David Crandall

19 lbs Gone

Losing weight can be tough.  Everyone has tried one diet after the next only to be short of energy, eating bland food, losing motivation, and sometimes not losing ANY weight.  It can be a huge drag.

It's even more of a challenge when you've NEVER dieted before.  "Where do I start?"  "What should I eat?"  "What SHOULDN'T I eat?"  "How much should I eat?"  "How often do I need to exercise?"  These are ALL questions I asked myself before I began my new weight-loss routine.  If you're in the same boat as I was, here are some tips I have come up with to help you get started.

 NOTE:  I'm not a nutritionist, or a professional dietitian.  These are just things I have done to lose weight and feel better about myself, and feel better in general.

Don't just "diet."  Change your lifestyle.  Thinking of losing weight as a "diet" causes me to have less motivation, especially in the beginning.  I really enjoyed getting the cheap 5-layer burrito from Taco Bell for lunch or a light night snack, and my favorite beverage was Dr. Pepper.  Had I thought of my weight-loss plan as a "diet," I'd have given in to all the strong cravings for the junk foods I loved the most.  Plus, diets give the impression of a temporary state - they don't last.  So, rather than "dieting," be someone new.  Be a person who eats healthy from now on, not someone who is on a diet.

Get rid of old habits.  Mine were eating late at night, drinking soda, lots of fast food, etc.  Stopping all this was my ultimate life-change.  Getting rid of those habits alone will cause weight loss.

Create new habits.  When choosing food to eat throughout the day, count your calories.  It may be helpful to create a journal or spreadsheet to keep track of all the calories, fat, and carbs you take in every day.  Seeing how much you eat can be an encouragement to eat healthier.  Start buying fresh ingredients and learn to cook them.  There are many recipes that are easy to follow online.  I'll be sure to post some of my own in the near future.

Exercise.  This is essential for fat-burning.  It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you start and continue to push yourself forward.  Walk around the block once your first day, then walk a little faster the next.  Maybe even walk around the block twice after that.  Do what you need to start exercising.  Again, don't think of it as a chore or part of a diet.  Tell yourself "I am now a person who exercises."  This is a lifestyle change.  Doing this will help you to live healthier even after you reach your goal weight and size.

Eat proper portions.  Once big problem a lot of diets have is they cut out something, but let you take in TONS of other things.  For example, people think with the low-carb/atkins diet that you can eat anything you want and as much as you want as long as you don't eat any carbs.  This is FALSE, because 1. You could be taking in too much fat, which can cause a lot of problems, and 2.  You may still be taking in more calories than you burn a day, and you gain weight.  I won't say that carbs are BAD, and I won't say that fat is BAD - but too much of these things IS VERY BAD.  Eat proper portions of your food, and take in the right amount of calories.

If you're unsure of how much you should be eating, visit this website: http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/calculators/calories-required/  Enter your information (AND BE HONEST) and it will help you out.  From there, plan your meals around that calorie amount.  For me to lose 2lbs a week, I should be eating 1300-1600 calories with little to no exercise.  So, I eat low fat, low carb meals (not NO fat and NO carbs), and exercise at the gym for about an hour, 3-4 times a week.  I'm not on a diet, this is just what I do and who I am.

In coming posts, I will get a little more in-depth on these topics, and share my habits, my meals, my recipes, and my workout routine.  I hope I can encourage you to change yourself for the better by sharing my own progress.  As of today, I've lost 19lbs in one month.  If I can do it, so can you.