Magic Formula to Weight Loss

Published on February 25th, 2011 by

There really isn’t a magic formula, but in my opinion there is a formula to losing weight. Its not a secret either. People that have lost weight know the formula.  The formula looks something like this:

20% Desire/Will +  25 % Sacrifice + 20% Diet + 5% Exercise + 30% Action = Weight Loss Success

Before you dismiss my formula let me state that this formula was developed by me. People who have lost weight probably have a similar formula of their own. The numbers probably vary slightly from person to person.

Desire/Will - You’ve got to want to lose weight. You really have to have a desire to change your lifestyle and take back your life. Without the desire and/or the will to lose weight, you’ll never lose the weight. Some people say they want to lose weight, but then don’t take action with any amount of desire. You’ve got to want it.

Sacrifice – Losing weight is easy, once you’ve learned how your body works. The hard part is getting through the tough part of the learning curve. To get through it and to see results, you’ve got to learn to sacrifice. Gotta sacrifice your favorite fast food joint. Gotta let go of the weekend drinking binges. You’ve gotta workout instead of watching your favorite tv show. You’ve got to give to get.

Diet – What I am about to say may be in complete disagreement with what you’ve read, but you don’t need to exercise to lose weight. You need to exercise to get fit and healthy, but to simply lose weight all you need to do is control your diet. Diet is a major factor in the battle to lose weight. Eat right and you will lose weight. Plain and simple.

Exercise – While this is contradictory to what I just wrote, exercise is mildly important to losing weight. You can lose weight and still be unhealthy. To really get fit, exercise is key. There are a ton of other benefits to exercise. But for weight loss, it only accounts for 5% of my success in losing weight. I do workout regularly and follow a program. You can see my program on My Workout page.

Action – This is by far the most important component of my weight loss formula. You can have all the desire in the world to lose weight, but it means nothing without action. I previously wrote about just that topic. If your weight loss plan includes eating right, making the sacrifices you need to and to workout, thats great! But you’ve got to put your plan into action. You will not achieve results by doing nothing. Take action!

Success - Weight loss is attainable. You can lose weight and be the person you want to be. Its out there for you…you just have to go get it!

I’d love to hear your magic weight loss formula! Please share in the comments!

 
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They’re Missing the Boat

Published on February 22nd, 2011 by

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed several commercials from leading athletic performance companies (Nike, Under Armour, Reebok, Adidas etc) that all target the same market. All of these companies are targeting the in-shape, fit athletes. And, to be honest, it makes sense. They manufacture performance apparel, they are endorsed by professional athletes, and they have a fairly large market with amateur athletics like high school sports, trainers etc. But I think they are missing the boat on a larger audience and market.

What if these companies researched and created products for people trying to lose weight and get into shape? That is a huge market that they aren’t currently promoting to. Even if overweight people (like myself) buy performance products, they aren’t made for me. Being overweight and trying to get fit, I require products developed for that use. I don’t, currently, have a need for ultra-performance athletes. For example, I won’t wear a tight dri-fit shirt to the gym. I’d love to have the functionality of a dri-fit, but there is no way I’m wearing something form-fitting in public. We need the performance and functionality, but we need to use it differently from athletes.

I’d love to see one (or all) of these companies develop gear for people who are overweight but are currently exercising and trying to lose weight….if any product reps read this, I’d love to help develop those products!!

