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- Another week, another update…
- Weekly Update: March 7th
- February Highlights
- My weight loss update: Feb 29th
- 5 Tips on How to Avoid Weight Loss Plateau
- My Weight Loss Update - Feb 22nd
- Ok, Elmo Live is just going to drive me nuts (but it is cute!)
- 5 Sites that will Help You Stay Motivated
- My Weight Loss Update - Feb 15th
- Weight Loss Tip: Eat a good breakfast
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My weight loss update: Feb 29th
Ok, that time of the week again… thankfully this time I have turned things back around and heading in the right direction again, although I’ve still fallen short of my monthly goal of 4kg weight loss.
My current weight is now 128.5kg, so that’s a 2.5kg loss for the month - I’m going to have to pick up the pace more if I want to reach my 12 month goal.
I did manage to do something yesterday that I haven’t done in a long time… I actually swam a few laps of the pool! Iit’s only a 10m pool, lol, but I managed 12 laps (a bit over two laps of an Olympic sized pool) which isn’t really much, but I had a 4yo jumping on me in between each lap, so that’s something I’ll work on more over the next month.
Anyway, time to start focusing on next months goal, my theme for March will be to add in some more exercise to my day - things like swimming and kicking the soccer ball around with my kids will probably form the bulk of it at this stage, but I’ll work up the intensity where I can.
Share this article, I appreciate your support.5 Tips on How to Avoid Weight Loss Plateau
Photo by Wolfgang_Staudt
Most people have heard of the weight loss plateau - it’s that annoying little tendency for your weight loss to suddenly grind to a halt after weeks of seeing the pounds tumble away… it’s going to be a problem at some point for everyone losing weight, but fortunately there are ways to avoid getting crunched by the dreaded plateau if you start now.
Before I plunge into my tips and tricks on how to bypass the effects of the weight loss plateau it helps to understand what is going on and why it happens… so a quick little bit of scientific mumbo jumbo first.
Here are the facts - I’m going to reference one of the foremost scientific journals for this type of research… yep, that’s right - if you want to understand the how, why and what of weight loss plateaus, you need to read this article on Oprah.com… if you’re a little on the impatient side though, here’s the quick summary:
Our bodies Basal Matabolic Rate (BMR) is the energy required to keep our core bodily functions operating smoothly while at rest, and it accounts for about 60-70% of the calories you burn every day. One of the biggest factors in determining your BMR is your weight - the heavier you are, the harder everything needs to work to get the job done. This is also true for any exercise you do - swimming 10 laps of the pool doesn’t burn the same number of calories for each person, the heavier you are, the more work your body needs to do and the more calories are burnt.
So what happens when you start to lose weight? For starters, your BMR starts to drop with it - so all those fun things like breathing, pumping blood around your body and wriggling your toes no longer burn as many calories as they did a couple of weeks ago… what’s more - that walk you do every day to fulfil your exercise quota isn’t giving you as much bang for you buck as it used to either - can you see where I’m going here? If you’re burning less calories, but still sticking to the same diet, then eventually your calories in vs your calories out will start to reach an equilibrium… and when that happens, you’ve hit the weight loss plateau.
So here they are, my five tips to avoid weight loss plateau:
1. Take small steps, change one new thing each week
By making a small change to your diet or exercise each week, you’re going to offset that reduction of automatic calorie burning from the weight you lost by either eating a little less or burning a little more. It’s your choice how to do it, but make it a goal to take one small step each week.
2. Try to build your muscle mass as you lose fat
It might slow down the weight loss you see on the scales because muscle weighs more than fat, but you’ll definitely see a continuous reduction in your waistline and because your BMR is based on your overall weight, you’ll lower the effects of lost automatic calorie burning while still slimming down.
3. Mix it up a bit, vary your exercise and diet
Keeping things interesting by varying your daily routine will help keep you motivated and will also force you to continuously reassess the benefits and strategy of your diet and exercise plans. It will also help you to prevent slipping back into bad habits brought on by complacency.
4. Increase the amount and intensity of your exercise each week
Make yourself a promise that each week you’ll push yourself that little bit further and that little bit longer. That might mean something simple like extending your daily walk, or averaging a higher speed on the exercise bike… going that little bit extra each week will help to offset that reduction in BMR and keep you burning those calories.
