Cool way to track your weight loss

I have no idea where this idea originated from but whoever came up with it is awesome. I've found this to be circulating around the internet lately so I thought I would share it with you guys. I personally love it!

Weight loss tips

• ALWAYS EAT BREAKFAST! If you wake up and you’re not hungry it’s probably because you ate before you went to bed (which is bad). Eating breakfast can keep you full through out the day, helping you avoid binges. It’s also bad for your metabolism to miss a meal. Good breakfast foods I eat are: oatmeal/porridge, soy milk, soy yogurt, special k cereal, fruit salad (melons, berries, banana etc), almonds, blueberries, grapefruit, muesli, raisins and I usually mix it up like today had a banana + a handful of blueberries + a handful of almonds + a glass of soy milk.

• Don’t overwhelm yourself with the weight you have to lose. Make small goals in weight loss eg. I will try and get past the first barrier and lose 5 kilos. The feeling of achieving your first goal will help you be motivated to lose more weight.

•  Don’t also overwhelm yourself sacrifices in food you’ll have to make to get there. Saying things like I’m going to have to give up all my favorite foods from tomorrow is setting yourself up for failure because it’s such a difficult thing do. Take it little steps at a time such as eating wholewheat bread once in a while instead of giving up all bread all together. 

• Fashion is the best motivation. Go shopping, look at the clothes you would love to wear someday or the stores you would like to shop at, write in a journal how it makes you feel when you see these clothes and the fact that you cannot wear them. Read this journal entry every time you’re trying to decide whether you should eat the cookies you have been eying all day or you should go for a run. 

• Another motivator is to take your time and look in your closet and look at all the clothes you detest wearing because of your size or because they cover up parts of your body, remind yourself if you put in the hard work you will never have to wear clothes like this again. One of the biggest low points for me was when I had to wear sweat pants everywhere because I could not find any jeans that we loose enough at the buckle to fit my body proportions. 

• When I’m having one of those bad days where I feel lazy and like I’m the only one in the world who has to work hard to be thin and everyone else has it easy I use these websites: http://www.howcelebritiesloseweight.com and http://www.celebrity-diets.org/. They remind me that celebrities have to work hard for their bodies to!

Weight loss tips

- With every meal try to fill half your plate with vegetables. This way you can still eat the things you normally do for dinner but you will be cutting down your portions and filling up on vegetables. 


- Keep a diary and write a list of everything you eat in a day. This will help put in perspective how much you eat in day. Trust me you may think that you don't eat that much but when you see it listed on one page it may come as a big shock.


- Carry a bottle of water with you everywhere you go. I find myself sipping on water when I'm bored, which is a good thing because it keeps me full through out the day and I'm less likely to buy a soft drink when I'm out.


- Go for a walk after dinner. When I plan to go for a walk an hour after dinner, I eat less because I'm scared to get a stitch and I know if I overeat the walk will be uncomfortable and less energetic.


- Don't weigh yourself constantly. If you weigh yourself everyday you are not going to have large results this can make you feel less motivated. Try to set a day every week to weigh in for example fridays, this way you are more likely to have a big result which will keep you motivated.


-  Since it's the beginning of a new year take a before shot of your body and put it up on your wall or on your computers desktop and try to imagine your skinny after shot any time you feel like you're lacking motivation. 


- Any form of exercise is better than none at all. We all make excuses that we have work or school etc but  finding 30 minutes a day to exercise instead of watching tv isn't that difficult to do.


- Little changes can make a world of difference for example my mum lost 5 kilos in one month by replacing her usual 2 pieces of toast with jam and butter with oatmeal instead. Oatmeal is low in calories and it keeps you fuller for longer.

How I lost weight

I have been asked so many times to tell you guys how I lost weight so here it is:

I'm a Vegan. I strongly believe in the ethical treatment of animals. Cutting meat out my diet was one of the best decisions of my life. Why? Because it limited my options of fast food and opened my eyes to whole new range of healthy foods to eat. I attribute most of my weight loss to Veganism. The documentary Earthlings opened my eyes on where meat comes from and strongly recommend it to anyone who eats meat to watch it (and it's free to watch online just follow the link). This book called Skinny Bitch is amazing! It completely motivated to change my whole lifestyle by being both informative and entertaining. For those of you who would like to become Vegan but feel it would be too extreme of a shift from their current habits I suggest becoming Vegetarian first. I was Vegetarian for a year before I became a Vegan, this made the transition easier. 

Drink 2 litres of water a day. I have two 1 litre bottles that I fill up with water every morning and make a goal to finish them both by the end of the day. This assures me that I've had my daily intake recommended by doctors and fills me up so I eat less too.

Exercise.  I exercise everyday. I go for a jog every morning, which to begin with was torture but believe it or not I now enjoy it. I started out by going for 30 minute walks everyday which turned into 1 hour walks, after 2 months I became fit enough to start jogging in intervals where I would walk for 5 min then jog for 5 min, then walk for 5 min and so fourth. Eventually my fitness had developed well enough to be able to jog for an hour continuously. I also try fit in other exercises when I'm free and mix it up so I don't get lazy or bored with it. I love doing Pilates, Yoga, Aerobics and Gym ball exercises. When I couldn't afford to go to a gym I would watch videos on youtube. Even though weight loss is 30% exercise and 70% diet I think it is still important to exercise as it will help you tone up and prevent your skin from sagging from the weight loss.

How I eat. I used to miss breakfast when I was overweight as I wasn't hungry in the mornings. I learnt on Oprah on a weight loss special that the reason I probably wasn't hungry was because I ate the night before and was still full the next day. I now eat breakfast everyday and I don't eat after 6 pm. When I was overweight I would only eat 2 big heavy meals a day, and starve the rest of the day. Now, I eat 5-6 small meals a day. Eating more frequently through-out the day helps boost your metabolism, eating small portions also helps you stay fuller so you are less likely to binge on unhealthy food. 

My advice to you: Never say you are going to start tomorrow, start TODAY. Even if it's 8 o'clock at night you should start right now. If you say you'll start tomorrow it'll just turn into a cycle and you'll never start. Stay positive! In moments of weakness remember everyone who has lost weight has had the same weak moments as you they just didn't give in to the negative thoughts, tell yourself you can do it and believe in it. 


I hope this helps you guys! Stay strong. xx