of an emotional crutch to me as just simple nutrients but I’m at a point where I’m just so bloody bored of gorging on junk food all the time and the prospect of dying in my sixties (if I’m lucky…) because of a lifetime of greed is enough to make me get off of my arse.

One thing that I’m trying not to do is micro-manage my weight. Every time I’ve ever ‘dieted’ (I put that in inverted commas because I don’t actually see keto as a diet, it’s an eating plan that we should probably all be following on a much more regular basis for optimum health benefits), I tend to get fixated with the scales and weigh myself on a daily basis. This is negative for two reasons – firstly, not all victories happen on the scales. I’ve also started weight lifting, and this usually adds muscle and makes changes to the shape of your body, things which aren’t always positively reflected in terms of “weight”. Secondly, it puts me into a downward spiral of demoralisation.

Today is a prime example. Last week, I made a grand declaration that I wouldn’t be weighing myself until my birthday in mind-June, so that I got to see one big change rather than lots of little ones. However, curiosity after a week of eating well and exercising got the better of me and I stepped onto the scales and happily discovered that I’ve already lost half a stone since New Year’s Day ( YAY ME!). But this is where things go wrong – I weighed myself AGAIN this morning, only for the scales to show I’ve gained two pounds back again.

I can already feel the disappointment weighing heavy on me, even though the logical part of my brain is trying to tell me to chill the f*ck out. This is a marathon, not a sprint. SO many things can play a part in such tiny changes like hormones, water retention, even down to what clothes I’m wearing. But all of the logical explanations aren’t snapping me out of it.

There are various issues that I’ve had when it comes to weight loss, and keeping my head in the game after even the most minor of disappointments is one of the biggest. In the past, if things haven’t gone my way then it’s completely turned my head back around to the “screw it, I may as well binge again” mindset and that’s the demon I’m battling today, but battle it I shall. Instead of letting get the better of me, I’ve had coffee and biltong, I’m drinking water, I’ve taken my supplements and I’m going to the gym before I collect Sausage from school. As long as I stick to that plan and don’t wake up in an hour buried under 800 empty crisp packets, I reckon that’s a win…even if the scales ARE trying to sabotage me. Forgive me for tearing the arse out of the metaphor, but I think this is all about winning the little battles in order to win the overall war against my own laziness and greed.

I think i’ll start weighing myself either weekly or fortnightly – I need a little bit of feedback, just to motivate me and assure me that I’m moving in the right direction, but a six month wait will just be torture!

Tune in next week for “How to deal with toddlers who try to force feed you Quavers when you’re on Keto”. LOL. Not really.

All About ME! · Food · Happiness · Health · Personal · Weightloss.

My Weight Loss Journey

Jayne6 Comments

belly-2354_640I’ve written on this blog SO many times about how I need to lose weight, need to get fit, need to improve my lifestyle. In fact, I’ve written it so many bloody times that I’m bored of the same old self-motivating stuff that never really works and I’m not going to even link to any of the old posts here as they’re all bobbins.

Here’s the thing; over Christmas, I was really ill. The whole family was, in fact, BB and I spent about 70% of Christmas Day asleep on Husband’s Aunt’s sofa, so it was a pretty rubbish day for us, despite our family doing their best to cheer us up and make us feel better. I dragged us all back to the doctors on Boxing Day and the GP decided to send me for some tests as the illness had been lingering for a few weeks by this point and he thought I might have Glandular Fever (Mono, for anyone reading in the States). By the times the tests came back though, it became clear that GF wasn’t the issue. In fact, the reason I wasn’t getting better was that my other conditions (type 2 diabetes and an underactive thyroid) were being so poorly controlled that my immune system just wasn’t strong enough to fight off the germs.

