UPDATE: I’ll be adding a article soon about why I chose to lose weight and what brought me to this decision. Stay tuned as I will add a link here when it is live!
Lets chat about how I lost 30 pounds over the course of a year without feeling deprived, exhausted, discouraged, or burnt out.
I’m not a doctor, nutritionist, or certified in anything related to these topics. This information is just what worked for me and touches base on things I’ve learned along the way. I highly recommend you to do your research, and consult the proper professional before trying anything here.
1 – Drinking Water
This is something we have all heard. Water helps weight loss. It always annoyed me to hear this like, “OK, OK, OK. I get.” In actuality I didn’t get it though. The month I drank half my body weight in ounces of water five days a week I lost the most! In my research this model is the most suggested by nutritionist and trainers alike. When your body is dehydrated it feels very similar to being hungry. Any time I feel like I want a snack I drink a glass of water first and wait a few minutes.
2 – Paying Attention to Calories (But NOT Obsessing)
So much of weight loss is what you consume. All trainers I’ve spoken to whether in Washington, or Michigan attribute diet to 80% of the battle. Working out is just a small component. If you haven’t traveled to another country let me tell you that Americans have very large serving sizes in comparison to most everywhere else. I did reduce my calories to between 1500 and 1700. I did this two ways one we will chat about later in this list, but also by educating myself on proper servings of what I was eating. I was so surprised by the comparison of what I thought was an OK serving to what was actually recommended. In this I learned that I could still feel full on a reduced Calorie diet by eating more veggies. Most vegetables are low in caloric content, so I never felt deprived and like I would go to bed wanting a snack.
There are lots of online calculators to find out your resting metabolic rate (RMR) to base your reduction off of. Something to note is that you shouldn’t deplete too much. Most of the articles that I’ve come across say not to go below 1300 calories. Personally, I found that when I ate at 1350-1400 Calories I didn’t lose weight at all! I just stayed in the same place for that month. Something else I’d like to note is that I didn’t obsess over my Calories either. If I went over one day I simply brushed it off and looked back at where I went wrong and took note for next time. It’s all about learning and being kinder to yourself as you go.
3 – Changing my Mindset
Ahh, the mind. My biggest nemesis in my journey. For so long I felt hopeless and that anything I did would not be enough. I had gained the weight so fast and wasn’t sure why or how. I went to the doctors and I did the test. Thyroid issues run in my family, but I was told my test were fine.
I had to accept that whatever was going on wasn’t something that would be solved with a quick fix (even if that exist). I decided to set a goal for myself and take slow steps to reach it. My goal didn’t have a date attached to it. I strategically made my goals one at a time. For example, I want to drink more water… I want to go to bed at 9 pm… I want to work out for 30 mins – 4 days a week… I want to take my vitamins everyday consistently etc…
I had to prove to myself mentally that I could do these things and with consistency. If I was to wake up one day and demand myself to do all these things I would get overwhelmed. It’s similar to snowballing your debt, master one thing then roll that momentum into the next. Listen to yourself talk as you do this. I promise that with being kinder to yourself it will translate into your subconscious, and make every task you add to your journey that much gentler.
4 – Moving More Diversely
I used to run and like it. Now I hate running and it hurts too much. For me I need to be able to switch it up when I’m working out so I don’t get bored. I found using YouTube and the FitOn app I could find free high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts around 30 minutes long to easily switch things up. I started paying attention to how much I was walking as well. Most days at my job I am on my feet but not moving too much. So when ever I feel too idle I move. Its important to be aware of your steps and mobility throughout the day, week, month.
Be sure to try different things to see what works for you and brings you joy while you are doing it. Doing something you enjoy makes it easier to show up for yourself.
5 – Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is the other way I found it helpful to cut my Calories. There is sooooooo much information out there about it that it is easy to get analysis-paralysis. I first started being interested in it when I heard Dr. Rhonda Patrick talk about it in her podcast. She lead me to another doctor’s app, Zero. This app helps you track your fasting schedule and teaches you about the different types of fast out there. I also really loved the Learn section of this app because the articals that are posted are by medical professionals or scientist in the health and nutrition world. They also post links to studies! My inner nerd rejoices.
My fasting schedule looked something like this:
- Black Coffee (Morning Survival Liquid)
- Eat first meal between 11:30 am – 12:00 pm (Lunch)
- Work out (if it is a scheduled day) right when I get home from work.
- Eat an afternoon snack (Normally while I’m pulling dinner ingredients out of the fridge)
- Eat NO later than 7:30 pm (Dinner)
All of these things were things that I worked up to. I took it slow. I had just switched positions, moved across the country for that position, and lost many love ones. Life gets crazy and we can’t be too forceful on ourselves. It has been incredibly important to me to reduce the amount of stress I put on me about my body. In doing this I went from over 191.2 pound to 165.5 pounds. Sure there is more to go and I still can’t do 15 push ups in a row, but I couldn’t even do a solid five when I started.
Remember to smile at yourself in the mirror. It helps.
This content resides on a blog. The opinions here are entirely our own and do not reflect or are influenced by any organization we maybe affiliated with. All information is accurate and true to the best of our knowledge. We are human, so their may be omissions, errors, or mistakes. The content available is for entertainment and/or information purposes only and should not be taken as any kind of advice (i.e. medical, emotional, etc). If you chose to follow any information here you are choosing to do so at your own risk. We are not a professional, so the information should not be taken as professional advice. We reserve the right to add, change, or remove content here at anytime we see fit.
