It's been a year since I added a jogging lady to my vision board. I had no idea where I was going with that as I'm not a runner and I do not like exercise. Every year I make a fitness goals but last year, I actually worked out how to achieve my goals. Now I can say the jogging lady represents me except I walked my way into better health and weight loss.
I had high blood pressure and my doctor wanted to start medication I had been avoiding for two years. I was already struggling to take my iron supplements everyday so I knew a daily medication was not going to work for me.
I decided to go for weight loss to cure my high blood pressure. It worked and I achieved a level of fitness that I had never had before. I went from 150 pounds to 122 pounds. I lost inches everywhere and dropped two dress sizes. My resting heart rate went from 81 to 58. A normal resting heart rate is 60 to 100 beats per minute for adults which is really good as lower resting heart rate implies better cardiovascular fitness.
I really surprised myself because I hate physical activity and I love to eat. Those things are still true. I grumble most morning about working out. I don't like the feeling of intense exertion, soreness, achy knees, or sweaty scalp every single day. I'd rather sit down and binge watch something with wine, cheese and cake. Any food really except celery and beets. I loathe both of them.
What I do like, is being healthy and the way I look naked. Vain but true. Staying off of medications and liking my flat tummy are my motivation to keep going.
Here's how I made it happen and how I maintain the weight loss:
1. Eat less calories and move more. Plain and simple.
I had high blood pressure and my doctor wanted to start medication I had been avoiding for two years. I was already struggling to take my iron supplements everyday so I knew a daily medication was not going to work for me.
I decided to go for weight loss to cure my high blood pressure. It worked and I achieved a level of fitness that I had never had before. I went from 150 pounds to 122 pounds. I lost inches everywhere and dropped two dress sizes. My resting heart rate went from 81 to 58. A normal resting heart rate is 60 to 100 beats per minute for adults which is really good as lower resting heart rate implies better cardiovascular fitness.
I really surprised myself because I hate physical activity and I love to eat. Those things are still true. I grumble most morning about working out. I don't like the feeling of intense exertion, soreness, achy knees, or sweaty scalp every single day. I'd rather sit down and binge watch something with wine, cheese and cake. Any food really except celery and beets. I loathe both of them.
What I do like, is being healthy and the way I look naked. Vain but true. Staying off of medications and liking my flat tummy are my motivation to keep going.
Here's how I made it happen and how I maintain the weight loss:
Diet and Exercise Tips for Lazy Girls
1. Eat less calories and move more. Plain and simple.
2. Limit alcohol. I drank a glass of wine every day but real change came after I gave that up. It causes a lot of bloating and prevent the body from burning fat because now it's trying to save your liver. I went down to a 4oz glass a week. Way more during holiday gatherings though.
3. Eat smaller portions. It's too much trouble to weigh food for portion control. I started out eating on a salad plate to limit the amount of food on my plate.
4. Eat the same meal. This makes meal planning and calorie counting easier. I eat an egg, a fruit, cookie, and a coffee in the morning. For lunch, I have a smoothie. Dinner is open. When I get bored, I change up the menu.
5. Get family on board with changes to diet. I cook for the family so they eat what I eat or have to prepare their own.
6. Drink green smoothies. It's a great way to increase fruit and vegetable intake. My go-to recipe is coconut water, banana, ½ avocado, pineapple, and spinach.
7. Use spices for flavor. I can't live on bland chicken breasts and broccoli. I sprinkle a lot of smoked paprika, nutritional yeast (cheesy flavor), and sriracha on a lot of things. I limit my salt intake though because of my blood pressure.
8. Treat yourself. Don't deny yourself too much. Indulge in a small treat everyday. I have a Biscoff, pirouline, or ginger cookies with my morning coffee everyday after workout. Some mornings it's my only motivation to work out.
9. Have a cheat day. I actually have two cheat days over the weekend. I don't go hog wild but this is when I will have wine. Eat something fried. I may even go over budget with the calories. I don't stress about it and so far it has not been a problem. I return to more structured eating on Monday.
10. Eat more fruits and vegetable. Spice it up if you have to. My fruits come from my lunch smoothie and I eat cabbage or greens for dinner most nights. Not in a boring way. They are well seasoned. Skinnytaste is an excellent source for flavorful vegetable based meals.
11. Scale back on meat. Once a week or less works for me. Meat really clogs up my gut. I won't go any further with the discussion but if you have two lingering pounds try laying off the meat for a week.
12. Drink at least 8 glasses of water. Drinking water was a struggle for me. I lived on coffee and wine. When I started to up my water consumption, I drank a lot of sparkling water with fresh fruits and a drop of flavor oil. My favorite mix was a drop of coconut extract and a squeeze of lime juice.
13. Binge on healthy snacks. I usually require and afternoon and an evening snack. If you're feeling snacky, grab a piece of fruit. Eat a few nuts. Count them suckers out too because they are not low calorie. My absolute favorite snack binge is dates. They are syrupy sweet and just one will satisfy. They aren't low calorie or low sugar but it's natural and has vitamins and minerals.
14. Don't buy snacks or alcohol for the house if you lack impulse control. If I buy chips, I'm eating the whole bag, six cupcake will get maxed and so will a pint of ice cream. I can't let good wine go bad either. I don't keep these things in the house.
15. Invest in a heart rate monitor. My Fitbit was key in helping me lose weight and achieve fitness. I had no idea I was eating way more "energy" than I was actually exerting. With my Fitbit, I can track how hard I'm really exercising and it also keeps track of my resting heart rate which has shown amazing improvement.
17. Start small and increase over time. I started with 30 minutes of cardio a day. That's all I could handle and was willing to invest in. Once I saw improvements, I wanted to do more. I've since moved on to a mix of cardio and strength training with daily exercise of 45 minutes to an hour. You make time for things that are really important to you. You will get up earlier. Go to bed later or use your down time.
18. Enjoy the journey. It took approximately 6 months for me to reach and exceed my goal weight. It was a slow process. Thanks 40 year old metabolism! I loved seeing every little change. I didn't try to speed the process with a cleanse or temporary diet changes.
19. Just sweat. Pace the living room or dance it out to your favorite songs. Every bit helps. Fitness Marshall is pretty fun for a mini sweat session.
20. Make a lifestyle change. Do things that you will want to do for your entire life. I'm not a going to the gym type of girl. Getting out of bed and turning the tv to a walk fitness or kickboxing routine works for me. Maybe you like to run or pole dance. Find your thing and do it otherwise it's easy to give up on it.
21. Walk while watching tv. If you're a step counter, pace or jog in place while watching tv. I sometimes pace and catch up on Instagram. All movement is good for you.
22. Think 15,000 steps for weight loss and 10,000 for maintenance and heart health.
23. Weigh yourself. It's an unpopular choice, but I weigh myself everyday. I know when I've eaten too much in a day. I can tell when I'm just bloated. I can tell when I've achieved a loss or a gain by getting on the scale. If you're not into the scale, tie a ribbon around your waist and make a mark. Keep doing this every week to track losses and gains.
24. Keep a food diary. My lazy girl hates this and I give up on it but then my food consumption goes up, I end up going back to it. I keep a record on my Fitbit. It easily calculates how much I eat in a day and that's super convenient.
25. Start with diet. If you aren't ready to adopt a healthier diet and include exercise, pick diet first. It will have more impact than exercise. Once change happens you'll want to see more.
Is weight loss one of your goals this year? What's your plan to achieve goal?
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