 
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I’ll Never Forget

Published on February 10th, 2011 by

I’ve lost close to 50 pounds and I feel great. I still have some weight to lose, but this is a journey. The weight won’t fall off overnight. This knowledge makes my ass go to the gym four to five times a week. I love going to the gym. I feel amazing when I walk out of the gym after a great work out. Today was different. Today I left the gym with two feelings that I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, one of those feelings was anger. Let me explain…

By no means am I the most overweight or out of shape dude in the gym. On the flip side, I am by no means the most fit guy there. I fall somewhere in the middle. As I was leaving the gym today, they had a free sample booth setup (think Costco) with some after workout drink they are trying to promote. They even had one of the fit trainers there answering questions. I stop to survey the scene and I notice three fitter looking guys go by the sample table and the trainer engages them, almost goes out of his way, in a conversation about the product and how it will help. They take the sample and leave. As I’m approaching the table, which is near the door, the trainer looks at me and says “have a good night”. No conversation about the product, no attempt to tell me its benefits and no where near an attempt to hand me a sample.I should have picked up a sample and tried it out, but my mind was racing at this point. I was fired up. I left with anger and a bad attitude.

As I’m walking to my car, I tweet:

Angry Gym Tweet

After my anger subsided, I realized what the guy actually did. Which is the second thing I left the gym with…motivation. This guy gave me a kick in the butt. He didn’t do it out of goodwill, hes an ass. I chose to let him give it to me. But then an amazing thing happened, which kicked up the motivation even more. I received two replies to my tweet:

Motivational Message From a Friend

Thankful Motivational Message

These two tweets made my day, but they did much more than that. They show what the true weight loss community is all about. We’re all in this together. The guy at the gym doesn’t get it.

There is a great lesson I’ve learned in all of this; don’t let anyone hold you down or stop you from trying to achieve and that there are amazing people out there, in the same place you are, who are there to support you and want to see you succeed. If you feel down about losing weight, if you need some motivation to get on track, please contact me. I am here for you…you are not alone.

A very heartfelt thanks go to Chris and Miller. You have no idea what those tweets mean to me.

 
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Being Happy With Eating Decisions

Published on February 9th, 2011 by

Losing weight isn’t hard. Let me clarify…the act in and of it self of losing weight, is not hard. What is hard is all of the emotion, planning, preparation, lifestyle changes, motivation, mental aspects etc, etc, etc. It’s tough to get motivated to go to the gym at 6am. It’s tough to eat a chicken breast instead of two slices of pizza. It’s tough when you’ve worked so hard but aren’t seeing any results on the scale. It’s tough to prepare three meals in the morning that you’ll eat throughout the day. It’s tough when your buddies want to go to the bar and you know that alcohol is the fat loss enemy. It’s tough to make all of the right decisions. But why is it that way?

Are these decisions tough because the old decisions and lifestyle made you happy? Do you feel like eating healthy and making other health decisions are making you sad, angry or not as happy. I know that I am happy when I sit down with a pizza and devour over half of it by myself. The problem is that I wasn’t happy with myself after I ate it. I felt guilty, ashamed, sad.

To get myself in the right frame of mind with the decisions I was going to have to make to lose weight, I started playing a little mental trick with myself. I don’t compare the two foods to one another; I look at them individually and try to feel what my level of happiness will be after I eat them. While this may sound silly, it has help me make good eating decisions. Good decisions eventually lead to being happier (strictly my opinion and not based in any research!). When I make a good decision, I feel good about it, I feel happy with myself.

Over time, I’ve  noticed that I don’t mind not eating pizza (or other junk food) if I am happy with my eating  decision of eating healthy. Like the old adage “mind over matter”, if I don’t mind eating healthy, then pizza doesn’t matter. If I am happy with my decision, it makes it easier to forget crappy food. This mindset helped me break old eating habits and form new healthy eating habits. When these new habits were formed, I had successfully changed my eating lifestyle and that’s when I started to lose significant weight.

You may be eating healthy, but are you eating healthy unhappily? Change your mindset and go into a happy place when making a great eating decision. Happiness leads to extraordinary things. Be happy with the decision you made, it was the right decision!

 
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Jerry Watson’s Weight Loss Success Story

Published on February 8th, 2011 by

This is a guest blog post from my new “Weight Loss Success Story” series.

