{"id":219,"date":"2014-06-20T02:35:55","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T20:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog?p=219&preview_id=219"},"modified":"2014-12-01T02:40:09","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T20:40:09","slug":"50-pound-victory-kickstart-healthy-lifestyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/promincproductions.com\/blog\/50-pound-victory-kickstart-healthy-lifestyle\/","title":{"rendered":"My 50 Pound Victory – How to kickstart your healthy lifestyle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some time ago, well 4 years and 2 months to be more exact, I went to the doctor and was told I was obese. \u00a0That was a hard blow for me to stomach – I was 28 years old and what I felt to be an average American. \u00a0It only took me a few days before I let the\u00a0“insult” of being told I was obese sink in to the point that I took action on it…<\/p>\n

I told my self “I’m going to be healthier”. \u00a0There, I did it. \u00a0I’ll show that doctor – the next visit he won’t be able to insult me! \u00a0Ok. \u00a0It’s not that easy, and it wasn’t. \u00a0Just saying you will be healthier really doesn’t put anything in action towards weight loss or a healthy lifestyle. \u00a0Well sort of… \u00a0Putting your mind in the correct state is the first step, and continually telling your self you are going to work to be healthier will help you to start to believe that it is possible and thus a change will begin to happen.<\/p>\n

\"Reaching<\/a>
Thank you to LoseIt for the success message for reaching my overall weight loss goal of 50 pounds! It wasn’t quick, but in this journey I’ve done something more important – I’ve changed my lifestyle to a healthier way of living!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now in hindsight, now having reached my weight-loss goal after four years, “being more healthy” wasn’t all that difficult. \u00a0Once you get your mind, heart, and spirit behind the task and you have the proper planning and knowledge built. \u00a0Now that sounds scary and hard, but you need to get your entire being behind the task for it to actually be achieved. \u00a0Just think if the front two tires on your car were spinning forward, but the back tires were spinning in reverse. \u00a0You aren’t going to get very far very quick now are you?<\/p>\n

One element that I attribute to my success was a proper plan. \u00a0I sat down early and wrote everything out on paper (and later onto a computer spreadsheet to track). \u00a0I wrote out my plan, my goal, etc. and stuck to it. \u00a0As you make progress, your goals and plan will shift, and that’s good and expected. \u00a0But you need something on paper to follow and keep you on track.<\/p>\n

I set two goals – a realistic goal that I wanted to hit (which I reached after two years) and a “dream goal” of loosing 50 pounds. \u00a0After that two year mark I just followed the new lifestyle that I had built and slowly but surely the weight continued to shed, and my overall health continued to get better.<\/p>\n

Now, just over 4 years later, I hit a total weight loss of 50 pounds, I’m at the lowest weight I’ve been at in over 15 years, I am very lean and toned, and feel amazing. \u00a0My wife and I still continue to find new ways to incorporate healthy living and continue to improve ourselves more. \u00a0We just got a into juicing a bit as well as being more focused on a fresh veggie and whole grain diet. \u00a0My wife talks more about those topics on her blog. Nicole’s Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Healthy Living – Where to Start: Goal Setting<\/h2>\n

As I said above, the first step is to set your goals. \u00a0The first goal to set is your ultimate<\/em> goal. \u00a0Make this something that can be measured. \u00a0Loose 35 pounds, have a waistline of 34″, etc. \u00a0Don’t be afraid of this goal – look at this as being a dream more than a goal. \u00a0You will get there, but often times this goal feels too large to reach. \u00a0One other key is at this point don’t build up an expectation as to when you will reach this. \u00a0If you set a timeline to get there, you may get discouraged if progress doesn’t go as planned – and it won’t (be it one way or another). \u00a0That’s why I called this a dream<\/em>. \u00a0Dreams are more sweet to have come true when you don’t have expectations of it coming sooner than it does. \u00a0But write this goal on a piece of paper – it’ll keep you motivated to work towards this at all times. \u00a0Write it big with a big maker. \u00a0I hung mine on the wall for years – hang it somewhere you’ll see it daily like the bedroom by a mirror. It’ll have more of a psychological impact on you – you’re reminded daily of what you are working towards.<\/p>\n

