If you're like me, you probably don't like to diet. Who does? Seriously! But I actually did suffer when I began dieting, but now that I achieved my goals, it all paid off. Of course when you start dieting you kinda have to give up some of your favorite foods during the week, maybe even for about a month or so, until you hit a plateau, which is when your body stops reacting to exercises and healthy eating, and you stop losing weight. When that happens, the best thing you can do is EAT EAT EAT!! Taking ONE DAY off your diet, and really indulging in the foods you love and crave will boost your leptin levels, BUT...there's a catch, you have to get back on track the day after, this trick only works if you do it once a week, and don't cheat during the weekdays. So start fresh by having a Splurge day, go to Golden corral, or a chinese buffet, or maybe Starbucks and have all the foods you crave, so that you can actually lose more fat during the week. It is scientifically proven that this method of boosting leptin levels, by overfeeding actually works.
But this is not what I'm here to talk about, I'd like to teach you how to lose weight without giving up your favorite foods. The secret is to make the right changes in your diet. One way to do that is to stop buying whole or low fat milk, and start consuming FAT FREE milk, stop eating white bread and only eat 100% WHOLE WHEAT BREAD, 100% whole wheat english mufffins, 100% whole wheat tortillas, 100% whole wheat pittas, which can actually be made into a delicious pizza. Other ways to lose weight without suffering is to switch from regular to diet coke, sure ppl say it's bad for you, but seriously, we're trying to lose weight here, not specifically get healthy, besides, who ever got sick, or died from drinking diet coke? (...) you can also switch from potatoes, to sweet potatoes, from white rice to brown rice, from candy to sugar free gum, from Hamburgers to lean turkey burgers on 100% whole wheat bread, from milk chocolate to dark chocolate, from ice cream to Jell-O's sugar free, fat free chocolate pudding, from white pasta to whole wheat pasta. and so on, so make the right change and watch the inches disappear.
Nobody likes doing 60 minutes of cardio every day right? The last time I did regular cardio was in November, 2008, and let me tell you something..I will NEVER go back to regular cardio again, I used to "power-walk" every day for about 50-60 minutes, until I saw a video on the internet talking about how you could lose up to 25 lbs working out only 10 minutes a day (you can use my built in google search box to look for the video if you like) anyways, the best part of HIIT is the time you get back to live your life and not have to worry about exercising. It can be done in as little as 10-15 minutes a day. Trust me, this works! I would like you to try this routine for 2 weeks, and please get back here and tell me how much weight you lost, (of course, please consult your doctor before starting this or any other diet or exercise routine). The best exercise to do when using the HIIT method is walking, jogging or running, but you can surely use a stationary bike as well. Here's what you do:
Warm up : Walk 2 minutes
Interval 1 : Run as fast as you can for 30-45 minutes
REST FOR 2-3 MINUTES
And repeat the process 3-4 times
Cool down: walk 2 minutes
Now, you should do that only 3 times a week, alternating days, meaning...you do it today, and rest tomorrow, and then do it again the day after tomorrow, and so on, having a rest day in between each day that you do this exercise. It's very important that you have a rest day in between work out days, if you do this every day, then you'll actually be going against the weight loss process.
Follow this routine for 2 weeks, and come back here to let me know how you did, and of course, watch your diet if possible. It's YOUR life, and only YOU can change it.
I'll see you in two weeks to see how you did, but don't forget to bookmark this page so you can check it out for daily updates.
Well, I confess that I've been to pretty much any fad diet out there, but the morning banana diet was the one that actually worked, well...at least for the first week, then I stopped seeing results. The morning banana diet, was made in Japan, by a pharmacist that was trying to slim down, you probably already know the story, anyways the diet consists of eating a banana or two for breakfast with a glass of room temperature water, that's it, and then for the rest of the day you can eat your normal meals as usual, but you should try to eat less, you're also allowed to have a sweet snack at 3pm, a small one though, DON'T go for a donut or a cream cheese danish, choose something like a small piece of chocolate, or 2 hersheys kisses, something to kinda satisfy your sweet cravings. I lost 3 lbs on my first week, but i jogged for 20 minutes every day. I still did not gain it back, it's been about 2 months. Please consult your doctor before starting this or any other diet.
