The Reality of Weight Lost47 lbs LOSTso farFebruary 1, 2008 by Israel Lagares | 12 comments
Losing weight is not an easy thing to do, unless you get some sort of disease. But then that wouldn’t be healthy. Isn’t the whole point of losing weight to eventually be healthy? It is for me at least. The sooner you realize that losing weight is going to be hard, the better off you will be with your weight lost goal.
I see time and time again, people wanting to lose 50 lbs in a month, or 10 lbs in a week. That’s just not realistic. While it can be done and has been done by many, even more have failed at it. The best way to approach losing weight is to look at it like a reward to your healthy living choices. Instead of having a ridiculous goal of losing 8 lbs in a week, why not just have the goal of eating 4 healthy meals a week and incorporating 3 sessions of physical activity. That way , whatever weight you lost will just be a benefit from your newly adapted healthy choices.
Or, take for example last night. I decided to go for a run before plopping down to watch the hyped up, long over do season premier of Lost on ABC. More on that some other time. So I am out running, it’s dark, cold, and scary. The path I took is near a few lakes and in Florida you never know if a gator or a water moccasin is going to attack you. The first few minutes felt good, keep in mind I haven’t run for a few weeks since I have been biking instead. I felt a little soreness as I continued running. Once I reached the halfway point, I stopped and walked for 3 or 4 minutes. I was contemplating walking back the whole way, but that would have taken way too long. So I mustered up the strength and jogged back home in pain. Not real pain, just fighting through the desire to stop sorta pain. What did I do? Instead of looking at the long road in front of me, I focused my sight on getting through the first 4 feet in front of me. Step by step. Next thing you know, I was home.
Don’t get me wrong, making these new healthy choices is hard itself. Sticking to them is even harder. My point is that if you make smaller goals and accomplish those, then the overall picture will be easier to accomplish.
Baby steps people. Baby Steps.
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I totally agree with the idea of baby steps. In to encourage that, at Iowa Avenue I started a Take off to a Tighter Ass Challenge. By setting a goal to do a certain amount of lunges and squats daily for 2 months Tight Ass Club members add one more exercise to their arsenal, leading to healthier habits.
Good idea.
Heard something like the following today on the Nike commercial Lance Armstrong does, “remember pain is temporary and quitting lasts forever.” It reminded of this post.
Now that’s an awesome quote. Something to live by. My high school coach used to tell me that it was easier for people to quit when they didn’t work hard. Hard work makes it harder for you to quit, since you have invested so much of yourself.
I agree with you. It’s better to break up your BIG goal into smaller steps. That way it’s not so overwhelming. I always take my weight loss one day at a time.
Thats the best way to do it man, one day at a time.
With regards to with loss goals, you mention that people with goals of 8lbs a week. That is crazy. If you loose that in a week it can’t be good for you it is not healthy. like you said baby steps.
Yep, it can be done, but you need to be disciplined because for most that weight will be regained fairly fast.
Israel, I very much agree with your mindset. It is so important to get to your goal in baby steps.
Since everyone is used to quick fixes they are quickly put off if they don’t see rapid weight loss results.
Great post Israel. I think that’s why people give up too soon. They set impossible targets, then they get disappointed when they don’t achieve them.
How many pounds do you have to go now?
Exactly my point, I have half a person to go.
I used to be fat, but I am not at the moment. I am sporting 3 times a week and I don’t like to eat that much food now.That’s why I lost many pounds without any scheme or something like that.