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5 Easy Daily Habits To Put Your Weight Loss On Autopilot May 10, 2007

This post is part of Darren Rowse’s “Top 5″ group writing project over at Problogger.

Weight loss is not about dieting, denial, punishment, guilt and sweating. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to modify your ‘default’ daily habits and adopt a healthy lifestyle.

If the habits you currently have are making you fat, you can’t expect to lose weight without changing them!

The good news is that you don’t need to make drastic changes to begin having an effect on your weight. Just a few simple changes, which you can phase in gently using my 30 day trial technique, will make a good start.

1. Eat Breakfast

Start your day properly. Get in the habit of having a good, healthy, satisfying breakfast that won’t leave you feeling hungry by 10 o’clock.

I usually have a bowl of oats topped with a handful of chopped dates for flavour. You can make it up using hot water or milk – I use water, just to reduce the calories a little more, but low fat milk would be fine too. Honey works well if you want to sweeten it, although the dates do a pretty good job of that by themselves.

Oats are a classic ‘low-GI’ food, meaning they take a while to digest and will deliver energy over a longer period than high-GI foods. This means they’ll fill you up, and you won’t feel hungry again in an hour.

If you have juice with your breakfast, make it a small glass. Drink a large glass of water if you’re still thirsty. This leads into my next habit…

2. Avoid Drinking Calories

It’s easy to slip hundreds of extra calories into your daily intake through poor drink choices. A can of Coke has 155 calories. One cup of orange juice, although seemingly healthy, has 100 calories. One cup of whole milk has 150 calories, while a cup of fat-free milk has around half that (85 calories).

Make a simple rule for yourself to avoid drinking calories as much as you can.

Drink a lot of water. This is good for you in many ways, besides just quenching your thirst. As you lose weight, the breakdown of your bodyfat will release toxins into your blood which are filtered out by your kidneys. Drinking lots of water ensures these toxins are flushed away efficiently rather than concentrating and causing problems.

You can drink as much black coffee or tea as you like. If you’re used to having cream and sugar, try reducing them slowly over time. I used to have coffee with milk and two sugars; I cut out one sugar, then a few weeks later cut the other, and some time later was able to get rid of the milk as well. I do still enjoy a latte occasionally, but my everyday coffee is now black.

Diet softdrinks are fine, if the chemical cocktail they contain doesn’t bother you.

3. Reduce The Junk Snacks

I used to eat a lot of cakes, biscuits and muffins during the day. If you read the packets, you’ll probably be surprised to see how many calories are slipping into your mouth when you’re not paying attention!

Just one Tim-Tam (my favourite chocolate biscuit) has over a hundred calories! And who eats just one anyway? :-)

Cut out the junk snacks and you could remove hundreds of calories from your daily intake. Instead, eat fruit and raw vegetables (carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, etc are great). Popcorn (without the butter!) and pickles are two very low-calorie snacks.

4. Don’t Get Hung Up On Daily Weight Measurements

Measure your weight every day, but focus on your 10-day moving average rather than your daily measurements.

I use PhysicsDiet.com to track my weight. They also have great forums where you can swap tips with others.

5. Pay Attention To Calorie Labels On Your Food

Have a look at the back of the packet on all the foods you eat. Take note of how many calories various foods contain.

For my height and weight, I burn roughly 100 calories for every kilometer I run. So if I eat 3 Tim Tams, I have to run 3 km to burn off the calories. A can of Coke would mean another 1.5 km. It adds up quickly!

Read about about how many calories various foods contain, and then read about how many calories various exercises burn.

While you’re looking at these numbers, bear in mind that 1 pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So if you can remove 500 calories per day from your intake (or burn 500 extra calories per day), you’ll lose around a pound per week. That’s a good, healthy, sustainable weight loss goal.

Just being aware of how easy it is to eat hundreds of calories, and how hard it is to exercise them off, made a big difference in my attitude to eating.

Summary

You don’t have to dive in boots-n-all to start losing weight. Ease into it by taking on a few of these daily habits. It really doesn’t have to be painful!