If you're familiar with weight loss blogs, weight loss products, fat burning programs, etc... at some point you probably heard that any diet will work if you stick to it and be persistent, that was the case with me. Two years ago, I went to an amusement park with my family, and we had a lot of fun even though I was not in the best shape of my life, all the weight I was carrying made my confidence drop, and I could never go on those rides that everyone went on simply because the extra weight made me scared of many things, anyways...we took pictures, one in particular where I had a little red bird on my shoulders, and I was standing sideways. When we got home and transferred the pictures to the computer, I could not believe how fat I had gotten, since I was standing sideways, you could see my huge belly pretty clearly. That's when I decided I was going to do something for myself, I was going to REALLY change my life for the better (i know i sound like a spokesperson for a weight loss product, but don't worry, i'm not trying to sell you anything). The next day I started making significant changes to my diet, I completely eliminated sweets and junk food, switched from a huge bowl of cereal in the morning to a normal-sized bowl of oatmeal with a fruit, ate a combination of healthy protein and healthy carbs for lunch (PROTEIN = grilled chicken, turkey ham, fat free cottage cheese etc.. CARBS= whole grain bread, fruits, vegetables), never stuffed myself and between lunch and dinner, I had a shake made with 6 oz of fat free milk, one banana and one teaspoon of sugarfree jell-o powder. I remember going to RaceTrac and being able to NOT buy a hersheys bar or a donut, I was determined, and that gave me even more strength. Since I made such big and sharp changes to my diet so fast, I lost 3lbs the first week, and that gave me a boost to keep going and going. The only form of exercise I was doing was walking, 2 miles a day, that's 4 laps around my subdivision, now as we all know we're gonna hit a plateau at some point, so what I did when that happened to me was, I incorporated strength training, and added more cardio, so I started walking 2 and a half miles. Thanks for reading
----------COMING UP: PLATEAUS-----------------
Welcome to my blog, I'm going to teach you how I lost over 60lbs, I spent the last 2 years of my life working on my weight loss and searching the internet for help, and I'm almost done with my dieter's life. Anyways, today I'm gonna talk about starting a weight loss resolution, and if you're just starting out, you probably have bad eating habits, eat too much sugar and fat, and probably don't exercise as much as you should. As the title of my post says, the worst your eating habits, the easier and faster your weight loss is going to be...say for example you drink 2 cans of regular coke a day at 140 calories per can, that's about 280 calories in beverages ONLY. Now, let's say you have the classic American breakfast, a donut and a coffee, so maybe a Dunkin' Donuts Chocolate Frosted Cake Donut, and a Dunkin' Donut coffee with cream and sugar, that's about 420 calories, but most of us, specially if you're overweight don't just eat a donut and a cup of coffee for breakfast, which would probably mean that you'll be consuming a lot more calories than that. Here's a list of the most important things you should do to successfully lose weight if you have bad eating habits
1)- Switch from Regular Coke to Diet Coke (i know it has a reputation, but I'll talk about that some other day)
2)- Eat oats (prepared with milk. You can add Splenda) and a fruit (avoid bananas) for breakfast
3)- Start walking, it's the easiest form of exercise you can do, start out small, maybe 15 minutes a day, and work your way into 1 hour a day
To lose 1 pound a week, you must burn 500 calories a day, or take away 500 calories from your daily diet based on your calorie needs, to find out how many calories a day you need to maintain your weight, CLICK HERE and subtract 500 calories from that, so say you need 1800 calories/day to maintain your weight, than to lose one pound a week, you should only eat about 1300 calories/day without doing any exercises.
What I ate to lose weight
Breakfast: one bowl of oatmeal(non-flavored) Or you can get Quaker's weight control oatmeal if you must have a tasty breakfast, prepare it with milk + 1/2 apple
A.M snack: the other half of the apple you had for breakfast (NO PEANUT BUTTER!)
Lunch: Salad made with lettuce and tomatoes (NO regular ranch, only fat free Italian ranch or just salt and apple cider vinegar AND some form of protein, like hard boiled eggs (limit = 2) or some grilled chicken
P.M snack: 1 Fiber ONE granola bar + 1 whole grain toast with a piece of ham or fat free cottage cheese)
Dinner: Eat normally but sensibly, only eat until you're full, NOT STUFFED
Good Luck!
--------------COMING SOON: Cravings and Sticking to your diet--------------------
