How to Stick to a Weight Loss Plan
Get tips for sticking to a commitment to lose weight.
We all have our fantasy weight. Now that it’s holiday season, we all weigh about twice that. But when we hit our fantasy weight—so our story goes—we will suddenly be a chick-or-dude magnet. Life will be wonderful. We’ll get a raise at work, our house will be spotless, and we’ll own a beautiful white shag carpet that never shows wine stains. But reaching that weight isn’t easy. Eren wrote in frustrated that he’s a giant dumpling instead of a Greek God!
How to Stick to a Weight Loss Plan
Eren, I empathize with your dumplingness. I’ve never thought of myself as a dumpling, but I was shaped like an avocado for a while. We know what to do: eat fewer calories and be more active. Unfortunately, knowing and doing are two different things. We all know we need more commitment, but we so prefer convenience. Getting up every day and traipsing to the gym means stepping outside (it’s a cold, cruel world out there), moving muscles, and saddest of all, abandoning our two-pound bag of M&Ms (that’s 1kg for non-Americans).
Weight Loss Tip #1: Exercise with a Friend
One way to get yourself going is to find a friend to work out with. Even though neither of you would ever get up on your own to exercise, together you can guilt trip each other into doing those daily pull-ups. Exercise together if possible; having someone else there makes it a lot more fun. That’s one reason I use trainer Tyler. Listening to his Hollywood exploits is always entertaining as he’s forcing me to do unspeakable acts with free weights. I just keep waiting for him to show up with a new piercing, which he’ll discover after waking up in an unfamiliar Las Vegas honeymoon suite. If you and your friend want to do pull-ups or free weights from home, call each other on a speaker phone and challenge each other to see who can do more, better, faster. Just make sure to learn and use proper technique. Using bad form is a lot more effort and you don’t get good results as quickly.
Weight Loss Tip #2: Control Your Environment
Exercise is only half of the picture. The other half is Oreo ice cream cake. When you have one in the freezer, it becomes impossible to resist. You’ll be on the phone with a friend and suddenly a voice from the next room calls. “Hidey ho! It’s your ice cream cake calling. I’m so lonely and cold…and tasty and delicious.” The next thing you know, you’re covered in Oreo crumbs, guiltily licking ice cream off your fingers. Resistance is futile.
Though you can’t resist the cake in the freezer, you can sure resist buying one! With no temptation around, you can’t give in. Stop buying fattening cereals. When you see the Oreo ice cream cake in the store, look away. If someone else buys the food in your household, ask them to stop buying fattening food entirely. If they want to keep buying sweets for themselves, try a pity play. Look at them with a quivering lower lip. Let a tear drip from the corner of your eye and ask in a shaky voice, “Pretty please, stop buying Sugar-Coated Tasty-Puffs. For me?” If they still refuse, threaten to sit on them. That guarantees success. As long as you’re overweight, either they’ll take the threat seriously and stop buying sweets, or you’ll sit on them and they won’t be able to.
You can remove more than just food from your environment. Here’s a shocking suggestion: You know that TV, game console, and Internet connection you sit in front of for hours at a time? Toss it. Yes, toss it. Humans survived without TV, video games, and Internet connections for tens of thousands of years. Remove the temptation and you won’t have anything to do with your time except exercise and read books. Once you can see your abs, then, and only then, you can go to a friend’s house to watch one show a day. But you have to jog there.
Weight Loss Tip #3: Walk, Don’t Drive
Which brings me to another point: walk or bike everywhere you can. Instead of driving yourself or having someone else drive you, use transportation as a chance to exercise. In seventh grade, I used to ride my bicycle over to my teacher’s house to visit. That way, I could exercise, and suck up to authority in one easy combination.
If you want to combine exercise and meaningless social climbing based on animal brute strength, join a sports team. Don’t do a sport like football where you can use strategy and win based on brainpower. Choose an endurance team sport, like a track team or a swimming team. They’ll have regular practices that give you a regular workout, plus you’ll have teammates to help keep you motivated. Yes, they’ll give you wedgies while you’re still shaped like a dumpling, but hang in there. Once you’re shaped like a Greek God, they’ll talk about you in hushed tones of awe behind your back.
Weight Loss Tip #4: Use Absolute Rules
Lastly, commitment is easier when you give yourself absolute rules. “No candy or sugar, period.” “Every day I will get up 15 minutes early and do 20 pull-ups.” Absolute rules make decisions easy. You develop a habit that requires no thought. “Want candy? No, thank you.” “What are you doing tomorrow morning?” “Getting up and working out.” If you give yourself wiggle room, wiggle you will! Just set a firm rule and follow it. Soon your metabolism adjusts, and your “No” will be real.
Let’s recap: commitment is easier with a friend. You keep each other honest. Control your environment by removing food temptation and couch-potato distractions. Join a team endurance sport, and use absolute rules and policies to stay on course.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
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