If you can make your everyday habits healthy, you can enjoy the special occasions without guilt. You’ll be confident in the knowledge that the consequences of any dietary ‘lapse’ will be corrected within just a few days once things get back to normal.

Gain 34 lbs Of Muscle In 28 Days! May 2, 2007

I was reading some more of Tim Ferriss’ blog, and saw his recent article From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks. He has plenty of before-and-after photos to illustrate just how much of a difference this is. Amazing.

In it, he details the diet and exercise regimen he used to gain 34 lbs of muscle, while losing 3 lbs of fat, in 28 days. The diet is the same one I linked to yesterday, so I won’t repeat the details here, but the exercise program is interesting.

Basically, he only worked out twice per week. The workouts featured only a small variety of exercises (4-7 multi-joint exercises), and he did each one very slowly (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down) and repeated until failure (i.e. he couldn’t lift the weight another time) with a 3 minute break between each exercise.

I don’t have any weights or anything, but this approach sounds interesting. Any ideas for how to weight-train when you don’t own any gym equipment? Can it be done with common household items?

Post your ideas below!

I Ran 10 KM! February 7, 2007

In my Power Of Focus article, I stated my two health goals for the next 3 to 6 months. One is to get my weight down to 80 kg, and the other is to run 10 km in 1 hour.

Last night, I achieved the 10 km one! I never would have guessed I’d be able to do that so soon!

We’d had my parents and my in-laws over for dinner, and after they left I decided to go for a short 3 km run.

I ran a little bit slower than normal, but when I got to the 3 km mark I decided to continue on to 4.2 km, getting ready for Thursday’s run with a workmate.

At the 4.2 km mark, I was feeling pretty good so I continued on to 5 km (the longest non-stop run I’d done to date).

Still feeling like I had some energy left, I figured I’d push out for 6 km. That came and went, then 7 km, then 8km and 9 km. I felt like I could just keep running continuously!

I finally reached the 10 km mark, and the time was just about exactly an hour. I couldn’t believe it!

The strange thing was, I felt great afterwards. Not tired at all. This must be what it’s like to be fit :-) .

People Focusing On Health January 29, 2007

After my previous article on The Power Of Focus, I’ve discovered a few other Steve Pavlina readers who have chosen ‘health’ as their primary area of fitness:

There were also a few interesting thoughts posted in Steve’s Forum regarding his blog post. Worth checking out if you’re interested.

I’ll post more on this topic in a month or so, and see how things are progressing. Feel free to comment below – make your own public commitment to a single area of focus, or post something to your blog and leave a link.

The Power Of Focus

Rather than setting New Years’ Resolutions and setting myself up for failure from the start, I’m going to try a variation on Steve Pavlina’s suggestion of Setting Your Primary Focus.

Steve’s idea is basically to set a primary focus for the year ahead, and to make everything else secondary to that. For example, last year his primary focus was to improve his financial situation. He fixed up his business structure, improved his financial education, explored new revenue sources, and developed lots of great content for his web site to increase its traffic. As a result, his earnings went from $2-3K/month at the start of the year to $30-40K/month by the end of the year!

I’m focusing on health

For me, the one area of my life that trails all the others is my health. Although I made great improvements last year, I’m still overweight and I’d like to be fitter. No other area of my life nags at me the way this does, so it’s a no-brainer what I need to work on.

I’m going to go a bit shorter-term, though, and make this a quarterly focus rather than a yearly one. I think it’s quite possible for me to reach my goal weight (about 80 kg) and achieve my desired level of fitness (running 10 km without stopping) within 3-6 months. By that time, the monkey will be off my back and I’ll be ready to switch focus to something else (likely something like developing passive income sources).

How does this help?

I’ve had this ‘primary area of focus’ attitude for a week or so now, and I’ve found that it definitely helps me.

I no longer feel guilty about going for a jog when I have work to do on my web sites, family photos to organise and print, or a TV show I want to watch. The jogging always comes first, and I still have plenty of time left to do some other stuff before bedtime. As long as I’ve done something to move forward in my primary area of focus today, I can do other things guilt-free until bedtime.

Desserts, snacks and large greasy meals no longer entice me like they used to. My primary focus is health, and a big part of that is losing weight. It feels wrong at a very basic level to be doing something that goes against your primary focus.

