1. Learn your nutritional needs. How many calories does your body NEED to function. My body needs about 1590 without accounting for breastfeeding and how much I exercise each day. These two factors added to the 1590 brings my needed caloric intake each day to 2400. In order to lose about 1.5-2lbs a week I need to cut a couple hundred calories each day. Therefore my calculated caloric intake for weight lost is 2150.
** I have a great app call MyNetDairy which counts calories and helps determine nutritional needs. For $1.99 I purchased the pro and this has helped me understand how to eat to exceed my micronutrient needs.
2. Plan and execute an exercise plan. Do what is interesting and fun for you, but also challenging because in order to lose weight you must get your heart pumping. For me running, yoga, and lifting weights is where it is at. You may be a swimmer, Zumba enthusiasts, Pilates-fiend. I don't now but you should figure it out and commit to working out because having a great nutritional plan is AWESOME but to really encourage your body to lose the extra fat, exercising is a must.
3. After determining your nutritional needs. eat real foods. I repeat EAT REAL FOOD. Nothing that has more than a one ingredient is optimal and anything processed that has the words artificially and/or naturally flavored is a fail. Please for your health and waistline STAY AWAY from that junk. I am not a food saint but I don't buy that stuff because I know as soon as it is in my house I will inhale it. Case and point- the double stuffed Oreos that I bought last week. They were gone in a day in a half. I ate a sleeve and quarter the night I bought them. I thought I could outsmart the naturally flavored additives that are in packaged foods but at last I failed.
4. Join a support weight loss group. Like minded individuals will help keep you on track and accountable. I am a member of PEERtrainer. This is a free online weight loss website (PEERtrainer.com). Once a member join a group and then join a 4 (Wo)men team. You log your meals, give or get advice, look through their resources- try the PEERtrainer energy soup) They do sell stuff but I have never bought anything nor will I as far as I am concerned right now.
5. Let your loves one know about your desire to lose weight. They can support you, especially your spouse or other family/friends living with you. Lee was a huge help while I lost weight after my first pregnancy and he will again be a help because he knows that I am actively changing my eating habits (no more candy bars from the grocery store) and will need him to watch the boy(s) when I want to go for a solo run. Also it gives family members a heads up that you will be or they should prepare healthier meals.
6. Set mini goals for yourself. Big goals are great, but what is even better are mini goals. Day to day goals are awesome and remind you daily that you are actively working towards your big goal. Accomplishing your mini goals will help keep you motivated to reach your goal weight. My goal today was to consume no foods with wheat flour. I succeeded-go me! Tomorrow's mini goal is to eat a green, leafy salad :-) these mini goals WILL help me to accomplish my big goal which is to get back into my size 6 jeans. And have muscles that pop. I miss my muscular physique and I will get it back!
7. Be kind to yourself. No one is perfect and obsessing about your body, the food you eat or should have ate will bring stress and unhappiness to you. This makes your body release the stress hormone cortisol which makes your body hold on to fat. So yeah, treat yourself to a spa day to relax and reward yourself for accomplishing your mini goals (my spa day is me announcing to Lee that I will be taking a bath- by myself. A nice hot hot bath- no babies or toddlers allowed, thank you very much.
There are a few more tips I could offer but I am sure but those 7 are the basics and if you find that it is very difficult to lose weight on your own seek a registered nutritionist/dietician. Your physician can help only so much , I believe general practitioners take less than 20 hours in nutrition courses, whereas a nutritionist takes over 100. (Please correct me if I am wrong). Also seek a certified personal trainer to help motivate you further and help you learn to exercise properly.
These tips have worked for me once before and I regret that I allowed my pregnancy hormones to give me a free pass at eating foods that junked me up. It will take me between September and December of this year to lose the full 55lbs that I have left to lose.
Remember losing weight is not a sprint but a marathon. I read that somewhere and based on my experiences it is the truth. And again my tips are based on my experience and I am certified in nothing so please consult the expects if you have health problems.
Join me in the next 9 nine weeks as I begin my weigh-loss journey (in earnest) to lose the first 15-20lbs. March 4-Memorial Day! Bicep and back muscles, quad definition, and size 12 jeans here I come. I currently am in my size 12-14 maternity jeans because my tummy is still pouchy.
My diet and exercise outline will be in the next post.
How exciting. i just saw that you are blogging again. I look forward to reading them. 2400 calories seems super high to me! i was eating around 1200 and that seemed to work for me. How do i determine how many calories i actually need? I was recently diagnosed with GERD and my eating has gone all off and crazy. at first i didn't eat at all and now i eat way too many sweets. i feel sick a lot of the time and it sucks. I really want to fix myself. the stress of my last semester is not helping!
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