How to Lose Weight & Keep It Off

How to Lose Weight & Keep It Off

So you want to lose weight and maintain your ideal size for the rest of your life. I want to help. Writing this article makes me a bit nervous. I’m not a doctor, nutritionist, or health coach. There are billions of dollars of weight loss products and services out there. Why can I help?

I still fit into the same size two clothes I wore in high school. (My Grandma was right that a little black dress never goes out of style.) I’ve stayed the same size two consistently over the years, except my pregnancies.

And I’m no different than you.

I don’t have iron will, or run miles a day, or only eat all organic produce. I eat pizza. I love pastries. I just know some little daily tricks and rules to stay fit and slim.

With each pregnancy, I put on between thirty and thirty-five pounds. My blood boils when I see super skinny pregnant women. I want to shout at them, “feed your unborn baby!”

After each pregnancy, I was back down to my size two within three to four months. I want to add in here that for the past thirteen years, I’ve had no membership to a gym. I have no pass to a yoga studio. And while I absolutely adore swimming laps in the summer, I struggle to find the time in the winter to make it to the indoor pool.

May I add again that I eat pizza, hamburgers, chocolate, and pastries regularly?

I want you to throw out any and all preconceived ideas right now about what it takes to lose and then maintain your ideal weight. It isn’t about depriving yourself. It isn’t about sweating for hours at a gym.

Am I making it sound to good to be true?

Yes. Because achieving your ideal weight is a lot of work. It isn’t for the faint of heart. You can’t just spend a few weeks eating salads and sweating it out on a treadmill. You can’t just join a gym and go regularly, or add a few more servings of salad onto your plate at lunch every day.

You need to take a holistic approach. It isn’t just what you eat, but when. It isn’t just how much you exercise, but what you do and at what time of day.

So let’s break the day down from waking up to going to sleep. Incorporate these elements into your lifestyle. Then be PATIENT. This process is not a quick fix. But it is a LASTING one. Take the weight off this way, and you will keep it off.

Lose Weight Step 1: Half a liter of water on waking

The first thing you do in the morning should be to drink a liter of water. Press one garlic clove onto a spoon; set aside for five minutes.

Squeeze one entire lemon into a glass of water, preferably boiled water at room temperature. Swallow down the spoon of pressed garlic and chase with the glass of lemon water.

I know, yuck right? But it works.

Now, if your body and GI tract is healthy, you will feel fine after this. But if you have some terrible company flourishing in your digestive system, you will feel nauseous or unwell.

Make sure you have time to lay down for a minute if you don’t feel good and take heart. That garlic and lemon are working to kill off and purge you of any unwelcome entities in your system.

Lose Weight Step 2: At least 30 minutes of exercise in the morning

The morning is the most effective time to exercise. Your body is lighter because your digestive system has at least an eight-hour break. So don’t ruin your body’s lightness by eating even a piece of toast before starting your exercise routine in the morning.

Aim to exercise at least thirty minutes, and preferably sixty minutes in the morning, five consecutive days a week. No matter what exercise you choose to do in the morning, start with fifty push-ups and thirty leg-lifts.

I promise this will change the way your body looks and how you feel for the rest of the day. You might have to summon a surge of will power to force yourself through the five minutes. (I still have to.) Don’t skip this step. And if you are super strong and can do more than fifty pushups, wow.

I recommend yoga next. You can sign-up for www.yogatoday.com and yoga classes live stream right to your living room or garden terrace. I’m sure you have read or heard about the multiple physical and mental health benefits of a regular yoga practice. I won’t detail it now. If you want to find out more, then read all about yoga’s goodness here.

Sorry, Heather, I’m just not a yoga person. Oh yeah? Well, since you’re doing it in the privacy of your own home, why not give it one more try? You might feel differently in the privacy of your own home than in a studio class.

Still not convinced? Okay my friend, then grab those running shoes and head out for a run, and be sure to stretch afterward. Or you can try tai chi, the Miranda method, weight training, or ballet conditioning. If you want fast results, then focus on selecting an exercise that will both strengthen and elongate your muscles; you will look leaner, faster. Yoga, ballet, and the Miranda method are perfect for this.

There is no need to waste travel time to a studio or gym. Just select a practice you enjoy (or at least don’t hate), find a live stream, and press play. Do half an hour to an hour, Monday through Friday without fail.

Lose Weight Step 3: Drink your coffee black

Yes, you have to drink your coffee, or tea, black: no sugar, no milk. Oh, how I love a pumpkin spice latte or a caramel caffè macchiato. Coffee drinks full of milk, yes even if it is no fat, and sugar, yes, even if it is Splenda, will cause weight gain. I promise you. There is just no getting around step 3. You must drink your coffee and tea black if you want to lose weight and maintain your ideal weight.

Lose Weight Step 4: Fast at least three mornings a week

This one may make you grumpy. A critical component of my delicious glow weight plan is to not eat anything from seven pm until 11:45 am the next day, at least three days a week. I promise you, it’s worth it.