If this is the first article on OverallHealth.com you are reading you probably shouldn’t start here.  But you’re going to do what you want to anyway, so I will provide a little clarification to bring you up to speed on how you would use this list.  First, you have to decide if you need a diet or a lifestyle change.  A diet (as I use the term) is a temporary change to your lifestyle (exercise and eating habits) diets are good for losing small amounts of weight that will come back over time.  If you want to lose ten pounds because you have a reunion or event coming up, you probably need a diet; hopefully, you find one that works.  A lifestyle change (which is what most of the articles I write focus on) is a complete overhaul of what you eat and how you exercise.  A lifestyle change is required for those who are significantly overweight.  Because it’s not just enough to lose the weight- you have to lose the weight and keep it off. 

Shawn’s Ten Keys to Weight Loss are geared more toward lifestyle changes. But if you are looking to go on a diet, there are many things in here that will help you as well.

The first step to weight loss as I see it is to do a complete examination of your lifestyle.  You can read more about that here.  Once you do that you develop your plan and the rest will fall into place.

10. Visit doctor – It may sound corny, or like I’m just saying this for legal reasons, but there is a reason they tell you to always consult a physician before starting any type of diet or exercise routine.  How do you know if what you are planning to do is safe?  How do you know running a mile won’t kill you? Seriously, seeing a doctor could identify an underlying cause to your weight other than a sedentary lifestyle.  Those of you who have ever seen the Nip/Tuck episode where Ms. Clause has a hard time losing the last 30 pounds and sees the surgeon and it turns out to be a petrified baby know what I’m talking about. You always want to cover your bases and be safe.  Plus, it’s a good idea to have a physician monitor your progress.

9.  If you don’t have it you can’t eat it. – If you rid yourself of temptation it’s hard to find it (or something). I took a look at my life and found that when I was bored I would run to the kitchen and eat some chips.  Maybe reach into the cookie jar and have a few cookies, eat a candy bar.  Drink a few regular sodas- you know how I do.  But surprisingly, when I threw all of that stuff out (non-perishables to charity, of course) It was a lot easier to stick to my plan.  Because while I might really want a candy bar right now, that means I would have to put on shoes, get in the car, drive to the store, stand in line, pay for it, then drive back home and then enjoy it.  I’d rather just eat something healthy that I have here at home, thank you.

8.  Don’t deny yourself if you want it- You have to distinguish between a desire and a need, but once you do this one is a piece of cake (mmm cake).  Say you have found your plan and you are sticking to it, but somewhere along the line you start having a craving for a big ole steak (which is not included in your plan).  Experience has taught me that eventually that desire or craving will turn into a need, and when you deny yourself a need you start to look for other ways to fill it.  You may cheat a little here and there, maybe forget about it and give up completely.  You may cheat a lot, but it’s never with what you wanted in the first place which was that steak.  When what you should have done was eat that steak, enjoyed the hell out of it, then set yourself a goal for when you could have one again.  Because the steak would have been less detrimental to your plan than all the other stuff you decided to eat in its place. So I guess this one is a little more complicated than I thought but it boils down to this… if you fall off the wagon, get back on… don’t get discouraged.

7.  It’s not going to kill you- This one is really not a key, just a pet peeve that I figured I would throw in here.  On your journey to a healthier lifestyle you are going to experience many roadblocks, these can include (but are certainly not limited to) cake at a co-workers birthday celebration, Thanksgiving, Christmas, celebration dinners, etc.  We all know the person that passes on that piece of cake then announces to everyone that they are on a diet (completely stealing the spotlight from the individual celebrating their birthday). Just take the cake and eat a few bites – it’s not going to kill you and chances are it’s not that good anyway.  If it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving, come on! That’s your family and it’s time for you to spend with them.  One day is not going to kill you and one piece of food isn’t either, and in the end you’ll be a lot happier and that’s what it’s all about. Just remember to use smart portion control. One small helping of mashed potatoes should suffice—not the whole bowl!

