The 10 Commandments of Weight Loss

I have been saving this post for just the right Friday, and I think I've finally found it! I wrote this up for a friend a couple of months ago, and I'm really excited about sharing it with all of you. Enjoy!

 

 THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF WEIGHT LOSS

1. Thou shalt not starve yourself or skip meals. At 5'2 and 112 pounds, I eat nearly 6 small meals a day and NEVER skip. Skipping and starving only slow down your metabolism, so that when you DO eat, your body stores it all rather than metabolizing it.

2. Thou shalt count your calories wisely. Correct intake of carbs, fat, and protein (ALL of which are important) is essential, of course, but, to some extent at least, calories are calories. And, to lose weight, you must expend more calories than you consume each day. A lot of people try to make weight loss too complicated when, at the end of the day, it's just simple math.

3. Thou shalt eat breakfast early and stop consuming calories before 8:00 pm. This one is pretty general and can be broken once in a blue moon, but if you think about it, it makes since...if you consume a lot of calories (no matter what they're from) at 10:00 pm and go to bed at 10:30, your body has no reason to turn them into energy because you're going to be using very little energy while sleeping. Instead, it's just going to get stored (mostly as fat).

4. Thou shalt drink water...and lots of it. As a general rule, half your body weight in ounces is what you should consume in a day. So, if you weigh 120 pounds, you need to drink about 60 ounces of water each day. Add another glass or two on days that you exercise.


5. Thou shalt keep track of what you eat. Writing down what you eat is HUGE in weight loss. I have clients who plateaued in their weight loss until they started tracking their food and caloric intake...and then they dropped more quite quickly! Livestrong.com has a really great system for tracking your meals (it does all of the tedious analyzing for you).

6. Thou shalt keep in mind that foods made by God (raw fruits, vegetables, chicken, fish, etc) are healthier than foods made by man (chips, candy, pepperoni, etc). This is true on a general basis, but it is a great thing to keep in mind when planning meals or grocery shopping.


7.  Thou shalt avoid fast food at all cost. Don't try to justify it. It's never a good idea.

8. Thou shalt not restrict yourself in such a way that you end up eating a bunch of foods you don't like and avoiding all foods that you do like. This will inevitably fail. If you don't treat yourself in moderation to something you truly enjoy, the end result will probably be a disappointing rebound to your old habits and your old health.


9. Thou shalt exercise. Repeat after me: skinny doesn't equal healthy, and a low weight doesn't equal high fitness. Weight training and cardio are ESSENTIAL for good health, and they help you keep the weight off forever. Muscle is directly proportional to your metabolism rate - the more lean tissue you have, the more calories you burn at rest and during activity.

10. Thou shalt memorize the golden rule: "Weight loss should lead to a healthy lifestyle, not a low number on the scale." At the end of the day, your health is more important than what you weigh, and you are more important than the number you see. You are a child of the living God who loves you and cares for his children, and what you accomplish for his kingdom is far more valuable than what you accomplish for your scale.

Happy Friday my friends.