How much weight do you want to lose?

Hi,

How much weight do you want to lose and where do you begin?  Now that you know your BMI and how overweight you are and what kind of health risks you face, I’m sure you want to lose weight.

Well, before you begin any weight loss program there is something important which you have to do.

You need to set your  goals before you embark on your weight loss program.

 Whatever it is that you do in life, you will achieve better results if you set some goals. Likewise you need to set goals when you want to lose weight. Still, you may wonder, why do I need to set goals? After all, it’s just fat that I want to lose.

It is all the more important because when you set goals you have something to strive for and this will help you to achieve your desired weight loss.

 Having said that, you need to set  realistic goals that are achievable otherwise you will be disappointed and you will most likely give up. 

Do remember that you didn’t become fat overnight and likewise you can’t lose all your fat overnight.  How long it takes for you to lose weight will depend on how much weight you want to lose. There’s no magic wand to transform you into a slim and svelte figure. Cinderella is just a fairytale, but your fairy tale can come true, if you adhere to your weight loss program. 

So you should begin by setting a target. Have a book where you write down how much weight you want to lose and the date by which you want to achieve that target. You can also write it down in big letters and put it on your refrigerator door where you can see it everyday. That will remind you to keep on track.

If you want to  lose 30 lbs in six months, that means you are targeting  a weight loss of 5lbs per month. This makes it a realistic and achievable  target. After you achieve the weight loss of 5lbs in the first month, this will motivate you to continue your weight loss program. I was euphoric when I found myself  losing 3 kg in the first month! That really kept me going. I eventually went from XL to Medium. Boy! Was I pleased! Such a wonderful feeling to look for clothes in the ‘M’ range and not ‘XL’.

 Just a friendly reminder… try not to weigh yourself everyday. Your weight may fluctuate each day. You may see your weighing scale dip one day while on the next day the figures could go up.  I recommend that you weigh yourself weekly and at the same time on the same day of the week. For example if you weigh yourself on Wednesday morning at 11:00 a.m. then the following week you should also weigh yourself on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. This practice helps to avoid fluctuations as your weight could be different at different times of the day.

Don’t forget that your goals can also be adjusted as sometimes your weight loss may have speeded up and you actually lost more than 5 lbs in a month. On the other hand, you may have lost only 3 lbs instead of the targeted 5lbs so you may want to change your meal plan a bit.

I suggest that you keep a simple food diary.  Here you can record your weight, your weight loss and the types of food that you have been eating. This record will help you to see where you could have deviated from your diet and you can then make the adjustments. For example if you had been attending a series of celebrations, you would not have been able to stick to your diet plan and most likely you would have put on a couple of kilos. So you would need to do something about it. Right? You will need to lose that weight quickly.

It happened to me, especially during the Chinese New Year festivities where you visit friends and relatives, house after house   consuming the tempting food and delicious cookies. I usually add on 3 kilos after those few days of sheer eating bliss or should I say binge????

 It is also a good idea to record how much exercise you have done for the day. For example, the number of rounds you walked in the park and how long it took. Did you walk once in the morning and again in the evening ? Or how many flights of stairs did you climb that morning to your workplace? I have my early morning round of nine holes on the golf course, pulling my trolley so that  I work my cardio-vascular system and build bone density. The ups and downs of the undulating fairway is very good exercise indeed and would you believe it? My golfing buddy and I complete the nine holes within one hour and ten minutes. That’s how fast we walk and of course our balls don’t go astray. That helps too! I play from Monday to Friday each week unless something crops up and disrupts this routine.

So this food and exercise diary will give you a clear picture of how you are faring, where you could have done better. 

Sometimes you will experience a  plateau where your weight loss appears to come to a full stop.  There’s no need to panic or feel discouraged. It happens to many people. It also happened to me.

Your food and exercise diary will help you to pin point where you can make changes in order to get over that plateau and continue to progress. For example, if you have been walking three times a week for half an hour only in the mornings, you can now walk five times a week for an hour each time. That will rev up your metabolism again and put you back on track to lose more weight. Should you need some extra help, just click on the links in this blog.

Cheers and to a successful weight loss

Peggy