I’ve made the mental decision that nothing else is more important right now than fixing my health. Not money, not relaxing, not surfing the web, not watching TV. A switch has been flipped in my head, and nothing will stop me from reaching my goal.

If there was a way to pay $5,000 to magically be at my target weight and fitness, I’d pay it. Happily. So if I need to spend some extra money on gym membership, running shoes, or healthy food, I’m happy to. If spending time exercising means that I earn less money from my other web sites, miss a few of my favourite TV shows, and read a few less web sites this quarter, that’s just fine by me. At the end of the quarter, I’ll be at my weight and fitness goals. That other stuff just isn’t as important to me right now.

Part of what makes this work is tricking yourself into thinking that the change you’re making is only temporary. It’s similar to what makes the 30 Day Technique work. I don’t really feel deprived of all those other things because I’m only putting them off for a quarter, not permanently removing them from my life. I’ll soon be able to catch up on my TV shows and web sites, enjoy a greasy meal (with a chocolate dessert!), and curl up with a good book.

Soon, but just not today :-) .

2006 – A Year Of Weight Loss December 21, 2006

This post is part of the Problogger group writing project Reviews and Predictions.

It’s hard to believe it was just over a year ago that I started exercising regularly. I managed to keep up the exercise for most of the year, except for a few interruptions like winter, injuries, etc. Each time I’ve been able to get back into the habit, though, which is good. I’ve never been able to maintain an exercise routine for this long before! I don’t think it’ll be a problem to keep going through Christmas like I did last year.

I think the single most important piece of exercise equipment I have is my iPod. Exercise has always been incredibly boring for me in the past, but listening to audio books and podcasts has been fantastic. I actually look forward to getting out and listening to the latest stuff! Being a gadget geek, my Polar heart monitor and Garmin GPS have also given me good motivation and a sense of progress as my fitness improved.

The 30 Day Technique has been a great way to introduce changes to my lifestyle. It allows me to make just one or two changes at a time, without feeling the pressure of thinking of them as permanent changes.

My overall fitness has increased immensely this year. I’ve gone from being puffed climbing a single set of stairs, to running a mile, running 3 km, and even running 5 km in under 27 minutes.

In terms of weight loss, I managed to get down from 108 kg at the start of the year to 89 kg today. Most of the weight loss occurred in the first half of the year (I guess that’s when I made the most drastic lifestyle changes!), but I’m very pleased that it hasn’t crept up since then. A great free tool for tracking your weight is PhysicsDiet.com, where you can see my public profile.

2006 Weight Loss Chart

The most motivational story I read/watched this year, by far, was that of The World’s Strongest Dad. Having a disabled daughter myself, that video brings a tear to my eye every time I watch it. Check it out if you haven’t already!

Looking ahead, my main goals for this year are:

I’d love to hear from other people either just starting out on the path to fitness, or having overcome some obstacles and making good progress. We can definitely all benefit from sharing, learning from each other, and providing encouragement. Leave your URL in the comments below!

World’s Strongest Dad October 24, 2006

Check out this inspiring story. Make sure you watch the YouTube video at the bottom!

Dick Hoyt was a self-described “porker” who had never run more than a mile at a time. Then one day, his wheelchair-bound 11-year-old son wanted to enter a 5-mile charity run to benefit an injured classmate. He struggled, but he managed to push Rick all the way. Rick loved it.

Today, Dick is 65 and Rick is 43. They have run the Boston Marathon 24 times. They’ve completed 212 triathlons, including four 15-hour Ironman events in Hawaii.

Theirs has got to be one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever read about a father’s love for his child. I was pretty pleased with myself to have jogged 5 km (3 miles) pushing G in a stroller until I read that! I think I’ve got some work to do…

Health And Fitness “How To” Articles September 26, 2006

Darren Rowse over at Problogger.net hosted a group writing project last week. He managed to get 343 people to write articles on the topic of “How To…”.

Quite a few of the articles were health and fitness related, so I’ve collected links to them below. Makes for some interesting reading!

