Where to Start…

I’m frequently told by people who have a significant amount of weight to lose that the hardest part for them is getting started and more specifically that they don’t know where to start.  They also assume that since I’ve managed successfully lose a good amount of weight that I have some kind of mystical guru answer on it.  It’s a lot more simple than anything a guru would tell you.  Here it is:  Start at the beginning.  That’s it. You are where you are.  No amount of thinking, regret, self loathing or talking about it is going to get it done.

Do your homework and research, but don’t get stuck there.  Pick a plan that you can commit to stick to over the long haul.  I eat low carb.  That works for me.  Through research and then implementing a low carb eating plan into my life, I can say for certain that for me, this was the right choice.  And the more I research and continue to learn about nutrition, I can say it’s pretty clear that in general most of us could do with a whole lot less of what we call “wheat” in our diets.  For more on that topic, I highly recommend reading Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis.  But the bottom line is whatever you decide to go with… DO IT.  Sounds crazy simple.  It’s so simple it shouldn’t need to be said.  But I repeatedly have conversations with people who are stuck in “I don’t know where to start” mode.

It’s hard to make major changes.  But if you know you need to make the changes, then just go. Do it.  Here are the steps I took.

1. Know what you are doing – research/homework.  Before I started, I bought and read Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution.  It was an eye opener for me because the things he described in the book were so familiar.  The food cravings generated by simple carbs, the lack of energy, the general lack of well being were all things that I was experiencing.  Food was controlling me.  I committed to going low carb and used the Atkins model as my guide to get started.
2. Be Prepared!  This can look a lot of ways depending on your situation.  I live alone.  In some ways that’s easier. I control what food comes in and out of my house and I only have to worry about my dietary concerns. In other ways that’s harder.  I control what food comes in and out of my house and I have absolutely no accountability in that regard. No one will raise an eyebrow if I order a pizza or bring home a pie.   Whether you live alone or not though, you need to have food on hand that fits with your new way of life.  You need to have a combination of things to prepare and things that are quick and easy.  You need to have healthy “treats” to turn to if you need a snack or get hit with temptation.  If you wait until you are super hungry to figure out what to eat, there is a much higher risk of eating something you shouldn’t for a quick fix.  Yes, this step takes a little effort.  For me, it is far more effort than I ever put into eating in the past.  Guess what?  I adjusted. I got used to it.  Just suck it up and do it.  By the way if you live in a house with other people and you do the grocery shopping, then there is no rule that says you have to buy garbage for your family to eat.  The fact that they may not need to lose weight or may not have as much to lose as you do doesn’t mean that there is no health benefit to them eating.. um.. healthy.  Crazy, I know.  But if you are eating differently than they are, have a place where your food is and it’s clear that it’s your food.
3. GO!  DO IT!  Food first.   Seriously, it’s not much harder than that.  You’ve done your research, you’ve got your food.  Now do it.  Keep in mind this is my list of how I started. You may be different, but for me, getting started, I knew this had to be a new way of life or I WAS GOING TO DIE.  To that end, I knew if I did too much to fast, I’d get overwhelmed and quit.  So starting out, it was just the dietary changes.  I didn’t exercise at first.  I wanted a month or so to adjust to my new way of eating.  By week 3, I had so much energy I went ahead and joined the gym.
4. Don’t have “Cheat Days”.  This will get me some flack.  Lots of people believe cheat days are necessary to stick to any plan.  To me that’s because we program ourselves to think of healthy eating as some form of punishment.  We hold all of the food we shouldn’t be eating in some super high regard as if it’s some fabulous reward to earn from enduring the punishment of our diet.  I call BS.  Does that mean you can never eat _____________ again?  No.  Maybe you jump off plan from time to time when it’s worth it.  But to plan a day of unhealthy indulgence on a regular basis?  To me that’s like a recovering alcoholic saying “I’m only going to get out and get drunk once a week.”  Most of us who have weight problems probably have it from an unhealthy relationship with unhealthy food.  Thinking of that food as a reward or some kind of prize is part of the thinking we need to change.  Learn to love the way you eat.   There are lots of great ways to indulge and stay healthy.  Keep your reward to non food stuff like a new pair of running shoes or a new gym bag.  Your weight loss will be its own reward in many ways too because you’ll be forced to get yourself some new clothes.  Getting into jeans a size smaller is way better than a cookie.  Trust me.
