The New Year is coming up and I realize millions of people will have New Year Resolutions to lose weight with a combination of diet and exercise. Many will either join a gym or once again start going to the gym. Others will be fooled into trying diets from such names as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Dr. Atkins, SouthBeach, etc. And others, will try surgery to help lose weight which pains me to even think about.
Before you decide to throw all of your hard earned money into a gym membership, a quick weight loss program, or expensive surgery, I recommend that you consider trying other options:
- Home Fitness - I encourage you to buy some afforable and safe home fitness equipment that you can use at your own convenience.
- Develop Better Eating Habits - Concentrate less on diets and quick weight loss programs and focus more on developing better eating habits.
Purchasing Home Gym Equipment
To date I have mainly been blogging about exercise fitness as a means to help lose weight. I purchased 3 pieces of affordable equipment to help me exercise at home at my own convenience. The fitness equipment has not only saved me money, but has also assured that I consistently workout at my convenience. My exercise equipment of choice has been Bowflex Dumbbells, Ab Rocket, Iron Gym Extreme Pull Up Bar to give me a complete workout and save space in the home.
However, you purchase home gym equipment that makes sense for you and don't feel the need to buy a lot of equipment at once. Start small and buy a few pieces of equipment over time as necessary to give you a balanced workout. My goal here isn't to talk about fitness as I have already done that more than enough times. My goal is to talk about weight loss and dieting by developing better eating habits without spending money on commercial diet plans.
Develop Better Eating Habits
I am not a nutrionist or diet expert so take my advice as advice you would get from a friend who wants to help you be healthier and feel and look your best.
About 8 months ago I got tired of having up and down weight and decided to get in good shape with common sense ideas I already knew but never really practiced in earnest. I talked a lot about this in my post:
Thing is - I have some trust issues when it comes to diets. I consider them a money making scheme and know that I can lose weight with a few simple and safe changes to my eating habits. Here are two that I mentioned from the previous post:
- Portion Control - This was my first step ( and hardest ) in terms of food management. I needed to be aware of the portions I ate and be comfortable, but not “full“, when I walked away from the table. I was reminded of the phrase “All you care to eat“ as opposed to “All you can eat.“
- Make Small Food Changes - I don't think it is healthy to radically change my diet, but every week I made small changes. I gradually phased in things: 1) Avoid sodas and beverages with empty calories. 2) Do I really need the mayonnaise on my sandwhich. 3) When I need a snack choose a healthier snack over something more fattening. 4) Introduce more veggies into my meals. 5) Eat leaner meat. 6) Drink more water. 7) Make a smoothie. 8) Green Tea instead of coffee. etc. I made small steps so my body could comfortably get used to the changes in a healthy way, but I kept up with the healthy choices so I did lose the weight and became healthier.
The thing we have to accept right now is that we have to be patient. Let's break bad habits and develop good habits. Changing habits takes three things: consistency, focus and time. Quick weight loss and crash diet programs will not break bad habits and create good ones. You need to do this yourself and you can do it on your own without the help of a diet program.
Portion Control
I recommend that your first step is not necessarily to change what you are eating, but only the amount of it that you are eating - Portion Control. This is freaking hard, because I for one, didn't really think about how much I was eating. Food was given to me and I ate all of it - period! The plate was never returned with food on it as this is how I was brought up as a kid. You ate everything on your plate and that was that!
There are no special tricks here to limiting your intake of food to a healthier amount. I already knew the answers to solve these problems:
- Size Up the Meal - When at a restaurant and given portions, I ask myself if there is a lot of food, dare I say, too much food on the plate? Should I eat it all? Maybe I should partition the plate in what I will eat now and what I will take home? What is the priority in which I will eat items? I ask these questions all the time now and act accordingly when food portions are given to me.
- Take Smaller Portions - This is the hardest. I automatically take less than I want if I get to choose the portions. I have to do this because I hate to waste food and I will eat everything on my plate. I tell myself I can go for seconds, if necessary.
- Look for Satisfaction, Not Fullness - While eating my brain is now engaged in the process of eating and I am always looking for my bodies feedback that it is satisfied. In the past I completely missed this signal and only focused on 1) the I am “full“ or “stuffed“ response or 2) came to the end of the plate :) Forget full and focus on satisfaction. The full feeling may kick in 15 or 30 minutes later anyway, but in general, I don't want to ever be full when getting up from the table. I am looking for satisfied or just on the border of being satisfied.
The short story is that your brain needs to be more engaged with the eating process. You need to have a plan about what and how much you intend to eat and just when you plan to be finished. I typically formulate a game plan right when the meal comes and I am always focused on my body's feedback during the process. In time, this process becomes easier and easier. I encourage you to leave yourself notes as reminders of these habits until they become automatic.
We are not focusing on a diet or an exercise program, but a healthy lifestyle that, if done right, will continue for the rest of our lives.
Stay healthy!