The fat dripped from the front of my midsection and protruded out the sides from my muffin top. It looked a like those toys where you squeeze them and the eyes pop out (except for me it was fat 😟). I was trying on slacks in a Macy’s dressing room I got hit with reality. I had been on a weight loss journey for quite a while a.k.a chronically dieting, but this was a shock.
Honestly, it was that moment I decided that I was going to make a change in my life and finally start taking my weight loss seriously. While I am still on my journey I have learned a lot through the way and I want to share what I learn.
Track everything
I found that change begins with awareness so if you want to change something about yourself I needed to create an awareness around that thing.
Tracking doesn’t mean restriction… If you eat at a buffet it is more helpful (although painful) to log the 5000 calories that I ate than to just pretend that it didn’t happen.
I wasted a lot of time not getting the results that I wanted because I was continually faking myself out. It felt better for my emotions to not log things but I saw no results, so it needed to change.
If you’re looking for a great app that I use for my food tracking, I use MacroFactor. It’s paid but it is the best. If you’re balling on a budget lose it or myfitnesspal would serve you well. I choose MacroFactor because it has a focus on Macros (where as the other apps focus mostly on calorie intake).
Weigh yourself every morning
This goes along with tracking. In the first point you were tracking your activity. In this step you are tracking the results of your activity.
How do you know if what you’re doing is working or not if you are not seeing quantitive results daily?
Some people choose to to weigh themselves weekly but I choose to weigh myself daily. Why? Because scale weight is made up of more than just body fat. It includes water weight (which could account for 5-10 pounds sometimes!) and gut content, and other things. If you only weigh yourself once a week and you happen to do it on a bad day you’re going to feel bad for a whole week until you weigh yourself again? No of course not… Weighing yourself daily accounts for the ups and downs you will experience on your journey.
Make adjustments as you progress
When I got started on my journey of course I was committed as the dickens. It is kind of like making a New Year’s resolution. What I’ve found is that after about 7-10 days the commitment begins to fade and my progress slowed.
What I would always have to do is recommit and just get back on track. No big deal, this is how you accomplish anything. No body can maintain motivation indefinitely. So a commitment, followed by going off track, then a recommitment is the norm. Ideally as habit begins to take over and discipline becomes strong, the time you spend being committed will last longer and longer.
This leads to…
Commit (and recommit often) that your calorie budget is a hard limit
Regardless of everything else. This is the one point that must be followed. Find out what your calorie budget should be (most apps will help you do this or your can use this tool). And commit that once you reach it for the day, you will absolutely stop all food intake for that day.
Heads up: this part sucks. So…
This one tip helps above all others:
When it gets hard think about the future reward you will see for the difficult work
When I would be hungry at night and I almost would find myself reaching for food (and sometimes I fell to the temptation) I would usually yell (ahhh) and then I would think about how I would feel in the morning after I weight myself and see the progress on the scale. I was thinking about how great I would feel the next morning when I weighed myself.
Workout everyday or almost every day
Back 5 years ago I dropped a bunch of weight while running 4-5 days a week and tracking my calorie intake. Problem was, I did zero strength training and started to look like a twig.
So this time around I knew I wanted to lose body fat but I wanted there to be some muscle underneath it all. I wanted to look and be fit.
I used to workout 4 days a week at the gym and then I ramped it up to 7 days. I decided if I just don’t let the day end without me working out then I could accomplish that.
Some days it is a HIIT workout at home but usually it’s a 45 minute workout session at the gym. Note that I did not start at 45 minutes, I started at around 15 minutes and worked my way up from there. Just find something that you can do, start small, and build the habit. You’ll thank yourself.
A big problem most people have with going to the gym is capture in one word: Time. Nobody has enough of it. Well neither do I so I usually habit stack my workout first thing in the morning and I use an app called Centr. I like using an app because I literally walk into the gym and press play on the app and start my workout. I don’t have to think about it at all. The workouts in Centr are challenging but also quick and not too hard.
So my morning routine looks like this. I like to workout in the morning because it wakes me up and gives me the energy to do the next habit in my routine:
- Wake up
- Workout
- Read for 15-25 minutes while walking on the treadmill (cardio and education!)
- Shower, shave, and do my skincare routine at the gym
- Meditate (usually in my car)
- Ready to start my day!
Prioritize Lean Protein Over Fats and Carbs
It’s not fun to only eat a bunch of meat and protein. Fat and carbs are the spice of life! Problem us usually when I think of protein I think of a nice fatty ribeye. Nope that’s not the type of protein that I am talking about. I am talking about lean and boring cuts of meat. Think Tuna and chicken breasts.
Protein has a power to it that help you keep full and helps to build and maintain lean muscle. Prioritize it.
Use implementing intermittent fasting to make life easier
There comes a point in the diet that there is just too much time in the day and too few calories in the budget.
The best way I know to overcome this challenge is
- Committing to my calorie budget being a hard limit (see above points)
- Intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting is when you restrict eating food to only a short window in the day. Usually this window it 5-8 hours for eating and fasting for the rest.
Fasting is helpful because it is a binary yes-no. It’s 6pm and I’m hungry, do I eat? For me no. My fasting starts at 5pm. My eating window is 12-5pm on average.
Pro Tip: You will wake up feeling less hungry if you go to bed fasted than if you have a meal before bed. Having late night meals are a downward spiral and I avoid them like the plague!
Pro Tip 2: Caffeine, water, keeping busy, and following the hard calorie limit rule help with hunger
Make movement a lifestyle
If you’re at the mall and there is the option to take a freely available elevator or the stairs which option do you choose? If it is the elevator you would choose then you’re in luck! There is an additional 100-200 calories of exercise you could be adding to your day without having to change anything you do during the day.
I installed a steps tracker on my Apple Watch that count the steps I take in the day and displays them in a widget on my Apple Watch screen. My goals for each day is 10,000 steps. With that goal in mind some days I overshoot and some days I undershoot but with this much walking in your day I promise you’ll start looking better!
And lastly…
Avoid my mistake and take progress photos
Along with weighing yourself daily I built an app that allowed me to take progress photos of my body along with logging my scale weight (before MacroFactor had this feature built in!).
Your journey to fitness is going to take a long time and you might hit a platue or two. Wouldn’t it be helpful if you could see the hard work that you are doing? That is what progress photos do. You will have the opportunity to look back at your photos and truly say to yourself “Wow I can’t believe I was that fat!” and how far I have come!
Recommended resources
MacroFactor – The best calorie tracker I use. Try my fitness pal if you prefer free.
RippedBody.com – For all the weight loss advice you could possibly want.
centr.com – The Centr Power (in-gym) is the program I’ve used for over 2 years.
ProgressPic.app – For progress photos and logging your scale weight.
Cheers to you and your journey!
-David