5. Exercise – start slow.  Okay, so now I’ve joined the gym, I’m totally stoked and ready to go!  Then I get on the elliptical and am pretty sure after about 5 minutes I am going to have a heart attack.  I gutted it out for 10 whole minutes – at level 0 and a pace equivalent to a walk.  That was it. I was done.  I had to force myself to go to the gym that first couple of weeks.  I’d only go when no other humans were there.  It was a brutal reminder of how far I had to go.  But the fact that I was going at all was a reminder of how far I’d come.
6. Keep exercising – progressing.. and add RESISTANCE.  That 10 minutes on the elliptical turned to 15, then 20, then 30.  Soon I got brave enough to try the weight machines.  After that, a whole new world opened up to me.  I was amazed at how I felt and the mental benefit of resistance training.  I started to read more about it and discovered that there is a huge range of benefits aside from just improving strength.  My metabolism ramped up, my balance improved, my coordination improved, my stamina and endurance for cardio improved, I started feeling more focused and better able to concentrate at work,  my energy increased even beyond what it had been from eating healthy.  And yep on top of all of that I started to see hints of something under the fat… could that be??  Holy cow… muscle.  I liked pushing myself, I liked competing against myself on max weights.  Women tend to worry about “bulking up” from resistance training.  To begin with, you probably don’t have enough testosterone to ever “bulk up” without some serious effort and supplementing.  On top of that, if you are overweight, guess what, we’re already “bulked up”, sister and not in a healthy way.  So hit the weights.  If after you have lost all of your weight, you feel that you are too muscular, feel free to come find me and punch me in the face.
7. Pace yourself.  Exercise is great.  But don’t let your new energy and motivation cause you to do something ridiculous and hurt yourself.  Be realistic.  At my highest weight it would have been idiotic for me to try to run.. at all.  I did moderate and low impact cardio (bikes, elliptical, rower, some treadmill) for a year while I also did resistance to strengthen my legs.  Before I even attempted running, I lost 100 pounds and gained significant strength in my legs.  Be sensible about duration on cardio.  Build your endurance gradually.  Build your weights gradually on resistance.  And follow the rules.  Use proper form.  If it’s too much weight for you to lift and keep proper form, then it’s too much weight.  Remember your goal is overall health.. a benefit of that will be weight loss.  Hurting yourself in the process isn’t part of the plan.  Soreness is okay.  Sharp shooting pain means stop. Listen to your body.
8. No shortcuts!  A temptation as time goes on and the weight loss slows down and stalls happen is to take shortcuts.  Maybe you’ll be tempted to miss a few meals or add some kind of diet pill you found on the internet that you can’t legally buy.  Or maybe it comes in the form of pushing to ridiculous potentially injury inducing extremes on your workouts.  It takes time.  Stay the course.  Push yourself, but don’t abuse yourself.  Be healthy.  Starvation isn’t healthy.  There is no quick fix skinny pill.
9. Don’t quit.  This seems overly simplistic too.  With diets in the past, I’ve always looked forward to the point where I could succeed so I could quit.  For whatever reason it never occurred to me that going back to the way I ate before would lead to the same results it did before.  If you hit a plateau or get stalled, hang in there.  The more weight you lose, the slower it will go after awhile.  Your body needs time to adjust.  If you get discouraged, shake things up a bit, but don’t quit.  Get on the internet and find some cool new recipes.  Change up your workouts a bit.  Find ways to workout that are more fun.  Play a sport, ride a bike, do something you’ve never done before.  If you feel stuck, make changes.  Just don’t make changes back to that old way of life.

That’s pretty much it.  That’s how I started and how I keep going.  It feels good to feel good.

Holy crap that was long!