The Eureka Moment! – My Fat Loss Story

I wanted to write an article on fat loss to help people overcome their weight issues. However, I didn’t want the article to be one of those where I just tell you what to do. Most people know that they should diet and exercise more if they are overweight, repeating that is not going to help most people. The problem is that the right moment hasn’t arrived yet to start losing weight, or, perhaps it has, but you were unaware of it.

There are many articles on fast fat loss, fat loss diets and even fat loss 4 idiots, but I wanted to write to you about the moment three years ago when I knew that I was going to lose weight, and do so successfully.
As a teenager I was very fit, not at school (just average), but afterwards. I got into exercising in a big way, Rosemary Conley had just brought out her revolutionary hip and thigh diet and exercise programme, and I became extremely fit. Then life happened and I found myself yo-yo dieting for the rest of my life. During most of my adult life though, dieting and body shape haven’t been an issue. Until 3 years ago, when I was……

I had been to the doctors for a check up and he weighed me. I was 5ft 6 inches and weighed more than twelve stone (over 85kgs). My weight had been creeping up gradually and I was about to start to buy a size 18 size in clothes. My wardrobe already contained dress sizes from 10 to 16 and I simply did not have enough room or money to start buying a bigger size. It was at that moment that I knew that I had to lose weight. I already knew about calories and exercise from years back, so why hadn’t I begun to implement it earlier?
My Eureka moment was when I got home from the doctors and began to consider what my present weight meant for me. It tugged at a deep root within me. I realised I had been overcompensating for my weakness in maintaining a healthy weight with other things, like work and relationships. It wasn’t even like I was afraid to be naked, but I never really looked at myself in the mirror. Now I look at photos of myself on holiday in a bikini and I am shocked. I am hugely fat with plump and fleshy dangling skin covered in dimples. I was obese, but no one told me. Even the doctor wasn’t that interested; I made my mind up myself to begin to lose weight. I don’t come from a fat family and I didn’t even know anybody who is obese.
I don’t want to write about fat loss for idiots or what a fat loss diet should look like, or even give you fat loss tips. What I hope you get from reading this is that you should be looking for your own ‘Eureka moment’, which is when everything will fall into place for you. Once you start on the process of losing weight and exercising you will find it easy and enjoyable.

Start by making sure that every day is slightly better than the last. The problem lies in thinking ahead too much. There is no straight and clear path from being overweight to normal weight in one year, or even two. It is impossible to imagine a result that far into the distance.
Find out some things about weight loss in order to begin to implement change, such as your BMR (basal/resting metabolic rate). Look online and find what yours is by answering some simple questions. This is the amount of calories your body needs in order just to function day to day, without doing anything else. Things like breathing, digesting, sleeping and sitting etc. Basically, how many calories your body needs to do nothing all day.
Say for instance your BMR is 3,000; you can save calories every day by eating less and doing just 30 minutes of cardio exercise three to four times per week. Every day if you can. If you eat less and exercise just a little you could lose up to 1,600 of your BMR per day. That is about half a pound of fat. So, in say, 10 days without working too hard you could lose 5 pounds. When you are a lot overweight, achieving 10% of your goal is something that is very meaningful. Don’t worry about counting calories obsessively; this will hijack your motivation. Just do things that you feel are sort of right. This is all anybody can do. You will soon develop your own system of how to lose weight, which is personal to you. This means you will be able to sustain it over a long period of time.

Don’t worry either about using the ‘right’ fat loss workout, there isn’t one. Only the right one for you. Check out some exercises you can do at home, doing vigorous housework, cycling to the shops or walking more places.
10 pounds of weight loss equals 2 dress sizes. Change the way you eat. Eat smaller meals throughout the day that are low in fat and sugar and have around 200 calories. Beware of reduced fat products; they are usually very high in sugar in order to make up for the fat loss. Simply choose items with more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats than saturated. Put together a meal plan for just one week and go with that. You won’t have to think on your feet. Make sure you have breakfast in the morning in order to kick-start your metabolism. If your metabolism hasn’t been started in the morning then it will remain sluggish until you do eat and will burn fewer calories. Eating in the morning wakes up your system and you begin burning calories immediately. Your biggest meals should be no more than what you could fit in both cupped hands. Fill up with vegetable and fruit. Always eat fruit before a meal or snack though, not afterwards as fruit is digested quickly, you don’t want it producing lots of gases lying on top of your meal.
If you go to the gym use the bike and read at the same time to alleviate boredom. Listen to an ipod or phone friends when you are out walking or doing the housework. I always do housework with my ipod on, I can sing as loud as I want and no one can hear as I have the hoover on. Get the family involved in walking or cycling.
Use a heart rate monitor so you stay in your aerobic zone while exercising. Your aerobic zone is lower than your maximum heart rate. You can find out what this is on the Internet, again by simply answering a few questions. By using a heart rate monitor you can see how many calories you are burning up while you are exercising and having fun! It will help your motivation enormously and you will think up lots of new and interesting ways of exercising too. Just 30 minutes of exercise in your aerobic zone will burn fat fast!

If you decide to join a gym (useful in bad weather) join in with the body pump classes or ask someone how to use the machines in the gym. Weightlifting burns loads of fat and in a class can be very enjoyable. You cannot leave as there are others there, and hopefully the trainer will be fun and play good music. You don’t need fat loss supplements or fancy weight loss programmes. There is no final phase fat loss, you just keep going.
Don’t obsess too much about your ‘diet’ and don’t mention it too much to your friends, you don’t want them reminding you of it all the time. Just stick to it for 20 days in order to experiment and leave the rest to biology.
Once you have done the 20 days its time you deserve a treat. Just because you are losing weight doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the things you like to eat the most. I have a day; around every 10 days where I just eat the things I enjoy the most, which is chocolate and sweets. I buy my favourite chocolate items and sweets (I make sure I buy dark chocolate where possible, as this is much healthier) and I go home and pig out. I know just how much I can eat without feeling sick. Make sure you have a normal breakfast and don’t eat sweet things too late in the evening as you wont’ be able to sleep due to all the sugar. You’ll feel dreadful the next morning and will want extra sugar to wake you up.
You don’t even need to feel guilty or pig out in private, secretively anymore. It will do you no harm for just one day and you won’t even put on any weight. Over the last 20 days your metabolism will have evened out due to it getting used to your reduced food intake and exercise. When you pig out for a day on treats your metabolism spikes and you will quickly burn off the excess calories. You are in fact, asking your metabolism to work a bit faster for a while. You will most probably get rid of all the excess food the next day in the bathroom!

Every 10 days is something to look forward to, I put it on my calendar and sometimes count off the days! You don’t have to pig out on chocolate and sweets; it can be simple like going out for a meal and not watching what or how much you eat. You will find that because you aren’t depriving yourself of the things you love to eat that you probably won’t want to eat that much anyway. You can have whatever you want every 10 days, (and it comes round very quickly). You will feel less guilty and will stop getting those massive cravings for forbidden food, as nothing is really that forbidden.
When you go for meals out at friends try to make it on your 10th day or if not, just eat what you would normally eat (the amount you can eat with your hands cupped). I did this religiously at friends and even on meals out. They always give you too much as I just tell everyone that I’m full and even though it was lovely I feel sick if I continue.
This is the same advice I’m going to follow in order to get back into eating well and running again. I’m always looking to the future, imagining myself fit and healthy again and also thin once more. It saps motivation like nothing else when you look into the future, as it’s too big a distance to cover. One day at a time is how it should happen and watch out for your ‘Eureka moment!’