Jerry Watson is a freelance writer and retired contractor who has written one novel and has another one in the works and has written extensively for a number of websites on the internet. He blogs at http://JerryLWatson.Wordpress.com and owns http://best-whetstones.com

I had always been what was called in the days of my youth, a “stout” young man. Because I grew up working hard and playing almost no sports, I was mostly muscle for a good many years. Then, over a period of time, I became sicker and sicker until, ultimately I couldn’t work and the doctors, at first diagnosing asthma, finally got around to diagnosing GERD or gastro esophageal reflux disease which was affecting my breathing. I had surgery for it in December of 2002 and found that my lifestyle and eating habits were drastically altered. I became increasingly sedentary and had to rely on mostly a liquid diet for awhile; I gained weight and by the spring of 2010 had reached an ungainly 237 pounds. My wife and I decided to try something more drastic than all the different diets we had experimented with: juicers, proteins, pills, etc. Knowing that my wife had lost weight on Weight Watchers many years prior, we talked it over and decided to give them another shot. We enrolled in the local Weight Watchers meeting and began attending. I have to admit I was more than a little apprehensive because almost all the attendees were women. Then I began seeing a few men show up and started to feel more like participating. The leader, a lifelong member of Weight Watchers herself, was positive and upbeat and actively invited us all to take part in the group. At first, I expected we would have to talk about our weight—and I didn’t want to—but the leader led us each week in discussions about our lifestyle, our exercise methods, our favorite foods and recipes and our food temptations. Discussion would have been unfulfilling in and of itself but the leader drew solutions out of each one of us and if no one had one, she could be counted on to supply one from the Weight Watchers archives including scientific testing results and weight-loss myth busting.

After the first week, I began to lose a respectable 1.5 to 2 pounds per week, which was right in line with the weight loss guidelines. I held true to the menus and set a vigorous exercise program for myself that included brisk walking at least 3 times per week. In the process, I discovered some interesting things about myself: for instance, I would stick to a preplanned menu without trouble but without that I would eat whatever I could find in the refrigerator or cupboards in whatever quantities I wanted. Bad news. I hated to work on a menu by myself but enjoyed sitting down to work out a week’s menus with my wife. I love to exercise, especially walking and hiking, but am not a fan of treadmills, exercycles and other electronic machinery. I also enjoyed lifting weights but my doctor expressly discouraged weight lifting and running. So, in 2011, I have settled into a routine of inquiring after the point values of each food I eat and pay attention to the portions I eat as well as walking at least 3 times a week and visiting the gym for an hour, bare minimum, of working out when the weather is bad. And the good news: I have lost almost 40 pounds and gone down four pant sizes and am managing to maintain my new weight. Dieting alone didn’t ever work for me; exercise alone didn’t work for me either. But a reasonable combination of them both has worked a miracle and now I know the surest route to healthy weight loss and weight maintenance. Oh, yes, and the loss of weight has helped me to manage my GERD symptoms to the extent that I can live a near-normal lifestyle once again.

I’d like to thank Jerry for sharing his story. If you’d like to share your weight loss success story, please contact me!

 
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Sometimes You Just Gotta Have Fun!

Published on February 7th, 2011 by

When you are dieting or trying to make a lifestyle change (i.e. changing eating habits), big parties and events make it difficult to stay on track. Take Superbowl Sunday for example. There really isn’t any healthy tailgate food at Superbowl parties. Fried foods, chips, dips, alcohol and chicken wings make up the staple of the festivities.

I chose to not count calories on Superbowl Sunday and to simply have fun without the worry. That doesn’t mean I went crazy and ate everything in site. I stayed sensible and enjoyed all of the food offerings in smaller portions. I ate fried food! The good news is…the bad eating didn’t reflect negatively on the scale. I didn’t lose weight, but I didn’t gain any either.

I believe this scenario is why many people fall off the bandwagon and abandon their diet. They feel constricted by their diet, they can’t have fun, they can’t enjoy events. The truth is, you can enjoy events and parties. Have fun, but stay sensible. Remember, you don’t get fat or overweight over night. The key is, to jump back on the bandwagon as soon as possible and continue your journey and reach your goals. Don’t let one night, one party, one event, one day turn into a downward spiral.