6. Exercise and drink lots of water – Yes, it’s true, and yet no matter how many times we are told it we still don’t do it. It’s best to drink water throughout your day. Not only will this help knock out cravings, but it’s better overall for your body and its processes. You’re probably thinking of exercise as joining a gym and working out for hours. That’s not exactly what I’m saying. Exercise is anything that involves moving, and hopefully you’ll break a sweat by doing it.

5.  Look at your life and make the appropriate adjustments – YOU are the only person who is going to know if the plan you have chosen is going to work for YOU.  YOU have to look at your life, really examine it and determine what is going wrong and what is going right.   Read my Excuses and Reasons article and Plan your Lifestyle change to learn more.

4.  Sorry, I don’t own a scale.  I was at the gym once and there was this really hot chick that would spend about 15 minutes on a machine then run to the scale and weigh herself.  Then she would go to the next one and 15 minutes later she was on the scale.  We all want to see how well we are doing and I know that was an extreme example, but scales are deceitful.  Seriously, I have had days where my weight would fluctuate by ten pounds.  I used to be obsessed with that damn scale. There is no magical number you should be chasing after.  You should be following your plan and judging your success based on how you feel: How your clothes look or how much energy you have.  It’s funny to me that there are charts that you can go and pick your age then slide down to your height and there is your range of what you should weigh. Yeah, uh, last time I checked everyone was different.  I always felt so terrible that I never fell into that stupid little range- and the time that I did (I was even under the range for a while) I was pretty much a skeleton with some skin thrown on it.  You can’t tell me that professional athletes fall into these ranges of acceptable weights. No one should tell you what you should weigh, not even yourself.  If you are comfortable and happy then that’s all you need.

3.  Find Support – Whether it’s your family or your friends, a group (virtual or real) you are going to have questions.  You are going to need support.  If a friend has built a bridge and you decide you are going to build one too, do you just want to go out and build one? Maybe you should talk to your friend, see their bridge, look at their plans then go out and build yourself a better one- ask for your friends help and they’ll even help you. Overallhealth.com is a fantastic place to find support!

2.  Slow and steady wins the race – I learned this one the hard way.  In today’s world we all want it yesterday. It’s never fast enough.  Never mind that it took you 20 years of steady gaining weight- you have decided you are going to lose all that next month.  Yeah, uh, not so much.  While I will say that the heavier I was the faster the weight came off, at first I did it all wrong (way wrong) and I lost A LOT of weight WAY TOO fast. So fast, in fact that I had to have excess skin removed. I would not have had this excess skin if I would have taken my time and slowly lost weight, allowing my body time to adjust.  Now let me just tell you that there is nothing more disappointing to have lost a tremendous amount of weight only to have some disgusting skin all floppin’ around everywhere.  Seriously, I looked better fat.  Then you have to save up for the surgery, and then have the surgery.  Ok, moral of the story is lose weight slowly.

1. Do it for yourself – My favorite story here is a good friend of mine told me that if she was able to lose 30 pounds her boyfriend told her they could get engaged.  Wow? Really? I told her a way she could lose about 220 pounds instantly- by dumping him.  If you are looking to lose weight or start a healthier lifestyle, make sure YOU are doing it for YOURSELF.  If you don’t have your heart in it, there is no reason you should even begin to think about your plan.  Because it’s probably not going to work – not saying that it won’t work.  I mean if your marriage depends on you losing some weight then maybe it would.  But in my experience, you have to find your own motivation. This motivation has to come from and be for you.  Society has taught us that skinny is beautiful, and we all have an image in our head of what we would like to look like.  But there are many attractive larger people, filled with self-confidence that are happy the way they are.  If you are truly happy the way you are and the only thing impeding that happiness is an outside influence encouraging you to lose weight- trust that it’s a lot simpler to remove the outside influence.  If you decide that you want to lose weight, make sure you are doing it for yourself- because if it’s for you its much more likely that it’s going to work, and that the weight will stay off.