I am by no means thin. Actually, I am overweight. So I understand the mindset of the overweight person. Dieting is too hard and it doesn’t work, exercising hurts, etc.
All of the diet gurus and exercise junkies will tell you to run to your refrigerators and throw away a full week’s worth of groceries and start afresh. In this economy, no one can afford to do that.
Plus, it takes years for someone to become overweight. Changing our outlook on food and exercise is not going to happen overnight.
There has to be a very subtle way to jumpstart a healthier eating plan without officially being on a diet.
I found that by simply eliminating certain things, choosing a different portion size and keeping busy during the day, I have been able to maintain a 20 pound weight loss for quite some time.
Granted, I’m not the weight that I’m supposed to be, but at least the numbers haven’t gone up.
Making these lifestyle changes will help you to drop some weight and perhaps motivate you enough to choose a diet and exercise plan that will work for you.
Let’s start off small:
1. Water, water everywhere!
– I used to be addicted to soda. I would think nothing of drinking an entire two liter bottle of cola by myself. It wasn’t until 2006 that I realized I had a problem.
In the beginning I switched to diet soda, which is just as damaging as the original. Still, it was a beginning.
Once I was able to let go of regular soda, I gave myself little tests to see how long I could go without a glass of diet. At first it was one glass a day. Then I went to one glass every other day. Then I tried three days, and so on until I was having one glass of diet soda per week.
Now the longest I’ve gone without a soda is a few months, and I’ve increased my water intake dramatically. I even order water with lime in restaurants and it turns out to be a cheaper and healthier alternative to having a cola with your meal. Plus, water with lime is delicious!
2. Do the splits.
– My mother and I love to visit local bakeries. We used to load up on all kinds of sugary sweets and had little tasting parties for ourselves. Only it wasn’t a tasting party; it was an eat-like-a-pig party.
get all the thinning tips on page 30 of the September South Coast Insider