Be sensible, but have fun!

 
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It Should All Come Down To You

Published on February 1st, 2011 by

When I read weight loss blogs, or see stories on television about people losing weight I smile when I read between the lines and understand that people are starting to realize what losing weight is all about. Some people start out by losing weight so they can look good at the pool. Some want to lose weight to attract attention from a certain someone. Some want to lose weight cause they ahve kids or want to have kids (this was my reason). All of those reasons are valid and could provide the motivation you need, but I have found that the reason I lost, and am still losing, isn’t because of any external factors.

When I started on my journey I had no idea what I was going to learn about myself. I’ve learned dozens of things about me that I didn’t know, but the most important lesson is that I lost and am still losing weight for ME. Not to take my shirt off on vacation, not to have kids…no…I lost it for me. All of those other reasons are nice byproducts, but the best is doing something for myself. Building confidence, elevating self-image, enhancing self-esteem, being able to live a healthy life, living longer….those are all the reasons to lose weight for ME.

I’ve learned that losing weight for external reasons is fine, but to maintain weight loss and to continue to lead a healthy lifestyle, I have to do it for me. I am the only reason that I can be healthy. All of those other reasons disappear If I don’t get healthy. I don’t disappear, I just go on being miserable.

You can do it for a lot of reasons, but doing it for you should be at the top of the list.

 
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Sharing The Wealth

Published on January 26th, 2011 by

When I embarked on my weight loss journey, I knew nothing about losing weight. I knew nothing of how he body uses food. I knew nothing about exercise. I knew nothing! The good news is that there are hundreds (and probably thousands) of people out there willing to share their knowledge. They share in the form of a blog. I took the time to surf around and read as many weight loss and fitness blogs as possible (the key is to use an RSS Reader like Google Reader). Other people have traveled the same path that I am currently traveling and know the potential pitfalls. I am very thankful and grateful for those who have shared their journey and, unknown to them, helped me achieve the results that I am seeing.

I am by no means an expert in nutrition, fat loss and exercise. But I have learned a wealth of knowledge that, when applied, worked for me. As of this post, I’ve lost 48.4 pounds in the last 10 months or so. Not staggering amount of weight in that timeframe, but I’ve lost it the right way (no fad or crash diets) and have kept it off. However, the greatest joy I have in regards to my weight loss is when I get asked for advice. I love sharing what I have learned. I love when people realize that healthy eating and exercise works and want to get on the bandwagon. I know most people will take what I share and throw it away. They will never try. But, I know I am successful if one person gets healthy and they share their knowledge with others.

The amazing thing about shared knowledge, is that most people are willing to share and help if asked. You could leave a comment on almost any weight loss blog and get a response with help. I’m not advocating that in lieu of professional expertise, but its good to know that there are people out there they are willing to help you on your journey.

While my journey is far from over, I know there are people who want to start on their journey and know nothing. That was that same boat I was in not too long ago and I know the feeling of being overwhelmed by all of the information out there.

If you learn something along the way, don’t be afraid to share it. In the words of Zig Ziglar “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

 
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Setbacks Will Happen

Published on January 21st, 2011 by

Road Blocks and SetbacksWhen I started out on my weight loss journey, I had visions of grandeur. I thought that if I ate a healthy diet and went to the gym, then everything was going to be great and the pounds would melt off in no time. Well, everyone knows that isn’t the case or everyone would be fit and healthy. The reality is that there are setbacks and roadblocks along the way. They won’t stop you from getting to your destination unless you allow them to.

In the past, I’ve allowed setbacks to make me stop trying to lose weight. I’ve used setbacks as an excuse to fall back into old habits (i.e. buying a king size Milky Way candy bar for my drive home….every day of the week). In the past, I’ve allowed a one night setback to turn into a week long setback. Which subsequently turned into canceling my gym membership and gaining back the precious weight that I lost. Setbacks don’t need to be and shouldn’t be u-turns. They are valuable lessons that you learn and apply later in your weight loss and fitness journey.

