This post is about how Mary started loosing weight. Darlings, read, or don't, pass it along, or not, Mary has lost 60+ pounds, those pounds are gone forever. Know anybody that could use some help?
For those of you that just want to know what to do and do it fast. Go about midway down this post. There is a list of things to do. It isn't a secret, you know what to do already. It isn't fast, you have done fast and it either didn't work, or it did but you ended up feeling tired and depressed, it isn't easy, but you Darlings have done "easy" and the weight came right back on. Mary was right there with ya. Then she decided to find something that really works.
March 10, 2013 - 262 pounds her walmart size 20 jeans (and we all know what that means those jeans were vanity sized 22s) were getting tight. She decided then and there that she had had enough of that nonsense.
As Mary had tried every "Easy", "Fast", "Simple", "Painless" diet in the world, and they kinda worked for a few weeks, then didn't, She decided that it was time to figure out this weight loss thing. 60 pounds later, clearly, for her, she did.
Now, Darlings, you and I both know that Mary tends to over-analyze. She is one of those annoying people that has to know how, why. Don't even mention the words "Secret" or "Magic" or "Trick" to her. Sigh, no really, she glares, curses, and throws things at unicorns and fairies. She does. Embarrassing.
Of course, too many purveyors in the 20 Billion Dollar Weight Loss Industry repeat those words to you over and over, now don't they? Shrug.
Back to the beginning:
Mary realized that she had to decide where she wanted to go. She had to know where she was. Then and only then could she figure out how to get there. Step 1: She read this:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.long
It is a clinical study on people who have maintained weight loss. Darlings, not just lost those 5 easy pounds (and then put them right back on). MAINTAINED weight loss for a minimum of a year.
Mary's take-away?
From a group of 100 overweight people:
40 will attempt (in some manner) to loose weight
20 will loose 10% or more of their body weight. Of that 20 people ...
5 will keep that weight off for 1 year or more.
Rather than being all discouraged about those numbers, Mary said to herself (she talks to herself, she does) What those 5 people know about weight loss is what I want to know.
This, generally, is what they did.
They lost weight intentionally. - Meaning that they decided to do it and worked towards that goal.
They ate breakfast every day.
They ate a low fat, low simple carb diet. Low simple carb = low processed flour and sugar.
They tracked what they ate, every morsel, every day.
They followed that plan every day. No "weekends off", no holidays, no vacations. They tracked what they ate.
They exercised for an hour a day (walking, running, weight lifting, cleaning house, something) every day.
Diet and Exercise - who knew that would work?
Mary started working on getting the idea of following the practices in the list into her head. Not with any grace or style, mind you. For the first 8 months, she was inconsistent in recording, she drug her feet about exercise, she pondered and grumbled, but I, Fabiola, kept nagging her to get back to that list. Despite her stubborn ways, Mary SLOWLY removed added sugar and salt from her diet. She walked, sometimes. At the end of 8 months, she had lost 15 pounds, and was ready to take this weight loss / fitness thing more seriously.
For those of you that just want to know what to do and do it fast. Go about midway down this post. There is a list of things to do. It isn't a secret, you know what to do already. It isn't fast, you have done fast and it either didn't work, or it did but you ended up feeling tired and depressed, it isn't easy, but you Darlings have done "easy" and the weight came right back on. Mary was right there with ya. Then she decided to find something that really works.
March 10, 2013 - 262 pounds her walmart size 20 jeans (and we all know what that means those jeans were vanity sized 22s) were getting tight. She decided then and there that she had had enough of that nonsense.
As Mary had tried every "Easy", "Fast", "Simple", "Painless" diet in the world, and they kinda worked for a few weeks, then didn't, She decided that it was time to figure out this weight loss thing. 60 pounds later, clearly, for her, she did.
Now, Darlings, you and I both know that Mary tends to over-analyze. She is one of those annoying people that has to know how, why. Don't even mention the words "Secret" or "Magic" or "Trick" to her. Sigh, no really, she glares, curses, and throws things at unicorns and fairies. She does. Embarrassing.
Of course, too many purveyors in the 20 Billion Dollar Weight Loss Industry repeat those words to you over and over, now don't they? Shrug.
Back to the beginning:
Mary realized that she had to decide where she wanted to go. She had to know where she was. Then and only then could she figure out how to get there. Step 1: She read this:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.long
It is a clinical study on people who have maintained weight loss. Darlings, not just lost those 5 easy pounds (and then put them right back on). MAINTAINED weight loss for a minimum of a year.
Mary's take-away?
From a group of 100 overweight people:
40 will attempt (in some manner) to loose weight
20 will loose 10% or more of their body weight. Of that 20 people ...
5 will keep that weight off for 1 year or more.
Rather than being all discouraged about those numbers, Mary said to herself (she talks to herself, she does) What those 5 people know about weight loss is what I want to know.
This, generally, is what they did.
They lost weight intentionally. - Meaning that they decided to do it and worked towards that goal.
They ate breakfast every day.
They ate a low fat, low simple carb diet. Low simple carb = low processed flour and sugar.
They tracked what they ate, every morsel, every day.
They followed that plan every day. No "weekends off", no holidays, no vacations. They tracked what they ate.
They exercised for an hour a day (walking, running, weight lifting, cleaning house, something) every day.
Diet and Exercise - who knew that would work?
Mary started working on getting the idea of following the practices in the list into her head. Not with any grace or style, mind you. For the first 8 months, she was inconsistent in recording, she drug her feet about exercise, she pondered and grumbled, but I, Fabiola, kept nagging her to get back to that list. Despite her stubborn ways, Mary SLOWLY removed added sugar and salt from her diet. She walked, sometimes. At the end of 8 months, she had lost 15 pounds, and was ready to take this weight loss / fitness thing more seriously.
