Warning: Article under construction
The purpose of this article is to describe my 5 year long weight loss and get fit battle to everybody. I did it and so can you. I used to weigh 255lbs at a height of 5 feet and 9 inches. I now weigh 185 lbs and it's not changing at all.
I only used natural ingredients:
- Have no problem with changing the way I lived
- Be physically active
- Eat healthy and regularly
Read on to learn from my experience, avoid repeating my mistakes and find out if I had the same problem.
The mind
Don't even bother if you don't really mean it. YOU are the one, that must make the decision and it has to come from YOUR heart. If you think you'll just train really hard and eat very little for a month, just enough to get in shape, I guarantee you will get all the lbs back with interests :).
Becoming fit and slim isn't a one time deal. You will have to live the new life until you die. I know, it sounds scary, but every day it gets a little easier and every day you enjoy it more.
The body
WARNING: Be sure to consult your doctor, pharmacist, parents or friends depending on your shape and age, before doing any sports. People have died from this and if you think you might be at risk, then you definitely should see a doctor. I take no responsibility of any kind. I am just describing how it worked for me. I am not a doctor, I did make lots of mistakes, but I also learned a lot.
No matter how big or old you are there is always some sort of sports you can do. I'm sure anyone can go to a spa or a pool.
The trick is not to overdo it. Exercise regularly in you own pace. A good idea is to get a Heart Rate Monitor. Even the most basic one will tell you when you are pushing yourself too hard or, in other words, when you went from aerobic to anaerobic exercise. After a while you will listen to your body as never before. It will tell you what to eat, how long and fast to run. Just obey it and your body and you will be fine.
Your aim should be exercising 2-3 days in a row, then 1 day rest and again, and again, and again... Once you are comfortable with that you could aim at, what some call, "being really fit". This means you can run 10km in 1hr every day. Not everyone reaches this, so it is optional and depends entirely on you (and you shape).
The sports
My personal main sports are:
- Running
- Cycling
- Swimming
I'd recommend them exactly in reverse order, because of the strain on you ankles and joints.
If you don't have a pool with heated water or something like that, then you will need an elliptical trainer, a rowing machine or something like that.
When winter (or floods, heat..) hits and you are stuck at home, there's nothing like having your own mini gym in the garage.
This is almost a must for someone who lives in an area, where stuff like this happens and a nice addition to outdoor sports for others.
Team sports are great too, if you are lucky enough to have pals to do that 3 times a week.
I never went to a fitness club, but if you live in a big city you don't have much choice, specially if the air is polluted. Please: avoid doing outdoor sports in air polluted areas, this does more harm than good. Better see a fitness club.
My advise is do two of my main sports regularly and others by free will.
The food
There are only few, simple to follow, rules to live by:
- Avoid mixing carbohydrates with proteins and fat in one meal.
- You may eat plenty of vegetables with either carbohydrates or proteins and fat in one meal.
- Do eat carbohydrate meals before exercise (at least 2 hrs before).
- Do eat protein meals after training.
- Do have breakfast
- Besides breakfast have lunch and/or dinner and two snacks (fruits, biscuits)
- Avoid eating after 8PM.
- Avoid sugar as much as possible.
- Drink lots of water without any additives.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you miss it you body will think "no food today" and will go into economy mode. That's great for cars, but bad for you. Your body must be in sport mode to use more resources around your belt. And you do this by always having breakfast. If you don't like the idea just skip dinner for 3 days... you will wake up starving for food.
Do not buy food such as bread and water containing sugar. Long term exposure to small, but steady doses of sugar in you body cause that real food is stored directly as fat, because the blood is already saturated with the food for the muscles. Anyhow.. after a month of drinking coffee or tea without sugar you will hate the very idea, and since you are sugar free in general there is no problem with having a chocolate cake once in a while.
Everything you need to know is in this book:
Eat yourself slim
by Michel Montignac.The deal
Start exercising regularly and eating healthy. Stick to it for at least a couple of months. The initial problems you may encounter are:
- Muscle pain
- Lack of will
The best cure is to go and exercise. It will pass in two days tops.
No pain no gain. No excuses... It's really up to you. It takes commitment and that's all I can say.
The food should not be a problem if you are eating at home, but it is quite difficult to find a healthy meal like barbecued turkey and green salad. You will have to be resourceful, depending on where you live. You should have no problem adapting to the diet personally, as you can have as much of food as you want, as long you stick to the rules.
Problems you experience at later stages include:
- You are doing so fine your ego grows, but then something happens...
- You are doing so fine, but are no longer able to exercise
- You are overdoing it.
Imagine you are doing so fine it shows and you really are becoming physically attractive, so you decide you go on a vacation to some tropical island, where you sip beer all dat long for two weeks. When you get home you realized you gained most of the weight back and are no longer in great shape. This can be quite a downer for some people. The best thing to do is to get back at it immediately. Thats the only way to feel better about yourself as soon as possible.
It's a winter storm for a week now, and you are suddenly no longer able to exercise outdoors. You get of anxiety, almost like a smoker without a cigarette. This happens because of the sudden lack of endorphins
in your body, which were released by your hard trainings before. Nothing to fear, it just goes to show that sport is the best drug. If you can, get a home trainer machine at bigfitness.net
or do push-ups. The worst thing you can do is to ease up and stop exercising for more than 2-3 days.
You look thinner and thinner but the fat is still where you don't want it. You look like you are drying up. Well.. you are overdoing it. Either not eating enough proper food or training to hard or both. This leads nowhere. Please stop in any extremes now and start eating according to your exercise and lifestyle needs. Do not train too hard, as this only burns the muscles, so while you are loosing some fat you are loosing much more muscle weight, thus raising you body fat percentage.
So that's the deal. Each day you will feel faster, lighter, stronger and more attractive. Try to keep this up for 3-4 months and you will gradually embrace the new lifestyle. The most important thing is you stick to the rules and don't ever give up. Even if you had an accident and were in the hospital for two months it's never too late to start again. It will be easier this time, because the body already knows the drill and your mind has already been through this, so you know it is possible.
