Posted in Health, Health Archive | Monday, January 25th, 2010
I remember years ago when I studied aikido that I would always get a little freaked when the sensei would train us to fight more than one person at a time. I hated it. I always wanted to go last, because it was never two-on-one, it was always like FIVE-on-one. He’d laugh as my eyes got big like saucers, but he’d make me do it anyway. The thing he taught me was that as long as you’re standing, you’re never, ever going to fight 5 guys at once. What you will do is fight 5 guys one at a time…repeatedly.
That’s kind of how I look at weight loss. You don’t need to lose 50 pounds.
You need to lose 1 pound….50 times.
Get it?
Think about how much better your day would go if instead of thinking “Oh I can’t eat anything. I have to lose, like, 50 pounds.” you said “I’ll have one cookie. Just one. Because well, all I gotta do this week is lose 1 pound”. Statistics show when it comes to weight loss, slow and steady wins the race. So sit down and think about one thing you could do everyday to lose just ONE pound.
Here’s a list of a few I’ve come up with:
1. Put skim milk or 2% in your coffee instead of whole milk
2. No eating after 8pm, you can drink water and tea if you want.
3. Replace your afternoon snack with fruit and a glass of water
4. Get 8 hours of sleep (Bring a book to bed, or take a 15min hot bath so you’ll sleep quicker)
5. Drink fruit juice instead of soda this week
6. Only drink alcohol once this week
7. Eat vegetables at lunch AND dinner
8. Workout everyday – don’t even change your diet at first
9. Don’t eat any fast food this week
10. Instead of cutting out bread completely, only eat it ONCE a day.
Now I’m sure some of you are sitting there like, “I can cut out more than that. I once did a diet where I only ate 800 calories a day.” That may be, but you gained it all back right? What we all tend to do is take on too much too quickly and then burn out.
STOP IT.
Stop trying to lose 50 pounds, quit smoking, run for block association president, PTA Chair, get through finals, work two jobs, coach soccer, finish your residency, renovate your house, study for the bar, sit on the deaconess board, AND the choir, keep your husband/boyfriend/significant other happy….and save Haiti all in 2 weeks.
You can’t do it people. And if you try, you won’t do any of it well. TRUST me on this. If you want to make losing weight a priority you’re gonna have to take it one day at a time.
Just like the rest of your life.
So what are some of the tricks you use to lose weight or keep it off?
About Savvy Brown
I believe being healthy doesn't have to be complicated, being green can be easy and being broke isn't an option!
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I challenge myself every week to a physical and dietary change that is healthy and progressive. For example, one week I might do vegan, next I do a salad for lunch or dinner, the other I do more water.
I’ve done the diets of starvation and all veggies and all fruits and realised it’s only a temporary adjustment to my scale. Weight loss has become a positive lifestyle change for me. I’m still working on it but I know there is no proven way of weight loss, it is an individual journey of moderation, exercise and self love.
PS love the blog and will be frequenting.
@splitsun well said! I’m challenging myself to eat more real food, and less takeout and things out of a box. I’m glad you mentioned “self-love” too. We forget how much our mental state has to do with our body changes and body image.
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