As an educator, every summer is a great opportunity for reevaluation. Weather is great (unless you're here in Arizona), attitudes are more positive, and you can be more active on a daily basis. For myself and other professionals in education, it's time to start gearing up for the new school year. I really enjoy assessing where I am at both emotionally and physically, and I use this time to create a plan of action, and better educate myself in areas where I am lacking. This is something that regularly needs to happen, and it should be a habit. Even though I don't have kids of my own, I am still responsible for 160 children on a daily basis. I still work from 5:45 am until 5 pm nearly every day. The pieces of advice below have saved me. I am tired of people telling me I'm skinny because of my genes, or that I have a faster metabolism (big misconceptions about weight...see my blurb below). It's called planning, knowledge, and self-control.
My blurb: My boyfriend has an AMAZING blog that's going to debut next month....It is blunt as hell at times, but very helpful for people who are serious about losing weight, and contains very helpful information to educate you about health and nutrition topics--not the mass misconceptions that are being portrayed all over the internet. Stay tuned for that. :) Nothing is live yet, but it can be found at weightequation.com. So go bookmark it. :)
Anywho....Prior to creating goals....a few pieces of advice.
1.) Stop kidding yourself. Think about the reality of the situation. Are you at a healthy weight? Are you participating in behaviors that keep you from reaching goals? Knock it off!
2.) Once you have a plan, actually do it. Don't say you'll do it and then don't.....don't lie about how much your doing....don't make excuses as to why you can't do it as much as you want to. If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.
3.) Plan, plan, plan. It's in those busy or spontaneous moments that people tend to lose control. You're starving after a long day at work and you don't have anything quick to eat except potato chips and granola. NO!
What to do?
1- Evaluate yourself. You need to know your starting point to go anywhere from there. Determine your primary goal -- weight loss you say? Then go figure out what your daily calorie burn is (by identifying your basal metabolic rate + activity level), and then don't eat as much as that number says. Fact of the matter is, you need to be BELOW that number by the end of the day. The easiest calculator of them all is bmrcalculator.org. But don't lie about how active you are. Most people fall into the low category. Even when I'm on my feet 8 hours a day I categorize myself as being in the "light" category. The number provided will be for weight maintenance. If you want to lose, you need to cut calories. 3500 calories is 1 pounds. Therefore, if you cut 500 calories a day, you will lose one pound a week (500x7=3500).
You could eat pure acai, kale, quinoa, and coconut oil (supposed superfoods)... but if you eat too much...you're done for. Diets that say "you can eat as much as you want" are full of shit. They claim that because they recommend you eat low calorie foods, so therefore it is possible that you are under your calorie goal in order to lose weight. Well, that's not the case for every person, and you will be robbing yourself of a well balanced diet.
2- Track your calories. Stop making excuses. Don't be lazy about it. Until you have a well developed habit and knowledge about portion sizes and calorie contents (and you're at your goal weight), you can't afford to guess. Download Myfitnesspal on your phone, and start measuring your food. Hell, get a food scale. You might be surprised at how off you are. The calorie content is more important than what you're eating right now. I do have viewpoints on better eating habits, but that's for later.
3- Start planning. Get on pinterest, make a plan. Food prep ahead of time. It will be extremely overwhelming to do this on a daily basis. Sitting down on a weekend to plan out the week, go grocery shopping, and make your meals for 4 hours for the entire week is way easier than dealing with it every day after work when you're tired and hungry. Or when you're in a hurry running late for work in the morning.
Now, I'm off to take my body fat measurement, and make a meal plan for the next week. Ta-ta for now.
