My KEY To Weight Loss Success

One time, before I ever tried to lose any weight, I remember reading an article in a magazine about a popular female celebrity at the time and what she did to maintain her figure (I've been trying to find the article now, but have had no luck).  I was blown away when I read that all she did was keep a food journal, cardio for 20 mins. a day, and then strength training 2-3 times a week. I kept looking through the magazine to see where I was missing her 2 or 3 hour long excruciating workouts, but there was nothing else! Everything I'd ever heard or seen about weight loss and maintaining it made me think there was no way possible that anyone could maintain such a body without some SERIOUS gym time! I ended up tossing the magazine aside with a "yeah right!" and never really thought about it again until MY time came to try to lose and maintain my weight.

If any of you have read my weight loss story on here, you'll find that I'm convinced that a well-balanced, low calorie diet is the KEY to losing weight. 

Both times I set out to lose weight after having my babies, it seemed like having healthy control over my calorie INTAKE was the only thing that got me there! I've tried just using exercise (in small and larger amounts) in the past, but I would always hit a plateau after 5-7 lbs.

A few months ago, my sister-in-law told me about a friend of hers who recently lost a lot of weight and looks great! She said she asked her friend what exactly she's been doing because she's very trim and toned. She figured her friend was going to the gym at least daily. She said she was extremely surprised to hear her friend say that she had simply adopted a healthier diet with smaller portions and that she'd quit running. She said she loved to run but she "ate like a horse" whenever she ran. Instead, she said she'd do small bouts of exercise reps around the house WITH her kids every day, and that was about it as far as exercise was concerned. After hearing that story, reminiscing on my own, and thinking of so many other people I know who've had weight loss success by focusing on diet and NOT exercised, I've solidified my belief that controlling your diet is KEY.

Just to be clear, I'm using the word "diet" as a noun, not a verb! I'm NOT saying, "you have to go on a diet", or "you have to diet". I'm saying you need to adopt a healthy diet. Eat clean, healthy and in reasonable portions 80% of the time!

I've been pretty frustrated lately, because I feel like so much emphasis is put on exercise when the subject of weight loss arises. I've had conversations with many people on different occasions, who say that they're frustrated because despite large amounts of exercise (even if they're watching their diet), they just can't seem to lose weight or get to the weight they want. They insist that if they don't exercise in extreme amounts, they won't lose any weight or will even gain weight. I see so many fitness blogs and pages that make you (or me anyway) feel like you have to put in hours worth of gym time to get the results they've gotten. There are infomercials up to wazoo promising an amazing body if you just buy their WORKOUT program. But what's never included in the videos and what you don't find out until you buy the product, is that they almost all come with a diet program as well. And you HAVE to follow the diet if you want the results they promise.

Like I've said, this mentality has really been frustrating me lately. Not that I'm frustrated by people who like to exercise! I REALLY wish I had the desire, drive and motivation to be an avid exerciser. It's a goal that I'm consonantly working on. It plays its own role as a key in so many other aspects of health (and we'll get to in later weeks). I'm talking about people who make the FOCUS of WEIGHT LOSS exercise, and then leave what we consume as sort of an afterthought.

I read this article recently and it put my mind at ease to see that there are the fair share of people out there who don't think exercise dominates the ways of weight loss. It seemed like everywhere I tried to look for back up on the issue only led to articles about MORE exercise! So this was refreshing for me to read! (You can get an extra point this week if you read it!)

I think the main point I'm trying to get at here is that yes, exercise is VERY important and vital for SO many aspects of health. BUT if you're wanting to LOSE weight, you won't be able to do it (or will at least only be able to get so far) without controlling what you eat! A healthy diet and controlled calorie intake is crucial when trying to lose weight.

After thinking about this for several weeks, I've realized that 7 points a week for exercise may be aiding to the mindset that you need to exercise every single day in order to see results. I don't want to be aiding the mindset I'm so frustrated with. So, from here on out, you can only earn 4 points a week for exercise. If you want to continue to exercise every day, that's completely fine, but you can only track points for 4 days of it.

I hope this doesn't throw everyone for a loop or discourage anyone. I'm still SO proud of how everyone is doing and SO motivated by you all!

On a Side Note:
Because of my strong pull toward focusing on diet, I often get a little off track when trying to figure out how much I SHOULD be exercising. As with many aspects of health, I turned to Mayo Clinic's website for the answer and feel satisfied with their advice:

• Aerobic activity. Get at least 150 minutes a week (that's 30 mins. 5X/wk) of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes a week (that's 25 mins. 3X/wk) of vigorous aerobic activity. You also can do a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. The guidelines suggest that you spread out this exercise during the course of a week.
  (Keep in mind those words MODERATE and VIGOROUS. Moderate activity would be walking, housework, yardwork, swimming, etc. Vigorous activity would be jogging/running, competitive sports, interval training, etc.)
• Strength training. Do strength training exercises at least twice a week. No specific amount of time for each strength training session is included in the guidelines.

I'm definitely no expert, but in my humble opinion, if you're doing too much more than that, you may be doing too much and you could be inhibiting your weight loss because of it.