I put that statement in bold, because its something I think is very important. When I took that statement to heart, and learned it’s meaning, my life changed forever. I was able to look at a setback, analyze what made it a setback, think about how I could have done something different or could have made a better decision and made a note of it so I could recall it later in my journey when I faced a similar situation. Setbacks, when understood, actually helped me better myself. The first time I used a previous setback as a tool for improvement left me bewildered. I was stunned when I realized that I had faced a similar situation in the past and I applied what I learned from that situation to better my current situation.

I started my weight loss journey in February 2010 and I have hit quite a few roadblocks and setbacks, and I know there will be many more to come. After hitting setbacks, I have realized that they come in several flavors and varieties:

Physical setback
While this type of setback can happen at anytime, it is most prevalent in the early stages of the journey when you are first getting into the gym. It is very easy to hurt yourself during the first few months of exercise, especially once you get into a groove and think you know what you are doing in the gym. Then it happens; you try and do one more rep or try and do a 30 second sprint. You strain a muscle, pull a hamstring, tweak your back…you now have a physical setback. You’ll hold off on all physical activity and wait to go back to the gym until you feel 100%, but that is the problem. While its smart to recover before you get back into the gym, its not smart to stop all physical activity. You will form a habit of not going to the gym and before you know it, you’ll cancel your membership and put the weight back on. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!!!

Understanding this setback, when I hurt myself at the gym, I’ll walk/jog or do pushups/situps to keep the exercise habit and routine going. Then go back to the gym when I am ready. Being stagnant will cause you to u-turn. Don’t allow that to happen.

Emotional setback
It took me some time to analyze this and understand what it is and how it affected me. After taking the time to understand this type of setback, I think its the type of setback that happens to us most often. When I was at my heaviest, I would turn to my comfort zone and bad habits when I had a bad day. In fact, I believe its what made me overweight. If I was having a bad day, I would go to Burger King for lunch and order as much food as I could possibly eat…and then eat it all. It didn’t take away what was making the day bad, but it would help me get through it. I would then go back to my bad day and have to try and console myself some more, so I would hit the gas station and get a king size Milky Way and a king size Kit Kat with an energy drink for the drive home.

That is my story, and I know many people who are or were overweight has a similar story. Our emotional state plays a huge role in our actions. More often then not, they make us take actions that are most comfortable…which are our habits. With this understanding, I knew I had to change my habits. I thought of foods that I could carry with me at all times so that when I had the feeling to resort to food, I could resort to something good for me and to minimize the impact. I wanted to make a win-win situation for myself. I tried carrying fruit around, but it would get beat up and uneatable. Then I tried meal replacement bars and/or granola bars. I found that if they had chocolate, they would melt in the car or would get stale. After experimenting, I found that nuts are the perfect solution. A handful of nuts are good for you and are fulfilling; they take away the hunger.

This doesn’t take away the underlying issues as to why I want to eat when I have a bad day, but it also removes the roadblock that sits in the way of my weight loss destination.

Mental setback
This is not the same as an emotional setback. A mental setback is stopping your actions because you are mentally worn down. You are just tired of your routine or you are distracted by thoughts of other things that are going on in your life. For example, its tough to focus on your health when you have in impending IRS audit.

Mental rest is just as important and valuable as physical rest. It also has the same pitfalls however. Don’t allow mental rest to u-turn you into your old habits. Take care of what is on your mind, then get back to focusing on your weight loss journey. If your routine is running you ragged and causing you to get mentally worn out, change your routine. Your new routine can and will be just as effective as your current routine, but the shake up can make it more exciting and rejuvenate your spirit.

A mental health break is something I take often. Most people that allow this to be a u-turn take long breaks, which allow old habits to creep in. I take short breaks that don’t allow me to get stagnant. Quick breaks allow me to get fresh again and get back to focusing on my goals.

