I'm never on a diet, but I am always striving to loss weight. I have dropped five dress sizes in the past five years and I am currently working on losing 10 more pounds.
It's because of this weight loss, that those who have known me over that period of time ask me, what I am doing to lose the weight. And every time, I look like a deer caught in headlights and simply mumble, "lots of stuff."
This is because, like I said, I am never on a diet. Sure, I have tried the South Beach Diet (fail) and Carb Lovers Diet (major fail) and while I may borrow tips and tricks from various diets, I don't follow any strictly.
So, how am I losing the weight?
Simple, small, lifestyle changes that I don't even realize I do anymore - how easier can it be! Ok, ok I hear you screaming at the computer, here are a few things that I strive to incorporate:
- 20 - 30 minutes of weight training, 2 times a week (muscle burns fat in your sleep, IN YOUR SLEEP!)
- 20 - 30 minutes of cardio or yoga, 2-3 times a week
- 35 -50 grams of Fiber per day (ease into this, the average person's daily intake is 10 grams)
- Eat a mostly vegetarian/vegan diet (I eat fish, making me a "Pescetarian")
- Drink one cup of white tea per day (increases metabolism)
- Add cinnamon when possible (increases metabolism)
- Avoid processed foods
- Track calorie, fiber, saturated fat and protein intake
- Learn one new thing per day on health, diet or nutrition...
This last point brings me to the reason for this post,
staying motivated while losing weight.
I have found that by learning at least one new healthy thing per day, I stay interested and therefore motivated. I love to try new things!
This, "new thing" can be anything: a new exercise, a new recipe, a new snack...you get the point. I am constantly adding new tips and tricks into my lifestyle, which is why I can never concretely say how I have lost the weight. But the bottom line is, five years later, I'm still going strong, am the healthiest I have ever been and have a HUGE wealth of health/nutrition knowledge to boot!
Learning one new thing a day does not need to be a daunting task. There are numerous ways to build your knowledge base:
- Watch a documentary on health, exercise, diet or just food in general
- Watch Dr Oz
- Read a health focused magazine (Shape, Natural Health, Whole Living...)
- Read a diet book (don't do the diet, just steal the good stuff)
- Watch PBS, they have great programs on health and diet all the time
- Subscribe to a Podcast
- Get recipes emailed daily based on diet preference from AllRecipes.com
- Ease drop on other's conversations (you never know...)
- Create a GoogleAlert based on diet, nutrition or health (or all three)
- Attend a cooking class
- Take an online class
- Talk to your friends and family (see what they've learned lately)
- Subscribe to Health focused Twitter profiles (HealthHive, Snack_Girl_, NPRHealth, etc.)
- Subscribe to daily emails from various blogs or websites (Fooducate, Calorie Count, Vegan Gal, etc.)
- Check out my Lifestyle Tips & Tricks page
- Subscribe to The Healthy Hoff
Now the key here is to educate yourself. Just because a so-called "expert" says something doesn't mean you have to follow it blindly. After a while you are going to find that many sources contradict each other. You need to determine what's right for you and your health and weigh advice objectively. For example, I don't agree with
Hungry Girl's heavy reliance on artificial sweeteners and diet-based processed foods, but her stripped down recipes offer inspiration from time to time.
Knowledge is Power!
The Hoff
