The Ultimate Weight Loss Plan

I am a person who chronically gains wait. I've been gaining rate at a steady rate since I was 11, and now eight over 200 lbs.
While I'm lucky enough to have a large bone frame, that hides most of my bulk, I'd still like to be thinner.

I've never tried a fad diet, because I've read too much about how they don't work. Instead, I put together my own weight loss plan based on my family history and body type. I've decided to record it for you as follows. I've been on the diet for less then a week, and I've already lost four pounds.

1. Exercise
Its important to get proper exercise, but I've never been the kind of person that likes to exercise. I spread mine out over my day into bite sized, manageable amounts. Every morning, sometimes before I get dressed or shower, or sometimes during the commercial breaks on TV, I do a routine known as the 6-Pack. The routine is as follows:

Lay on your back with your knees bent. Set your hand on the back of your head, so that your elbows are out. Proceed to lift your head and shoulders off the ground, bringing you elbows together at the same time. Imagine a point just above your knees, and have your elbows on either side of that point so that they do not touch.

Then take a few quick breaths, and start lifting your head and shoulders off the ground, except this time yo should lift upwards, towards an imaginary point on the ceiling.

Make sure you lower back is flat on the ground and your stomach pressed in. Drop your hand so that they lay either flat on either side of you, or on your stomach. Keeping your legs bent and together, lift your feet a few inches off the ground.

Lay on one side, your knees bent and together, and then turn your upper body and do side sit ups. Repeat on the other side.

I started out doing ten of each of these, and just went up to fifteen. I also remember to get one other form of exercise each day besides my normal walking. I live up a large hill, and so every day that I walk up the hill, I count that as my additional exercise. On the days that I don't walk up the hill, I do a fitness video of my choice.

2. Diet
Your diet is important. I used the online calorie calculator in the links section of this blog to determine what my current calorie intake was, and how much I needed to reduce it by to loose weight. It breaks it down very nicely by how many meals a day you like to eat. I wrote it down and put it where i would see it every day, however, I don't bring a pocket calculator to every meal. I use some rough mental math to make sure I'm in the ballpark of my calorie requirement to loose weight. I don't watch what I eat so much, as long as I'm taking in the right amount of calories.

I don't try to curb my food cravings.
Instead, I made a rule for myself that I can have 4 meals a day of whatever i want, as long as it doesn't exceed my calorie requirement. When I am craving sugar or food between meals, there are several things i can do. I have some juice or raw fruit for sugar, and have salads whenever I'm hungry between meals. I am the sort of person that fidgets, and as a symptom of that, I eat nearly constantly. To curb this, I chew gum whenever I feel the need to eat but I'm not actually hungry. I like Big Red, because it has cinnamon flavoring, and lasts awhile.

Last but certainly not least, I allow myself to have a treat once a week. My treat is a social group meeting that i go to where they have free food. I let myself eat whatever I want while I'm there without worrying about my food intake. This serves to help me cope with those cravings, because i can tell myself, "Just wait for group." It also keeps my metabolism from slowing down completely. If you don't have an occasional cheater meal, then the metabolism will just slow down, and after awhile, you won't be loosing any more weight.

Finally the all important diet restrictions. I fashioned my diet restrictions based on my family history.
My grandmother has arthritis, and was put off all tomatoes and potatoes by her doctor. I use my hands ALL the time, in music, on the computer, drawing, and they do tend to get sore a lot. And so I try not to eat tomatoes or potatoes.
Lactose intolerance also runs in my family, and so I try to stay away from dairy.

I hope that my weight loss plan can be the basis for your own, if you, like me, are having trouble loosing weight.