I went to bed skinny and when I woke up, I was fat!

My biological father, David (I will go more in detail about him in an upcoming blog because he is a big part of my weight gain and loss journey!) always told me, “You didn’t put the weight on overnight, so you aren’t going to lose it overnight.” Well, he is right! How many of you can honestly say that you went to bed skinny and the next morning you woke up fat? If you can, you might wanna go see the doctor! For the majority of people, gaining weight is a whole lot easier than losing it, but neither happens overnight. Remember from a previous blog (Backwards Bank Account) 1 pound is 3500 calories. That means that even if you want to gain weight (who would want to gain weight?!) you would have to consume 3500 calories for each pound you want to gain and that won’t happen overnight!

To lose the weight 1 workout and eating right 1 day is not going to get you very far. You have to change your life style by changing the foods you eat and by adding cardio into your daily routine. The first week of doing this, you might see a big drop on the scale and then you get to dreaded week 2 and only lose 1 or 2 lbs and this is where most people jump off the boat and give up. You lost a big number the 1st week mostly due to the fact that you threw your body a curve ball and did something you aren’t use to doing. The 2nd week your body starts to adjust to the new routine causing you not to lose as much. But remember healthy weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds a week! So push past week 2 and try and spice week 3 up by doing different cardio or eating different kinds of foods. When you get to week 4, change the routine again and so on and so on every couple of weeks so that you body never gets use to the routine. This will not only keep losing weight “fun”, but it will also help you stay motivated because you are seeing either changes in your body and/or a lower number on the scale.

Another reason people give up is because they get burned out and never allow themselves to “cheat” when eating. You need to allow yourself 1 or 2 days (not in a row) off at the gym a week. You also need to be able to have 1 cheat meal a week. For me, I use to weigh in on Friday mornings so that day for lunch or dinner, I would have what I call “Fat Girl Friday” and I would eat 1 cheat meal without the side of quilt being served along with it. The big thing is, when you plan out your week of eating and cardio make sure you put “Fat Girl Friday” meal in your plan!

Remember, you didn’t put this weight on overnight so it’s not going to come off overnight! There is no magic pill, no potion, no quick fix that will last…

The 3 main ingredients to losing weight are Blood, Sweat and Tears!