It’s about time I started contributing something at least mildly useful to the bloggy world so I thought I’d start a list of Weight Loss Tips since I’m attempting to be health conscious prior to the holidays. My mum made hand dipped chocolates this year. Heaven help me.
Disclaimer: The vapid meandering thought processes of Kimberly VanderHorst should not be used in place of proper medical advice. She abdicates all responsibility for any potential unpleasant side effects of taking her advice, making no exclusions for death, accidental decapatation, funny smells or rashes, or losing a huge amount of weight and having the awful burden of having to purchase a new wardrobe.
1) Water. 8 cups a day is the bare minimum. Up the water intake and wash those pounds away. Yes, you’ll have to pee every 2.9 seconds for the first week or two, but your bladder will catch on eventually.
2) Stop eating 2-3 hours before bedtime. First week is hard but it’s pretty easy after that. I’ve no earthly idea why this works, but it does. When I’m “being good” I have a small treat after dinner then brush my teeth and eat nothing else the remainder of the evening. Teeth brushing helps me. Immensely. I’m lazy and I don’t like going through the effort of doing it twice.
3) Use your laziness to help you. If you must have junk, stash it somewhere inconvenient like the trunk of the car, the bedroom closet of a sleeping child, a locked box in the garden shed. Make it hard to be bad.
4) Eat regularly. As in every 2-3 hours kind of regularly. The three big meals a day mentality seriously sabotages our health. If your body knows there is a regular, consistent supply coming in, it won’t hoard the fat so much. You can actually gain weight from skipping meals or eating too little in general for this reason.
5) Weigh in daily. I know there are people out there who say this is a bad thing, but it helps me stay on track. It’s the times when I avoid making eye contact with the scale that I get the most off balance.
6) Move. Turn up the tunes and dance. Wiggle your bum while you mop. Park freakishly far from the grocery store entrance. Do whatever you can to add little bits of activity to your day. Actual exercising? Fabulous. Getting in the habit of having an active lifestyle where you move about lots, climb stairs, don’t stay sitting for long stretches? All the better.
7) Look at yourself in the mirror. And be nice. Remind yourself why you’re doing this. That fat in your tummy area? So dangerous to your health. It’s good to love yourself. It’s even better to love yourself enough to treat yourself well. Remind yourself of that fact. Daily.
8) Don’t eat it if you don’t enjoy it. If you’re going to eat junk, eat good junk but less of it. Savor it. Let the high quality chocolate melt slowly in your mouth. Slow your eating down in general. It can take up to 20 minutes for your brain to receive the message from your stomach that you’re full. Give it time.
9) Enjoy your body as it is. Make sure you have an outfit or two that fit you well as you are now. Don’t keep looking at your “skinny clothes” wistfully. Find something that makes you feel good now, in this moment. Your baggy old sweatpants might not be tight on you, but they probably make you feel like crap.
10) Feeling like crap is not an option. This isn’t about punishing yourself for getting fat. This isn’t about beating on yourself till you get to where you “should” be. This is about treating yourself right. You are amazing already, and you have the potential to be even more so. Take that leap. Treat yourself as if you’re already who you want to be, and the end result might surprise you.
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20 Comments
Great tips, Kim! All of them! I’ve employed every one of them at some time or another. I need to drink more water. When I do that it’s so much easier to snack less besides all the other benefits! And I need to do the no eating after eight that I once did. (but I love to curl up next to Greg with a huge slice of cake or stack of cookies after the kids go to bed and I haven’t been getting them to bed much before nine lately!)
Thanks for the reminders!
These are great tips, Kim, and reminds me of how many I’ve let slide. One trick that helps me with not eating before bed is to chew some sugarless gum. I get to move my mouth and it tastes good, but it’s about 5 calories. It helps me a lot when all I can think of is hot cocoa and ice cream. I like mint gums because they keep my mouth tasting like toothpaste which means that lime sherbert is going to taste like crap if I give in.
Great Comments Kim thanks!
BTW I just tried to post this and I got reprimanded apparently… I’m posting comments too quickly and I need to slow down!
How funny is that?
Great tips! I’ve also noticed when I exercise that I have less of an appetite. Weird how that works, huh?
I LOVE these tips . . . but I’d caution against using the term weight-loss . . . If I did all of these (working on most of them actually . . . need to do better on the H20 thing), there’s no guarantee that I’d lose anything as far as a number goes. And you wouldn’t want to make me feel HORRIBLE for following your tips and not losing a pound, would you? *grin*
How about calling them Kym’s Top 10 Ways to Be Healthy? :)
Either way, FABULOUS list dahling! :)
Great ideas, some of which I regularly employ – like the stashing the junk in an inconvenient place. Number 10 is one I need to take to heart and work on. Twenty years of beating myself for not being perfect is starting to wear thin. Like Dr. Phil says, “How is that working for you?”
Thanks for the reminders. I’ve used all those tips before, but I’ve fallen off the wagon s pretty far this time. I also like Josi’s idea of mint gum. Maybe that’s why I was so skinny in high school – I was always chewing gum.
As I sat down to read this, I was eating a cherry chocolate square. Great. But you said I’m not allowed to feel like crap, so I will take that to heart. Thanks for the tips.
This isn’t about beating on yourself till you get to where you “should” be. This is about treating yourself right.
This is my biggest downfall. I keep telling myself that I’ll be happy when and if… But if I’m not happy now, losing ten pounds isn’t gonna do a darn thing for me.
Great tips.
Given that I lost 10 pounds doing all of that but exercising, I’d say it’s good advice!
Love the whole “Don’t beat yourself up!” thing.
Go Kim!
All very sage advice.
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I seriously need to get on the water thing. I always feel better when I drink it. Pomegranate juice is really supposed to be good for you too. I’m doing my own mild experiment drinking a small glass in the morning. I started today.
Such great advice! I think i need you to repost this about every other day because i need constant reminders. You make it all sound so pleasant and reasonable and do-able. Which is more than half the battle, I’m convinced. As soon as I start obsessing over it, I gain.
I LOVE the idea of making my laziness work for me. Now can you figure out a way to have procrastination do something positive in my life, too?
it was when I stopped stressing over the number and also started eating regularly- every 2-3 hours, that I began to loose the wieght. 17 lbs since Sept 1!
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Oh, and I forgot to say, I traded the regular milk for soy. Wondeful stuff for helping your body burn the fat- soy milk.
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8 and 9 are great. Thanks for posting these Kym, and for this: “This is about treating yourself right. You are amazing already, and you have the potential to be even more so.” If I follow these rules and never drop a pound, I’ll at least benefit from a healthier frame of mind. And that works wonders in every way. Cheers!
actually, i find that daily weighing brings me down because of the upward fluctuation possibilities that can happen day-to-day naturally.
but the rest i agree with, parTICularly number 9! happiness begets success. :)
and thank bob you’ve finally decided to give back to the community. up until now i haven’t been entertained at all. okay maybe a few times. but definitely no more than 700 times. no way.
I’ve decided to get healthy as soon as the peanut M&M’s, chocolate dessert, Snicker’s bars, pan of fudge and Christmas cookies are out of my home :)
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