Lose weight without joining a gym - Part 2

1. Throw out all junk food out of the house. This is the most important step. If you feel hungry or have late night munchies, you will raid the fridge and your kitchen for snacks. You are less likely to pig out on grapes or apples than you are on Pringles or cookies.
2. Eat whatever you want but only have 1 helping. Subconsciously we fear that we will be hungry if we don’t eat enough so tell yourself ahead of time that if you feel hungry later you can always eat again.
3. Since you are not on a “diet” it’s far easier to follow rule #2. When me and my wife go out to a restaurant we typically split an appetizer and an entrée or an entrée and a dessert. This keep the portions small and you can enjoy more than 1 course without feeling full.
4. Walk for 30 – 45 minutes a day. If you have a dog this will be a lot easier since dogs love going for walks. Take a different route every day or every week to keep your walks from going “stale”. Walking at a slow pace, you will cover a mile in about 20-25 mins. So if you walk for 45 minutes, you have walked two miles and burned 200 calories.
5. Of course, if you don’t want to walk then find an activity that burns calories for at least 30 minutes a day. Riding a bicycle, roller blading , kayaking are activities that are fun and you can spend 30 minutes easily. The most important thing is that like/love the activity. That is the key to long term weight loss…. Being active daily with the activity that you love and enjoying the food you eat.
6. Research found that people who lose a lot of weight and kept it off , did it by walking everyday..an activity they enjoyed.
7. Have breakfast , lunch and dinner. Do not skip any meals. The best way to lose weight is by burning calories through exercise and eating a little less.
8. Drink lots of water. Your mind sometimes misinterprets lack of water as a signal to eat. So stay hydrated. You do not have to carry a bottle of water around all day. Just make sure you have two glasses of water with every meal and a glass of water before and after exercise ( walking ). So 3 meals + 1 walk = 8 glasses of water.
9. Weigh yourself on every Friday ( for e.g. ). Friday is better day because it marks the end of the work week and the weekend follows it. Weighing yourself on Friday will prepare you well for the weekend in terms of eating and exercise. If you haven’t lost as much weight, you will be less likely to binge on the weekend. Also, if you have lost weight it might also be hard for you to throw it all away by bingeing on the weekend.
10. Either way, there is a higher chance of “falling off the wagon” on the weekends since your routine breaks. Similarly it’s much easier to follow your weight loss plan on weekdays because you have a routine and work which will keep you busy.
11. When you are not busy and you are bored you are more likely to eat to kill boredom. So, get a hobby or get busy with things you enjoy on the weekends to keep the boredom away.