Weight Loss Tips: What worked for me

In lieu of this weekend's seminar I wanted to give you a weight loss tip that has worked for me in the past. Two years ago I worked with a personal trainer three times per week. My goal was to tone up and lose weight. That I did, but not without hardwork, sacrifice, and commitment.

My personal trainer wanted me to keep a food journal. I laughed at him. He said he was so serious and he handed me a notebook and a calorie counting book that was small enough that I could carry it everywhere I went. It was perfect for me because it had every restaurant/cafe you could ever imagine (i.e I loved that it had two of my favorite places; Starbucks and Houlihan's) so I never had to wonder how many calories I was consuming.

During our initial assessment, he figured out how many calories I should consume in order to lose weight and wrote that number on the inside of the notebook. He also instructed me that I shouldn't eat after 6pm. You can imagine how wide my eyes got when he said that!! Every week I had to hand in my book to my personal trainer like homework. This also helped me stick with the journal because he would really get on my case if I didn't stick to the plan. The trick to the food journal is to write down the calories down BEFORE you eat them. Oh boy, was this a reality check! I remember when I was about to eat a cookie and I wrote down the calories in my food journal. I immediately crossed it out and decided against eating that cookie! I then chose a snack with a more reasonable calorie count.

I worked out with him three days per week for 45 minutes of resistance training and 15 minutes of stretching at the end of the session. I did 30-45 minutes of cardiovascular training (I most did elliptical, upright bicycle, recumbent bicycle with rowing) 3-4 times per week. I logged all of my workouts because it helped me organize my week and see what I had accomplished. It felt really good to write down my exercise in my workout journal.

In the end, I ended up losing 13.5 lbs and became toned and flexible again! It was such a great feeling and I was extremely proud of myself.

My weight loss tips:
1. Buy a notebook and start a food journal.
2. Purchase a calorie counting book or log on to a website that works best for YOU.
3. Write down the calories before you ingest them. Then decide if you want to still ingest them.
4. Start eating early aka eat breakfast and then don't eat late (after 6pm or 7pm).
5. Buy a notebook or use the food journal notebook and start a workout journal.
6. Find a person who you see weekly that you must hand your food journal over to in order to keep you on track.
7. Don't cheat because you're only cheating yourself!
8. Perform resistance training 3x/wk for 45-60 min.
9. Schedule 10-15 minutes at the end of your workout to stretch the muscles you just worked.
10. Perform cardiovascular training 3-4x/wk for 30-45 minutes.
11. Believe in yourself and don't give up!