For years, I wanted to look like Gwyneth Paltrow. I loved the waify look of her body type, the long, lean, willowy frame. But Gwyneth has an ectomorphic body type, and mine is much more mesomorphic. Isn't it that we always seem to want what we cannot have? It was not until I saw some really hot mesomorphic super-fit chicks (Megan Rencher, Beth Belk, Madonna, Kelly Ripa, P!NK) that I started to reprogram what I thought would look good for me & my body.
It is important that we set reasonable goals for ourselves so that we can achieve them. Thinking that we are capable of losing 20, 30, 40 pounds over the course of a month is not reasonable for most people. Trying to obtain one body type when you clearly have another is not reasonable, either. We have to work with what we have, and understand what our reasonable goals should be. That doesn't mean that we cannot look good, feel great, and get healthy. We can, and will. And, the full 40 pounds will come off...if we do the right things & surrender to the needs of our body. It may take many months, but consistently investing the time & energy WILL yield the right results. But, we MUST be consistent & not give up on ourselves.
One pound equals 3,500 calories. That means it takes a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose one pound of fat. When attempting to lose weight, one should not take their daily caloric intake below 1,200 calories. If you're eating 5 times a day (three 400-calorie meals and two 150-calorie snacks), you'll be around 1500 calories daily. To safely lose weight, a pound a week (or 3,500 calorie deficit weekly) is safe. In some cases, two pounds weekly. If you have a lot of weight to lose & you're strict about nutrition & exercise, you may lose more weight initially. Also, if you've been retaining a lot of water, you may lose a lot of weight initially that is attributed to water weight. This is especially true if you've been drinking 3 liters of water daily, cut out sodas, & reduced your sodium intake...the water weight will come off very quickly.
For me, the most important thing was to start doing the right things and stop doing the wrong ones. I started working out & eating right, & initially, that was enough to worry about. Then, as the weeks went by I was able to begin paying attention to the number of calories I was burning & consuming. It has now been over two weeks, and we should begin to move from setting the right habits to understanding more of the science behind our goals. We should now start to put reasonable timeframes around our short & long term goals so that we will get to where we need to be in the long-run.
Do: Think reasonably about your weight loss goals. What is the total amount of weight that you would like to lose, what is the healthy & appropriate time frame for this weight loss? Set short term goals (bi-weekly, monthly). Set up a rewards system that is not based on rewarding with food. For example, if you workout every day this week & eat nutritiously, you get a manicure or a massage.
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