Weight Loss and Sacrifice

As I reflect back over my weight loss journe in 2006, when I lost 40kgs, and my observations of other peoples journeys, it occurs to me that if you really want to lose a significant amount of weight, more than anything else, it requires sacrifice. Forget motivation, motivation is here one day and gone the next. You have to decide that you want to lose weight MORE than anything else in your life. Yes, ANYTHING.

Knowing how much weight you have to lose, you can estimate how long it should take you if you stick to the plan. Then for this period of time, you have to be prepared to prioritise the plan over everything else. For example, yes, I mean it has to be more important than the kids. Whaat - nothing is more important than my children you say. But for this period of time, you have to be able to, and prepared to, make the tough choices in this area if needed. It may come down to a choice between watching your child's sport one morning or getting your own exercise in. Yes, obviously you try every other avenue first, but if there are no other alternatives, are you prepared to make this sacrifice? Remember its a short term sacrifice with huge long term gains for your children. It also has to be more important than work. But I have to work you say. Yes, you have to work. When I started my job as Community Health Director I agreed that I would give it 110% DURING WORK HOURS but I also told my boss that I would have to leave work at 5pm each day for my gym classes. He had no problem with this, lets face it a fit, and active employee is far more efficient than a sluggish overworked one. So when the going gets tough at work and you are faced with the decision of working back late, or hitting the gym - can you make the tough call? Is weight loss really the most important thing to you? If its not and you have more than a few kilo's to lose, you're not giving yourself a fair go. It also has to be more important than food. Fairly obvious you say? Make sure you mean it. When it comes to a choice (repeatedly) between the chocolate cake and mums famous potato bake at the family birthday party vs weight loss in this specified weight loss time, can you make the hard decision and sacrifice the social expectations?

It is worthwhile negotiating these planned sacrifices in advance with a relevant "other". For example I negotiated going to the gym every night after work with my husband until I reached goal weight. It was a big sacrifice for all of us - it meant travelling to work every day in separate cars, and either having tea later every night or him cooking. But we agreed it had to happen. Once I reached my goal, we renegotiated the frequency of the gym and bought more equipment for home use and dropped it back to a couple of times a week.

So do you want this more than any thing else, and are you prepared to make the sacrifice? The proof is, of course, in the pudding.

Planning for Success

Failing to plan is a sure fire plan for failure, when it comes to fitness and achieving the body of your dreams. As someone who has lost a lot of weight, one of the things I learned is that having a few "good days" where you do all the right things, followed by a few "bad days" will never result in the change you want, as they cancel each other out, and your results will show ups and downs and generally just running around in circles Weight loss, fat loss, improved performance all come down to many, many consistent good days, with only the very occasional hiccup.

So how do you do this? All the motivation and desire in the world wont help you if you dont do the hard yards. Its all in the planning. If you don't plan your meals in advance - what happens? Time runs short, or you are caught out somewhere, you take an easy option and before you know it, you've blown your nutrition goals for the day. If you don't plan your exercise schedule, all the excuses in the world come into play.

Try a planning commitment measure over the next week. Each night give yourself a score out of 10.

Nutrition: You should be eating 5 meals/day (or 3 normal meals and 2 snacks). Score yourself 1 point for every meal that you ate as planned.

Exercise - score yourself up to 2 points for this - 1 point if you did the exercise planned - 2 points if you did it with the appropriate intensity. (ie you might have planned to walk for 1/2 hour, did it but didn't walk as fast as you should have=1)

Water - score 2 points for drinking 6 cups (1 point for 3 cups)

Planning - score 1 point if you made sure everything was planned the night before.

Tally it up each day to give yourself a score out of 10. Do you achieve 10/10 each day? If not - there's a clear reason why you are not achieving what you want - look at the areas you are falling down in, and challenge yourself to change this.

Feel free to comment on your scores in the comments section below - I'd love to know how you are going.

Shaking Up The Weight Loss Tree

Ever got frustrated with your weight refusing to budge? The first temptation is to eat less, however if you eat too little your metabolism drops making it even harder to lose, and will cause you problems later with maintenance. So the next thought is to increase your exercise. But what if you cant (you're already exercising twice day, or you're injured and your options are limited)? The key is to do something different. If you keep eating the same things and doing the same exercises, you can only expect the same outcomes. Your body eventually adapts.

So if you're exercising once a day, try going to morning and night for a couple of weeks, your second session might only be a walk but it helps to rev your metabolism. Or change what exercise you are doing, eg add weights, or start running or take on a new class) Or try eating differently. Eat smaller meals more often (5 -6 small meals) ensuring you have a lean protein source at every meal (eg chicken, fish, tuna, salmon, egg white). You might like to follow Lindy Olsen's 7 rules that have created her award winning fitness body.

But just keep shaking up your routine, keep re-challenging your body in new ways, and soon you will be over your latest hurdle.