I was sent away with an additional diabetes medication (alogliptin) to take alongside my metformin, my thyroxine dose was upped and I was also put on cholesterol medication (atorvastatin) as my cholesterol had crept up too. I was also advised that losing weight was something I needed to seriously consider. My GP drew a graph to show me what my current state of health was doing for me (which I’ve skillfully recreated in MS Paint…):
Diabetes
The straight line represents what my blood sugar control should have been like, in an ideal world, for the last 7 years. The squiggly line is an approximation of what my control has actually been like over that time period. The red striped area in between represents actual damage that has been done to my body in the time that my condition has been poorly controlled. For a diabetic, that translates to damage to the retinas, heart, kidneys and other organs, as well as reduced healing times and potential shortening of life in the long run.
That little graph scared the crap out of me. 
So, while in the past I’ve written posts containing platitudes about how I MUST lose weight and I WILL take control, this post is being written from a slightly different angle. You see, that was all about 8 weeks ago now and in that time, I’ve actually managed to lose 18lb already. There are two things which have been a great help, so far; My Fitness Pal, where I log every single thing I eat and keep track of how many calories I’ve consumed (I’m allowed 1610cal at the moment) and the Pedometer app on iPhone which I’ve been using to try to up my daily step total to 10,000. I’ve walked the school run instead of using the car and at least 2 days a week, I’ll walk a super long way home instead of coming straight back. A couple of small changes to my lifestyle and I’ve already made a huge difference.
Something about seeing the potential damage done to my organs, drawn crudely in a free biro from a drugs rep, on the back of a blank prescription has given me the kick up the butt that I so badly needed. I still have a long way to go; I need to lose another 40lbs to get anywhere near a healthy weight, but losing the first 18lb with such small effort has made me realise that it’s not as hard as it seems. My willpower has slipped once or twice, but instead of throwing the towel in like I have in the past, I’m moving past each minor blip and seeing it as reinforcement to my will to complete the journey.
Also, I need to up my exercise game – if anyone has any recommendations for home workouts which won’t make me keel over or run away screaming, I’d be super grateful for them!
Weightloss.

Lifestyle Change

Jayne3 Comments

I’ve resisted writing about this for a while, for two reasons. Firstly, I tend to have better success with weight loss and lifestyle change when I don’t make a big thing of it. Like, sneak up on myself with the healthiness. Secondly, I know hearing someone rambling on and on and on about their body issues can be a bit, um, dull, so I’m trying to hold back a bit. Having said that, there are a few little changes that I’ve made lately which have been fairly small but are making a big impact on not just me but the whole family.

Last week, we invested in Wii Fit and a balance board. It was a great buy actually, we went to a local shop looking for a new one and picked up a reconditioned unit for £15! We definitely need to invest in some rechargeable batteries as we’re using it every day, as a family, once Sausage gets home from school. It’s become a bit of a routine, I collect Sausage and then we spend an hour or two having a family session of yoga or competing against one another in golf, running, hula hooping, archery and loads else besides. It may not be intense cardio but it’s getting us all moving, instead of being sedentary, which is a great start.

Another thing that I’ve been doing is eating a lot less meat. I was very resistant to the idea of going entirely veggie as I worry that I’d get really bored of meals without meat but last week I went five days without eating any meat at all and I didn’t even realise! I’m finding that I can still enjoy meals I like, for instance, I had sausages, mash and peas but subbed out fatty pork for Quorn sausages, which reduced the caloric and fat content of the meal by LOADS.

My car has been spending a lot more time on the driveway this week. Because I’m not working now, I rarely need to go anywhere straight after dropping Sausage off at school, so we’ve been walking instead of driving. Actually, I’ve been walking, Sausage has been scooting, which is brilliant exercise for her and is doing wonders for her balance!

Last Thursday, I went swimming for the first time in about 20 years! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve taken Sausage swimming lots of times, but I mean proper swimming where I get in and swim lengths, not just splashing about in the kids pool. I managed 6 lengths of a 50m pool, which may not seem like a lot but it’s a huge achievement for me. The great thing about swimming is that it’s fantastic as a full-body workout but it’s very low impact, so I didn’t end up with painful joints afterwards, which is something that has stalled my interest in exercise in the past.

So, I’m taking it steady and making progress at my own pace and I’m really confident that I’m making changes for the better and changes that I can actually stick to. Wish me luck!

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