I struggle with my weight. I think most people do. When I went to uni, I gained weight. By the time I graduated, I’d worked out how to be at university and not gain weight, and had brought it right back down. Just in time to start work, and gain all the weight I’d lost and then some. I have various excuses for this, but I think we all do. The main problem, when you get right down to it, was that I was eating too much and not exercising enough. In July this year I finally did something about it that actually worked.
Since then, I’ve lost 3 stone, dropped 2 dress sizes, and significantly improved my fitness.
I know there are lots of different ways to lose weight, some of which are sustainable and some of which aren’t. It remains to be seen if I can stick to mine, but in case anyone is interested, here are my top tips…
- Hold yourself accountable. It’s easy to eat too much when you don’t think about the food that you’re eating. Food and alcohol can become something that we have earned through a tough day at work, and we can gobble up too much food without even thinking about the consequences. Both times that I’ve lost a lot of weight, I’ve used an app to help. I use “my fitness pal”, but I’m sure there are many variations of that out there. I put in my weight and height, and how much weight I want to lose each week, and it gives me a calorie goal. I then log my food and exercise. By logging my food, I have to recognise the calories I’m consuming, and can’t just eat and drink with no thought for what impact it will have.
- Trade, but not every day! Sometimes you need to be able to sit back, relax and eat too much food. My weight loss app helps me to do that because I know that if I want to eat lots, I need to compensate with lots of exercise. If my calories are looking too high for the day, I’ll do a workout or walk home rather than getting a lift. That way I balance it out. But remember that sometimes you just need to have a healthy day – not too much food, while also getting some exercise.
- Find a variety of exercise types that you enjoy, and make sure they are easy to do. I tend to focus on YouTube video workouts, Zumba, walking, running and swimming. They all have advantages.
- My YouTube videos (check out Shelly Dose – I do her workouts more than any other form of exercise and she is amazing) are easy to do because all I need are some weights and my sitting room. I don’t even have to put on trainers, and they can be anything from 20 minutes onwards (usually I do 30 or 40 minute workouts). It’s rare that there is a feasible excuse not to do a quick 20 minute workout in my sitting room…
- Zumba is regular (Monday nights – thanks Michelle Vorster!), local and I go with friends. That’s good because it’s built into my routine, and I have to come up with an excuse that my friend will buy if I’m not going to go.
- Walking is my best friend for exercising when I don’t feel like it. My work is about 1 hour and 45 minutes from my house on foot, and I can walk home along the same route that Ollie and I drive. I often leave before him, so I tend to leave on foot and just see how far I walk – it means that a couple of times a week I get a decent 60 to 90 minute walk at least, while also simply getting from A to B.
- I’ll admit that I don’t run as often as I should, or as often as I used to – the winter gives me too many excuses! But I do go from time to time, and I love seeing how much easier it gets as my fitness goes up and my weight goes down. When I run, it is around my local area (always staying at the top of the hill…) and usually 5km, so about 30 minutes of running.
- Swimming is something that I love, but it isn’t so easy to fit into my routine. I go from time to time however with my mother-in-law, whenever she is driving to the pool at a time that I am free. It is great exercise, especially if you prefer something low impact.
- Weigh yourself daily, but no more than that. It is easy to obsess about weight, and weighing myself just once a day, at the same time every day (just before breakfast), helps to stop that. But a daily weigh in is important for me to ensure that I stay on track and don’t start a habit that is not very healthy. I log my weight on my app, which means I can look back at the graph it draws and see how far I’ve come. But remember to expect fluctuations – it won’t drop every day!
- Take breaks, but make sure you come back. When we are on holiday I tend not to diet. But I still log my food (albeit with an increased calorie goal) so that I don’t have to get back into the habit once we are back from holiday. On countless occasions I’ve started a diet or exercise regime, only to have a holiday, or an illness, break the pattern and then I never get back into it.
So that’s how I’ve done it. I have also prayed for will power, often daily, because I know that I can lose my will power pretty quickly sometimes. God has helped me in my fitness goals, just as he has helped me in all my other goals. He’s helped me say no to food and yes to exercise on those days when it could so easily have been the other way round!
If you’re looking to get fit, I hope some of my tips are helpful. And if you ever want to join me for a Shelly workout, just let me know!