5. Reassess your calorific requirements regularly
When you first started to lose weight, there’s a good chance you worked out how many calories you can eat each day to obtain the weight loss goals you’re seeking. A major part of that calculation factors on your current weight to work out your BMR etc. As you lose weight, that calculation is obviously going to change, so if you’re one to keep a close eye on the numbers (and as the weight loss slows down, the becomes more and more important), then you need to constantly reassess your requirements. This could be weekly, fortnightly, even monthly, but it needs to be done.
There you go, I hope that’s given you a few things to ponder - the dreaded weight loss plateau is real and is something that you will need to deal with at some stage. The sooner you start planning for it, the easier it will be to avoid and you can bypass yourself a lot of heartache.
Share this article, I appreciate your support.My Weight Loss Update - Feb 22nd
Hmmm…
You know how I said that last week I was surprised I had lost any weight? well I tried every trick I could think of today (except for holding onto the wall for support), and I’ve concluded that they don’t work!The scales ticked over at 128.9kg, I’ve actually put 0.2kg back on 
I’ve got to admit, I have strayed a little too far from the plan and these last two weeks have been pretty ordinary, and a bit demoralising when you think about how far I still have to go… it’s time to get serious and a time to take action - earlier than I planned, but necessary to get things back on track.
I’m upping the exercise a bit - going to try to get into the pool about lunch time each day, swim a few quick laps and get moving more throughout the day. My eldest son also starts Soccer in a few weeks (u5’s), he wants to get out every afternoon and kick the ball around, so I guess I’ll just have to up the intensity of our ‘training sessions’ a little 
It’s not a good sign that I probably won’t hit my 4kg goal in my first month, but there is a long way to go - I never meant for this to be a quick fix for weight loss, but hitting a wall this early was certainly not part of the plan!
Let’s see how I go this week, the forecast is for a hot weekend here (mid-30’s Celsius), so that’ll give me plenty of excuses to get in the pool and sweat a bit… should be interesting, lol.
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Ok, Elmo Live is just going to drive me nuts (but it is cute!)
Ok, I know this has nothing to do with weight loss, and it only barely scrapes into motivation which is my main focus for this week… but have you seen the new Elmo (robot?) that was demoed at the NY Toy Fair last week? This thing is absolutely incredible - I know it’s going to drive me nuts!
You see my wife (and my kids for that matter), are huge Elmo fans, and I’m sure we’ll end up getting one of these at some stage… which has me more than a little concerned for my sanity. As any parent of young kids will attest, the littlies have an amazing ability to repeat the same thing over and over and over again - movies, games - you name it (my 4yo played snakes and ladders by himself for about 3 hours straight last week… every day last week that is!), I can just see (hear) this latest Elmo already, it might be time to invest in a real good pair of noise reduction headphones I think.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, here’s the amazing little critter here:
I was going to put up a list of five new things to do with Elmo Live, but I’m still in shock and having a little trouble thinking straight… I think I might leave that one for another day.
Share this article, I appreciate your support.5 Sites that will Help You Stay Motivated
Photo by chaosinjune
Staying motivated is essential if you want to lose weight… it’s those days where you feel like you’re getting nowhere and want to give up where having sound motivation techniques and support will get you through and power on towards your next goal.
Here are five of my favourite websites that help pick you up and motivate you for success:
1. Zen Habits
Zen Habits covers everything you would want to know about achieving goals, simplifying your life and creating good habits. The Zen Habits blog has a very large following and it’s easy to see why, from it’s calming design to great content, this is one site you don’t want to miss.
Dr. Covey is the author of the acclaimed book, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People… one of the real experts as far as motivation and goal setting is concerned.
This is actually a single article rather than a whole website, but the inspirational messages here are nothing short of amazing… if you ever feel like giving up on something, you’ve got to read this first, here’s an example of what’s on offer:
Winston Churchill: failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up.” (his capitals, mind you)
4. Lifehack
Another motivational blog that focuses on productivity, getting things done and lifehacks.
The Goal Setting College is a website that focuses on Goal Setting and Motivation, they have an extensive range of articles on the subjects and is an easy place to spend a day or two reading through their great advice.
There you go, I hope you find them as useful as I have, I guarantee you’ll find some great stuff in there.
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