Next, set smaller goals that will get you to your\u00a0main goal. \u00a0And this is where you need to be realistic and set\u00a0some deadlines. \u00a0You don’t climb a mountain in one giant step – its step by step, milestone by milestone. \u00a0So what are those milestones? \u00a0And are they attainable? \u00a0Don’t worry about how long these small goals will take to reach the bigger goals yet – worry about what is realistic and attainable. \u00a0While you may get frustrated by not reaching the big picture as quickly as you’d like, you can’t look at the problem from that point of view. \u00a0The frustration will scare you away. \u00a0For that reason, you need to look at it from what is realistic and attainable and relish in the progress made as you go – it’ll make every step that much easier. \u00a0And once you have some confidence building you’ll be in a better state of mind and have proper knowledge on how to start to challenge your self and your goals.<\/p>\n

For me my overall goal was based, and my smaller goal was to loose 2 pounds a month. \u00a0Yes, that’s it. \u00a02 pounds a month. \u00a0Sounds too easy, right? \u00a0Well in some regard yes. \u00a0Yet there were months I couldn’t reach that. \u00a0But this is something attainable – only a .5 pounds a week. \u00a0Simple – try it for your self. \u00a0After a few months, if it’s too easy, up it a bit. \u00a0Challenge your self to blow your goals out of the water. \u00a0But at 2 pounds a month, that would equate to 18 pounds in 9 months – first major milestone I wanted to reach. \u00a0Not the full 50 which was my ultimate goal, but I’m not looking at the ultimate at this time.<\/p>\n

So many people want to do 18 pounds in 2 months to attend a wedding, the beach, whatever. \u00a0Why am I doing 9 months? \u00a0Well one big reason is that dieting as most people think doesn’t work because you need to instead change your diet. \u00a0Wait, what was that? \u00a0We tend to think the word diet<\/em> me as this 6 or 8 week thing we do where 20 pounds magically goes away (and then is all back 3 months later…). \u00a0But I, and the dictionary<\/a>, see the word diet<\/em> as being the whole sum of what you consume – not just today or tomorrow, bit in general overall. \u00a0I’ll admit, it took me a while to get this as well. \u00a0But prior to my wakeup call, my diet was about 35% fast food restaurants, 35% grilled red meats, 10% cheese and dairy, and 20% fruits and vegetables. \u00a0Now this might sound better or worse than you currently, but it’s not good for a healthy lifestyle. \u00a0Today, I’d say my diet is more like 45% fruits and vegetables, 25% whole grains and nuts, 15% poultry and fish, 5% cheese and dairy, 5% red meats, and 5% at restaurants, rarely fast food. \u00a0I’m not saying my diet is perfect, but notice how drastically different it is? \u00a0Fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, fish, and poultry are the better food options. But I won’t get into the details of the food breakdown here – that’s a big topic for another time. \u00a0Bottom line –\u00a0change your life, don’t change for a short period of time. \u00a0But that digresses from the point so I’ll try to get back on track here.<\/p>\n

As an example of goal setting, my goal was based on weight loss and it was measured monthly. \u00a0Now weight is weird and seems that it can fluctuate so easily. \u00a0For that reason I suggest NOT<\/strong> weighing in daily – or even weekly. \u00a0It’s like watching the stock market – day to day movement is not a good indicator of the overall progress. \u00a0Instead I had a monthly weigh-in day on the 1st of every month. \u00a0And you need to stick to this regardless of what is going on in life. \u00a0I suggest checking your weight\u00a0as soon as you wake up. \u00a0Go to the bathroom before hand, and wear the same attire each week – or for me it was a lack of attire… \u00a0The point is that you want to be as consistent as possible<\/em>\u00a0for every single weigh-in day to ensure accurate results. \u00a0Write these numbers down on a spreadsheet – I made an Excel document. \u00a0Put your monthly number in, and study and analyze it. \u00a0If you were short of your goal, why is that? \u00a0What did you do, or didn’t do this month to make goal? \u00a0If you made goal, what worked and how can you repeat that next month?<\/p>\n

