What works for me?

You know what? It's been 13 weeks doing this thing and I've lost 35 lbs already...Some of you out there must think that I'm cheating by taking pills or starving myself. There's no way a person that much weight...Well, I did...

I thought it would be informative to post some of the things I am doing that I believe are keeping me down this path of weight loss. Perhaps it will set off a light bulb in your head...

1.) One of the biggest things I inadvertently did was to set myself up for a weekly weigh in on Monday at the gym. There are actually a couple of things going on here:

1a.) One, by weighing in weekly, I allow myself to not succumb to daily weight fluctuations. I also set myself up for posting a large number. Stepping on the scale and losing a 1/2 lb or 1 lb is certainly nice. Stepping on the scale and losing 3 lbs or 5 lbs really gives you a sense of accomplishment and pumps me up for the upcoming week.

1b.) Two, by weighing in at the gym, I force myself to the gym at least once a week. If I used a scale at home, I would have one less reason to hit the gym. Instead, I look forward to getting to the gym on Monday to see what the "official" scale shows.

1c.) Three, by weighing in on a Monday, I set myself up for getting my exercise in each week. If I am excited to get to the gym on Monday and put in a solid hour, I am setup to get in 2 more appearances for the rest of the week. If I miss Monday, it's a lot easier to miss Tuesday and then Wednesday, etc...Getting that first workout of the week completed first thing makes the rest of the week that much easier.

2.) Speaking of exercise, I try to put in a balanced workout each time I go. If you look back at my earlier posts, I try to blend 20 - 35 minutes of cardio, with a little ab work, and some kind of strength training (legs on time, chest / arms another). I know there are people who say that strength conditioning is the real way to lose weight, but the balanced approach has really worked for me.

3.) Staying on exercise, although I get to the gym 3x a week, I've also got a set of weights in my bedroom to knock out some arm exercises. I also have been trying to add some pushups into my routine. While I do not expressly look to do these as part of my routine, doing a quick set of arm curls, keeps my muscles on thier toes (and muscle mass = increased metabolism = weight loss).

I was going to do food, but I'll save that for another post...

Holy cow...did I just post more than once a week? What's the world coming to!