Aspiring Wise Fool

Losing Weight

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I was a skinny kid.  I weighed about 120 pounds in the picture you see above.  I weighed a few pounds more when I got married and held that weight until my 40s.

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But gradually, the weight began to add on.  In my mind, I was still that skinny kid–but everyone but me could see that just wasn’t the case.

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Recently I decided to do something about it.  It wasn’t the first time. I bought a Fitbit Flex and decided to follow suggestions from the website.  I’m losing the weight through a combination of diet and exercise.  Who knew? (Just being sarcastic here)

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Here are a few tips that I’ve learned.

  1. It took years for all of this weight to get on my body, it won’t come off over night.
  2. The best diet is the one you’re willing to follow the rest of your life. If you can’t eat paleo, find something that works for you.
  3. Fat is excessive food that you’ve eaten.  It’s food that your body can’t use effectively. I’m learning to eat only what I need. To eat more is wasting food as surely as if it were being thrown away.
  4. Portion control works best when you share your food with another. Cary and I split most every meal and find we have more than enough to eat. It literally halves the calories.
  5. Exercise is more than just dragging your body around.  It’s giving it the concern it needs. When you respect your body–it makes it better for you in many different ways.
  6. Set a goal weight.
  7. Log every bit of food that you eat in a program like myfitnesspal.com .
  8. Buy a Fitbit. They are worth it.
  9. Weigh yourself once a week.
  10. When you hit the plateau, stay with your program.  It may take several weeks for the stall to break–but it will break.

That’s it.  I’ve lost nearly 25 pounds.  I’m a few pounds away from my first goal weight. Yippee for me!