Next Step – Devise Your Healthy Living Plan<\/h2>\n

Ok, so a goal my goal was set. \u00a0But now what? \u00a0What does it take to actually get to that goal? \u00a0It’s time to form a plan that, like the goal, is attainable and well laid out. \u00a0An attainable plan will be your day to day guide on how to reach your smaller goals. \u00a0What does a plan look like you ask? \u00a0Well it should outline to two major pieces to weight loss (in the case of my goals at least) – diet\u00a0and exercise.<\/p>\n

A Healthy Diet<\/h3>\n

As I pointed out above, your diet equates what you consume in general, not on a short term.\u00a0 What I found is that I had a bad habit of eating\u00a0WAY TOO MUCH! \u00a0The amount of food that I, and most humans, is actually quite mind boggling. \u00a0As you’ll soon learn, the human body doesn’t require as much as we tend to consume, particularly if you are eating a nutrient rich and well balanced diet.<\/p>\n

Now\u00a0we eat because we feel hungry, right? \u00a0Well we feel hungry because we stretched our stomachs bigger by overeating and thus we need to put more into it to not feel hungry. \u00a0And the cycle continues. \u00a0It’s a bad cycle… \u00a0Thankfully the stomach can shrink on its own – just feed it less for a week or so. \u00a0Then you’ll be accustomed to the smaller portions, and thus not be as hungry. \u00a0Seriously I used to eat two sandwiches and half a bag of chips – for lunch. \u00a0Plus a few handfuls of candy. \u00a0Why on earth do I need that much food for lunch? \u00a0Or any meal for that matter? \u00a0No wonder I had a small dose of depression and my doctor told me I was obese – I was feeding myself crap! \u00a0Now I have a thinly stacked turkey sandwich on whole wheat with spinach and\/or cucumber slices (notice there isn’t any butter or mayo or cheese??? \u00a0That’s intentional…) and a bag of grapes and carrots. \u00a0You might be saying yuck, but clear your diet of refined sugars, fats, oils, and candy for a few weeks and you’ll surprisingly find that fresh fruits and veggies actually have an amazing flavor. \u00a0And I know you won’t believe me on this till you try it, but you’ll soon start to crave fresh fruits and vegetables! \u00a0(Note – pops and salad dressings gotta go! \u00a0I don’t care if they are light\/diet, they are poisons\u00a0to your body in many ways and often cut these two out and you’ll quickly see some weight loss).<\/p>\n

So how do you gauge how much to eat? \u00a0There are two easy tricks<\/em> to this. \u00a0The first<\/strong> is to read the food packaging. \u00a0Not the games on the back of the box, or even the recipes. \u00a0Instead read the serving size. \u00a0And eat just that much. \u00a0Reading the nutritional information and ingredients is a good practice as well but might not seem too helpful at first… \u00a0The second<\/strong> trick<\/em> is to incorporate a calorie counter into your daily habits. \u00a0I’ll admit this takes a bit if effort to get used to using at first but trust me, it’s an eye opener and will really help you stay on track like you wouldn’t believe. \u00a0A calorie\u00a0counter now becomes your daily partner – praising you for your diligence or cursing at you for slipping. \u00a0This can be done on paper, but in this era of technology I’d suggest using a free service like myFitnessPal<\/a> or LoseIt<\/a>. \u00a0Both of these can be accessed via the internet and smartphone \/ tablet apps and make this process sooo much easier. \u00a0Set it up and enter in your goals from above. \u00a0It’ll then tell you how many calories you can consume each day – prepare to be shocked at how far over you are currently. \u00a0They do have a food database with calorie counts, or you can read those nutrition labels mentioned above. \u00a0Stick with this for a few weeks and it’ll become a habit. \u00a0I can’t stress enough how important this step is\u00a0for your journey. \u00a0I started without this, and added it after about 1 1\/2 years and wondered how I got where I did without it?!?!<\/p>\n

