In June 2013 I weighed 92 kg’s, was a size 36″ waist and 43cm neck. Today writing this I weigh 74 kg’s with a 34″ waist and 40cm neck. I lost about 3kg’s per month to November 2013. Many people have asked me “how did you lose so much weight?” I haven’t been able to give them the full story because I didn’t have the time, nor is it easy to explain. But I did it by first deciding I was going to lose weight and make myself the promise I will keep it off. This is the hard part, making the decision. I am not talking about the decision many people are doing at this time of year by making a “New Years Resolution”, where on the 1st January they start eating rabbit food, starting fad diets and going to the gym for 3 hours each day. Only to stop after 3 weeks because they have lost the motivation to continue. I am talking about the real decision of whether you want to lose weight and keep it off. And the decision begins by asking the question “Why do I want to lose weight?”
Why I Wanted To Lose Weight
My story begins with a general check up with my doctor. One of the general questions he asked was “are you short of breathe when walking up steps or doing normal activity?” my response was “Yes, but that is because I’m just unfit and I am carrying a few extra kilo’s. Yes, I know I should do some exercise and eat better.”
In those two sentences I realised I had a problem I knew the solution to, yet I had done nothing about it. Any reasons I had for not exercising or not eating healthier were not reason’s, but excuses I used as reasons! I now had no excuses, I only had myself to admit it to. I needed to lose weight to improve my health. Also to improve my self esteem and later it helped to improve my work.
- The WHY is more important than how and when. WHY will determine how and when.
I have listened to various business speakers on success and how to achieve goals. And the first thing you must do for any goal is to create a strong enough reason why you must do it. Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki are two speakers that come to mind on this. I recommend you listen to Tony Robbins “Awaken The Giant Within” Youtube audio clip below. So now I had my WHY.
What Needed To Change.
Simply put, if I was going to lose this weight I knew I would have to change what I was doing.
Firstly, I had to eat better
I had to stop eating so much food. When I served up my plate, I would put more than I needed on it. And if there were left overs, because they were there I went back for seconds. So first I had to make the decision to cut back on how much I would eat. With the convenience of having food when ever we need it, we eat constantly and I must admit sometimes when we don’t need it but we eat it anyway. For example I am a boredom eater! I eat as something to do.
I had to eat better. I needed to eat better foods. I didn’t eat junk food all the time, but I ate a lot of things I shouldn’t have eaten a lot of, such as bread. I needed to eat more salad and vegetables.
Finally WATER!!!!!! If there was soft drink in the fridge, I would drink it. Water was far better.
So I had to do this in a way that I would continue to eat better. I had to start an eating habit that I would continue to do, not because I had to but because I enjoyed it! This was about a lifestyle change. Not a diet I would start and either get sick of and stop; or making my goal weight and then go back to my bad eating habits. I had to continue this because I enjoyed eating these foods.
Secondly, I had to exercise
Again, I had every excuse why I couldn’t or didn’t want to exercise. Not enough time; its boring; I can’t afford the gym or personal trainer- RUBBISH! I had a pair of joggers and a quiet 3 km’s of road. I also had enough knowledge of training work out’s that I could use to achieve my fitness goals without needing any equipment. All I needed was the right mind set and WHY to start.
Losing Weight By Eating The Elephant
Question: How do you eat an Elephant?
Answer: One mouthful at a time!
That was how I was going to change my lifestyle from not eating correctly to eating right; from not exercising to exercising and wanting to do more exercise! By making changes I would enjoy and making those changes incrementally, but still making a change!
Motivation-Inspiration- Education
My first goal was about changing my mindset, my way of thinking. If I couldn’t change this, then no matter how much exercise and dieting I did, I would eventually return to my old bad habits.
I had to find what would motivate and inspire me to do these things. I also had to educate myself or find people who would mentor me to learn them.
For example, I had to start waking up an hour earlier to go for a jog. The first thing I did was start going to bed earlier so I would get my 8 hours sleep. Easy done! Secondly, I started to set my alarm to wake me up 15 minutes earlier then I normally would wake up. I did this for one week then set it to 30 minutes earlier then I would normally wake up. Then a week later 45 minutes earlier until 3 weeks later it was 1 hour earlier. Why didn’t I set the alarm an hour earlier in the first week? I did, I turned it off and went back to bed until it was the time I would normally wake up! So, eating the elephant one mouthful at a time, I did this over a period of time until I was in the habit of waking up earlier.
But what was my motivation to get out of bed earlier? Well, every week I had a friend who when I met them I would ask “How are you?”. Their reply was “Great, I had Boot Camp this morning at 6am!” So when my alarm went off and I thought to myself “I don’t want to get out bed yet”, a voice inside my head would say “I did Boot Camp at 6am!” That was my inspiration and motivation to get out of bed when I could have turned the alarm off! They became my role model/mentor!
So look for people who will inspire you, motivate you and mentor/educate you to achieve your goals. Or do your own research to educate yourself no matter how big or small it is! To do my jog and exercise before work it was critical for me to get out of bed early.
IN SUMMARY
- What is your WHY to losing weight?
- WHAT do you need to change?
- HOW and WHEN are you going to make those changes? Remember, you eat an elephant one mouthful at a time!
- WHO is going to inspire and motivate you, mentor and educate you to do this?
Cont’d “Part 2 How I Lost 18Kg By Eating An Elephant”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32aFTpjEMT0