Quote of the Day

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.
~Dale Carnegie

 

A Diet Journal = A Slimmer You

This may sound too good to be true but you could double your weight loss by writing down every single thing that goes into your mouth. I know that’s what helped me a lot.

Your next question will be, “How and Why does writing what I eat and drink help to reduce my weight?”. This same question was asked on Sharecare.com you can read the different answers that was given here.

A Diet Journal will make you aware and accountable to yourself, you’ll be forced to think twice about what you eat. This Diet Journal should also include your water intake, your exercise, your goal, your plan, your BMI, your measurements and at the end of the page write down what you will want to improve on, for the next day.

The must do if you want this Diet Journal to work for you is to:

Be Totally Honest with yourself: Make sure that you record everything that you eat and drink, even down to the handful of M&M took before lunch.

Be Accurate: Make sure you measure your portions, i.e how many servings

Be Consistent, you should always carry your journal, their are a lot of diet journal apps online you can download one if you are using a smartphone. You can check out this few apps MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople, FatSecret, e.t.c.

Review: By the end of the day, go back and look through it. See where you fell short and write down how you can do better the following day or praise yourself for a job well done.

I guess I’ll stop here for today but if you have troubles on creating you own diet journal you can check here to see some suggestions from someone who has successfully kept a diet journal for over 30 years.

 

Quote of the Day

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
~ Thomas A. Edison

 

Is there something you really love doing?The secret to staying with exercise is doing something you love. If you don’t like it, you won’t stick with it. And if you don’t stick with it, you won’t lose weight. I love dancing, I have fun, I sweat, and best of all, I burn tons of calories. So go out and have some fun. Your body (and your waistline) will thank you. I read this and I thought to share with you

Ruth Kusemiju

We often talk about passion, but we tend to use it very loosely. We usually refer to passion in passing – it is rarely the primary focus of discussion or analysis.

I am just as guilty of this. So, what is meant by passion? For many, it simply means strong emotions of any kind. In this context, it is often suspect because we perceive it to mean that clear and rational thinking becomes overwhelmed by intense emotions. In fact, for many it is viewed as a sign of shiftlessness – passions coming and going with the blink of an eye. For others, passion simply means happiness – pursuing activities that make us happy in the moment. In other contexts, it is used to mean loss of control – we surrender to passion.

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Shake it up and Lose that Weight!

I thought that I could change everything at once, I wanted to lose weight and lose it immediately, hardly eating and working out like crazy. Nobody needed to tell me what to do next, my body was crying out, “SLOW DOWN GIRL “. My eyes couldn’t see chocolate cake and pass it by, rather than reduce, I found out I was expanding. I got so discouraged, I stopped everything I was doing all together. Then one day I got in a discussion with a friend and she gave me some damn good advise that I’ll like to share with you today.
~Try cereals that has more of fibre with skin milk (no sugar).
~ More of vegetables and fruit.
~ Water should be your next best friend.
~ We’re more successful when we make small, not-so much obvious changes but a simple 30-minute walk each day. She introduced me to Leslie Sansone and her Walk Away the Pounds videos. The weight loss will be slower, of course, but you’ll make sustainable changes. More importantly, we stay sane while doing it.

~ Don’t stick with the same old activities and routines every day for your exercise, shake it up from time to time. Once you body gets use to the same old routine you stop losing weight. Get something that is a bit challenging because each time we step out of the comfort zone, we’re taking a risk and risk-taking is the only way to know what we’re really capable of.
~ Try not to focus too much on weight loss because the more you try, the harder it is. For example, That scale we step on every day grows horns and fangs and carries a pitchfork. The cereal we have for breakfast every day starts to taste more and more like old sawdust. We start to think: “I have to do this every single day…for the rest of my life?” At which point, your mind may declare, “That’s it! I simply cannot do this.
~ Remember that you don’t have to have the energy to do this for the rest of your life. You only need enough for today and, even better, you don’t have to be perfect. Take it one day at a time.
This week I decided to shake things up from my regular routine, I got Zumba dancing videos and oh boy, I’m I having fun! Leave a comment and tell me how you’ll challenge yourself this week.

 

Quote of the Day

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”
~ Tommy Lasorda

 

Goals Setting

I knew staying motivated while I was losing weight was going to be a hard task to keep and there will be days that I’ll feel tired and indifferent. So my next plan of action after I wrote down a list of reasons why i wanted to lose weight was to set SMART goals which will help me achieve my MAJOR goal.
When I say SMART, I mean :
Prioritized: First things first. If you make priorities among your goals, you’ll be able to focus on what needs to be done first. For instance, if you are inactive now and you have a long-term goal then you should have many other “mini” goals ahead of it.