Besides the interesting articles, the group writing project is also a great way to find out about other blogs on the topics you’re interested in. I spent way too much time surfing around just the sites listed above!

Early Morning Walks September 25, 2006

For the past week, I’ve been taking my daughter G (4.5 years old) out for a walk first thing in the morning. She wakes up early (around 5:00 to 5:30 am!), and won’t go back to sleep. So I usually end up getting her up and changed, then playing with her until everyone else gets up (around 6:00 on weekdays, 6:30 or 7:00 on weekends).

For the past week, I’ve be putting G in a pram and going out for a walk. I figure I’m up early anyway, I may as well be getting some benefit out of it. She loves the walks, too.

Oh, and in case you think it’s weird that a 4.5-year-old needs supervision in the mornings and rides in a pram – G has Down syndrome. She can walk fine, but not for long distances and certainly not at a speed where I’m getting good exercise. She really enjoys riding in the pram and waving at other early-morning walkers and joggers.

Here are some recent photos:

A sunrise walk with the pram. Daddy and G, exercise, fun and father-daughter bonding.

When you live in a small coastal town with views like that, why wouldn’t you be up for sunrise?!

Breaking Barriers June 28, 2006

Have you ever noticed that when you have a perceived performance barrier you’re working at, you keep coming close to it day after day, week after week, and you start to wonder if you’ll ever beat it? Then one day you break through it, then you beat it again during the next couple of attempts, and pretty soon you’re beating it every time. You then wonder what it was that was stopping you from reaching that limit all that time.

This morning I ran 5 km (3 miles) in 26 minutes 22 seconds, beating my previous personal best (from 2 days ago) by 23 seconds. My previous best before that was around 27 minutes 45 seconds.

I’d been running the 5 km in around 27:40 to 28:00 every time. My times haven’t been improving for weeks, and I was wondering how I was ever going to beat the 27:30 barrier. This time corresponds to 5:30 per km, so I’d been using my GPS to keep an eye on my pace and try to keep it under that level. I did pretty well for the first 3 km or so, but every time I’d run out of energy towards the end and my time would come in at just over 27:30.

Two days ago everything seemed to go right. The temperature was nice, the hills didn’t seem quite as hard, I was breathing and stepping comfortably, and my pace was good. I realised towards the end of the run that I was making very good time, so I put in as much extra effort as I could muster and really ran in the last 300 m or so. My final time was 26:45, a whole minute faster than what I was previously doing!

This morning I did the run again, and this time I came in at 26:22!

It seems that once a barrier is broken, it’s shattered. A switch is flipped in your mind that suddenly removes whatever thoughts were holding you back. You know you can beat it and so you do, again and again and again.

The hard part is beating that barrier for the first time.

Whatever it is you’re doing, if things seem to be going really well it’s a sign that this might be the day. Dig deep, put in as much extra effort as you can, and make the most of whatever is going right for you today. Tell yourself that this is the day you smash the barrier. Think about what you’re doing, strive to keep up your pace, and focus on the end result you’re hoping for. If you truly believe you can do it, chances are good that you will.

If it doesn’t come together this time, think about what went wrong. Did you have energy left at the end that you could have used earlier? Did you do anything differently? Did it work or hold you back? What part of your performance could you improve? What’s the one thing that’s holding you back the most? Work on these things, and eventually they’ll all come together on the same day.

Once you’ve broken that barrier, think about what it was that allowed you to achieve a new personal best. Did you do anything differently? Did you use any new techniques? Did you prepare differently beforehand? Did you pace yourself differently throughout the activity? Did you go hard towards the end? Did you start out hard, or save your energy for the end when you really needed it? What did you focus on or think about? How did you feel during the activity? How did you feel afterwards?

Next time out for that activity, remember all these details. Go over them in your mind before starting. Think of them during the activity, and try to repeat the same thoughts and actions throughout. You know you can do it, and you know how you did it last time, so chances are good that you’ll do it again this time. Once you’ve beaten the barrier a few more times, it’ll seem easy and you’ll be enjoying operating at your higher performance level.

And pretty soon you’ll encounter a new performance barrier, and you’ll get to repeat the whole process again!

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