talkhealth Blog

Everyone knows how to lose weight.  Its not rocket science!  It may not be easy, but its not difficult.

Like playing the lottery, the rules may be simple and the prize life changing but the odds are enormous.  So, what can you do to lower the odds and have a chance at actually succeeding?

It really comes down to the four pillars.

One. DESIRE

To change that is.  You dirty minded lot! There is a great saying out there, ‘To be ready to change, you must first be sick and tired of being sick and tired’  I wrote before about MY motivation to lose weight.  Everyone loses weight for their own very personal reasons, but you will struggle without real desire.  Like everything worth having, good health requires sacrifice and effort.  You, and only you will know when you are ready to stop talking about it and actually be ready.  It took me more than twenty years to be ready.

Two. A PLAN

NOT A DIET.  I don’t believe in diets.  Every crash/fad/celebrity diet WILL work. At first. For a very few they will work long term. And they will write much praise on the internet about the glories of drinking rancid onion juice or whatever Kim Kardashian is twittering on about at the moment, but the honest to god truth is DIETS. DO. NOT. WORK.  It has to be something you can do forever.  Something you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life.  It must fit in with who you are and how you actually live now, not the you you’d like be in the Hollywood version of you.  If you cant cook, wont cook, hate veg and don’t want to change, you will struggle with Slimming World.  If you don’t do well with too much choice and freedom and like rigidity and need the discipline, maybe Weight Watchers with its ready meals and massive range of cereal bars and jar sauces will be right for you.  If you can only stick something for a day or two before losing interest,  the 5:2 plan could be right for you.  I’m not touting any particular plan, do your research and really think about your lifestyle and what you like to eat. The whole idea is to change, but baby steps. One day you may swap your Frosties for a wheatgrass smoothie but I’m guessing that wont be straight away.

Three. EXERCISE

Yes, you CAN lose weight without moving off your ass.  Just like you CAN lose weight with exercise alone.  But put the two together and you have magic!  At first it can be hard.  The media may say you will feel great, have more energy, glow and it will all be a ruddy wonderful endorphin fuelled skip through the daisies. Truth is, if you are very overweight, you’ll quite possible feel like something very big and metal has run you over.  You may not enjoy the breathless, wheezing and  the feeling like you’re going to puke and possibly wet yourself. IT GETS BETTER.  I promise.  Start slow.  With something you do anyway or really enjoy.  I don’t jog.  I hate jogging.  It hurts my boobs, it hurts my knees, I trip constantly. It’s horrible.  So I wont do it.  I can, if I need to, run away from a T-Rex or axe murderer and that’s  good enough.  I hate the gyms.  You have to be very confident or determined if you’re a woman and want to go to a gym.  They seem designed to make you cry.  There always some stick insects in Lycra talking really loudly about how fat they’re feeling.  There usually teenage boys sniggering about something and me being self conscious am sure they’re laughing at my jiggly bits.  There always a group of body builders intimidating everyone else and hogging the machines and there’s always ‘Sweaty Guy’ the man who gets on the treadmill next to you and flicks sweat all over you.  EWWWW.   I joined a popular women only Gym which was circuit based and loved it and stuck to it.  I also belly dance.  My friends Zumba or do Aikido or power walk the dog.  It really doesn’t matter.  As long as you MOVE and its a little bit fun. Its hard to workout, when its dark and cold and you’ve had a bad day and and and and…. But those are the times you MUST go.  If you allow the excuse once, you’ve had it.

Four. SUPPORT

This is the toughest.  It should be easy.  People love you, they’ll support you right? Some will, some wont. There are three main types you will come across when you start a diet.

The one who doesn’t want you to feel bad. She will say “You don’t need to lose weight, I love you as you are” Kind but either scared you will succeed and change and wont be You any more or just scared you will fail and feel bad she wants to protect you from the pain of failing.

Then there’s the one who puts you down.  “Why bother, you keep trying, it never does anything but cost money”Karate chop them in the face and move on.  You don’t need that rubbish.  Maybe they’re happy with you being the ‘fat’one because it makes them feel better about themselves.  I don’t know, they obviously have problems.

Then there’s the best one.  The, “What can I do to help? Shall we do it together? I so proud of you, Ill be there for you”type.  Surround yourself with those treasures, you will need them.

When I started I had great support from people (after I’d Karate chopped the dirtbags) My Hubby gallantly suffered through my attempts at fat free cooking and tried to smile when I burnt yet another salad (I kid you not).  He didn’t grumble when I banned crisps and sweets from the house and tried very hard to hide the wrappers from the Snickers he scoffed in the car on the way home from the shops.  He was an angel.  My kids have adapted really well.  They’re used to me removing fat from meat and cooking meals from scratch and loading up our plates with veggies and pudding bowls with fruit and yoghurt.  I’m glad, I hope this sets them on the right path to a long, healthy life.  My friends are fab.  They don’t offer me cake with my coffee, they praise me constantly and kick me in the ass when its needed.

I have lost friends who couldn’t handle me achieving my goal, but that says more about them than me.  I did giggle to myself when after losing two stone one of my friends warned me about losing any more.  “You’ll start looking drawn and OLD” was a phrase that got wheeled out.  At that point I clearly had at least another eight stone to lose.  Change scares people.

Anyway, that’s MY personal take on what you need to succeed at losing weight.  Get those four pillars in place and you will see changes.  Just dont ACTUALLY Karate chop people in the face or you’ll see those changes from the comfort of Her Majesty’s Prison.

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Applebottomgenes

I can't honestly say I struggled with my weight my whole life as for most of it I wasn't doing much to fight the fat, rather I consciously shut my eyes to the problem and let it grow to fairly epic proportions. At the age of 34 I weighed 22st 7lb and four years later I'm ten stone (and a bit) lighter. It hasn't been straightforward, along the way we have moved country (TWICE), my son and I have both had cancer and we were involved in a not-very-much-fun car crash. So if ever there was cause to dig through my catalog of excuses... Regardless, I'm at my target. Sometimes by the skin of my teeth, but I'm NEVER going back.