Plan: Planning is key, you can’t get to your goal unless you know what you need to do. Knowing you want to lose weight isn’t the same as having a clear idea of how you’re going to make it happen. Write down everything and go through all the details.

Precise: Be specific when you set your weight loss and fitness goals. I sat down on Sunday and mark Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for my workouts on my calendar, along with a time for them, I knew i’d be more likely to follow-through.

Measurable: What time you should eat? When and where you’ll do your exercise? How far are you going to walk?How you’ll fit it into your schedule? What do you need to get started? This way you’ll be able to track your progress to see if you’re meeting your goals. As you meet each goal, you can cross them off of your list. This will give you a sense of accomplishment!

Positive: Instead of focusing the goals on what you “shouldn’t” do or “can’t” have, make sure your goals accentuate the positive. Doing so will keep you feeling positive.

Reassess and Adjust: Be willing to change your goals as you make progress in your weight-loss plan. You might find that you need to adjust your goals to better fit your new lifestyle.

Nutrition: This plays a major part in losing weight, and you need to stay motivated to lose weight the healthy way. Think of high energy and low fat foods that you like and will eat. It may be foods like yogurt, bran cereals, fruits, vegetables, lean meats, low fat cheeses, low fat milk, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. Make a list of these things and then make sure you have plenty of these items on hand in your kitchen, ready for you to prepare. Just to be safe, make a clean sweep of all the junk food in the house. It is beneficial to remove temptation, no matter how strong your willpower might be.

Lastly, set up a reward system for yourself. For example, once you lose five pounds, treat yourself, and don’t use food as a reward. You might want to treat yourself to a massage, or that cute new shoe you have been eyeing. This method is a great way to stay motivated to lose more weight.

 

Quote of the Day

It is not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.
Johnann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

Quote of the Day

Blessed is the person who sees the need, recognizes the responsibility, and actively becomes the answer.
~William Arthur Ward

 

Scared to Death

I woke up one day and went about my morning business trying to get ready to go to work. As I happened to pass by the full length mirror in my room, what I saw scared me to death. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing . It dawned on me that I’d been looking at myself in the mirror for these 6 past years but not really seeing what the mirror was telling me. I realized I was FAT.
When I got on the scale what it told me nearly popped my eyes out, from 128 pounds when I last weighed I had gone up to 195 pounds. I needed to take action immediately, what better way than to divorce my diet.
I didn’t initially know what goal to set for myself because I wasn’t sure I could stick to my plan. So I started with the mindset to LOSE WEIGHT. I immediately went to my writing desk, got a paper and pen and wrote down reasons why I should lose weight:
1. So I can be more than just the fat girl with a pretty face
2. Improve flexibility and ease the load on my knees
3. Fit into a greater variety of clothes
4. Have more energy and stamina
5. Be less self conscious about my body when I’m with other people
6. So that every time I see a cute skirt, I don’t have to think “if only”
7.So I can hug my people without my bellies coming between us.
8. I hate having to adjust my clothes every time I stand up, or when I take two steps, or when I sit down
9. So my clothes fit better and last longer
10. To have control of myself again
11. Because I’m too young to feel so old
12. So I can keep up with other people when we’re walking
13. I hate that every shopping trip ends in tears
14. I don’t want to feel ashamed anymore
15. Because I have more to offer than people assume
16. I miss feeling graceful
17. Because my muscles scream to be stretched out, but my folds get it the way
18. Because I’m tired of having only a few ways to sit comfortably…and even they aren’t that comfortable
19. Because being “curvy” does not mean having folds. And we all know it.
20. Because my thighs are as big as my waist should be. And that’s not okay.
21. I hate being the fattest person everywhere I go
22. I want to feel proud of my accomplishment
23. Because I want to be happy
24. Because it’s the last thing in my life that still hurts
25. I’m tired of feeling tired
26. Because I want to live
27. Because I am so much more than this. Because I’m stronger than this. Because I’m sick of this.
28. Because putting it off for one more day is like saying that I’m not that important
29. Because I matter
30. Because I deserve it
31. Because I’m tired of just having potential that the world can see
32. Because I want
33. Because I love myself. And I always fight like a beast to protect the people I love.
34. So that standing up isn’t harder than it should be
35. Because no matter how much I hate it, my appearance does tell people a lot about me. And I don’t like the message..
36. To look and feel great naked!
37. Because I want men to find me attractive. And I’m not ashamed of that.
38. Fat doesn’t have to win
39. I want to wear super high heels!
40. So I can hip bump my BFF without knocking her to the floor
41. Because my personal style is too often dictated by the stores I have to shop in
42. Just because I don’t need a 42nd reason.
I knew I had to stay motivated to do this so I set SMART GOALS that will help me achieve my major goal, I’ll tell you all about it in my next post.