Social setbacks
This type of setback has been the bane of my weight loss. It has u-turned me more than any other setback in my many attempts to lose weight and get healthy. It seems like a simple setback that wouldn’t have long-lasting effect, but its a tricky one. Your buddies want to go to happy hour after work. So you go and have one or two beers. Then you have one or two more. Then you go to a bar after happy hour has ended and have a few more drinks. Before you know it, you are drinking all weekend. You had fun, so you do it again the next weekend. You try and get back on track, but you are having too much fun. Before you know it, you are eating pizza at 2am, waking up at 10am and grabbing a beer. Vicious cycle.

That might be an extreme scenario, but I’ve been there. How about this one…you go to a birthday party and you tell yourself you aren’t going to eat any cake. When the cake starts to get sliced up, you say “ok, just a little piece”. You get a little piece and some ice cream. You go to dinner later that night and you say to yourself “well, I’ve already blown it today, why not gorge?”. This is the easiest route to a u-turn. Been there, done that. Enjoy a piece of cake, eat a healthy dinner. Enjoy yourself at all times, but don’t let it stand in the way of your goals.

I am positive that there are several other types of setbacks, and that I’ll encounter them somewhere along the journey. The setbacks and examples listed above are the setbacks I’ve encountered in the past and how I now deal with them. Setbacks will happen, don’t let them u-turn you to old habits. Learn from them to improve yourself.

 
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What It Takes To Lose Weight

Published on January 18th, 2011 by

Several of my friends are ready to shed a few pounds and have asked me how I did it and what it takes to be successful. I have taken some time to reflect on my weight loss and to gain an understanding of what it takes to lose weight. What I realized is that losing weight is just as much a mental as it is physical. If you have taken any time to read other weight loss blogs, you’ll notice this as a common theme. It may not be in bold writing, and the blogger may not know it. But when someone talks/writes about the struggles of eating out or frustration with the scale, they are talking about the mental component of weight loss just as much as they are talking about the physical aspect.

It is true that I ate a slice of pizza, but why did I eat it? Why did I eat it when I know that it puts more distance between me and my goal. Why did I feel guilty after eating it? These questions have nothing to do with the physical act of eating the pizza; it has everything to do with the mental act and the thoughts leading up to the physical act. By the time my hand picked up that slice of pizza, I  had already mentally defeated myself and gave in. What does this have to do with me explaining weight loss?

Figuring out what and when I should eat and how and when I should workout is the easy part. There is an overload of information on the web about both of these topics and if you take the time to do some reading, you will learn the answers to eating and working out….and in reality, even though I’m not an expert, I can teach people all of that.  But what I believe is the key factor(s) to losing weight (and keeping it off) lies inside ourselves. Do I have the determination to lose weight? Am I willing to make serious sacrifices to lose weight? Can I say “No” to friends and family? Can I push yourself to go to the gym when you don’t feel like it? Can I order water at a bar when your buddies are all drinking beer? I could list a thousand such questions that relate to what we have inside ourselves. These are the things that no expert or guru can teach. These are the things that decide successful in losing weight or will be a roadblock to reaching goals.

Losing weight is hard. It takes a toll on your mental state. But to win the battle and to be victorious, you have to fight back. You have to turn away from temptation. You have to have more determination then you’ve ever had. You have to be willing to give up your favorite things. But, the good news, is that its worth it! And, once you prove your determination and your sacrifice, they become your habits. Yep….your fight, your will and your laser-like focus on your goals become second nature. They become part of who you are and they take over and guide you to your destination.

I found out the hard way, and unfortunately, everyone that wants to be successful at losing has to find out the hard way. There is no way to know if you have what it takes unless you embark on the journey. If you do take the first step to losing weight, well, you have already demonstrated that you have something inside you that wants to fight. Keep going and don’t stop until you reach your goal.

 
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