I know I’ve talked a lot about food and I could go on for a lot longer. \u00a0But from the start of your journey, let’s start simple. \u00a0Make a conscious effort to eat smarter. \u00a0I believe we all know what we should be eating and what we shouldn’t. \u00a0Start there – eat what you should. \u00a0Just like setting goals in baby steps, work on migrating your diet in baby steps. \u00a0Chicken or steak? \u00a0Chicken. \u00a0Salad or french fries? \u00a0Salad (little to no dressing – let the flavors of the veggies shine!). \u00a0Fast food or make a sandwich at home? \u00a0Sandwich always wins and helps the pocket book. \u00a0Again, this change is a process. \u00a0Trying to change cold turkey isn’t advised by me – a gradual change will ensure that you will be committed long term and that you will succeed in this change. \u00a0If you take only one thing from my ramblings here, take this – it’s about changing your lifestyle long term to a healthy lifestyle, it’s not about a quick win “diet”. \u00a0It’s not to say you won’t have “cheat days” from time to time, but keep those to no more than two a week. \u00a0No one is perfect. \u00a0But I do have to say it gets interesting – the healthier you eat and get, the rougher some of your favorite foods sit with your body and those cheat days turn into punishment days. \u00a0Ha!<\/p>\n

I haven’t lost you yet, have I? \u00a0Start with small changes that will change your lifestyle. \u00a0Keep layering these small changes on top of each other over time to build a long term healthy lifestyle that will stay with you – forever.<\/p>\n

Exercise<\/h3>\n

There is one more component to this change though – a component that most hate more than me reaching to take that slice of pizza out of your hand… This thing called exercise.<\/p>\n

So what is exercise? \u00a0It’s moving your body and getting the blood flowing through your system. \u00a0Walk, bowl, shoot hoops, dance, swimming, canoeing, cleaning, running, weight lifting, yard work – all of these things can actually constitute exercise. \u00a0It doesn’t sound that hard, right?<\/p>\n

Now for weight-loss to kick in, you need to get your heart rate up, and keep it up. \u00a0So that means you need to be active in your exercising for a sustained amount of time. \u00a0So get up and go gung-ho and be as active as you possibly can, right? \u00a0Well no – if you haven’t caught the running theme in this message yet, I’ll say it again. \u00a0Take it one step at a time. \u00a0Exercise a bit today, and next week try to push it a bit more, etc. \u00a0Adjust as you need to keep working towards your goals set. \u00a0And make exercise a part of your daily routine. \u00a0Get your kids and loved ones into it with you. \u00a0They could use it too anyway.<\/p>\n

So I said you have to get your heart rate up and keep it there. \u00a0Yes, that’s technically true and will show you the best results. \u00a0HOWEVER, what if you get it excited but then have to stop exercising after only 5 minutes? \u00a0Will this hinder\u00a0your progress? \u00a0No, you just won’t see as large of gains. \u00a0But that’s no the end of the world really, as long as you are exercising smartly.<\/p>\n

Smartly? \u00a0Is that a medical term? \u00a0What does that mean? \u00a0Well lets think this through, with a bit of understanding on the human anatomy. \u00a0There is something called metabolism that operates in your body. \u00a0While I’m not an expert in metabolism, I do understand it from the standpoint of an analogy. \u00a0Think of metabolism as a motor. \u00a0As long as the motor has an energy source and it’s turning, it produces power (weight loss via calorie burning). \u00a0But if the motor stops operating, the calorie burning stops and thus weight loss turns into weight gain. \u00a0Well that sounds simple, right? \u00a0Just keep the motor turning (metabolism burning) and the weight will just peel right off.<\/p>\n

Ok, so lets translate this into real life actions and what this means. \u00a0Metabolism gets activated by several things:<\/p>\n