200by40 – Weight Loss the Right Way

Don’t Be Lazy

In what could possibly something new to 200by40, I present a series of tips that have helped me change the way I feel about losing weight and keeping it off. Now I may have already said some of what you will read on the About page, but each of these posts will go a little further than that.

There’s an adage that goes something like, “Everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die.” Religious beliefs aside, that rings true for just about anything—and especially weight loss. You can’t get where you want to be without giving up something in return.

So today’s tip is simple: Don’t be lazy. I know it sounds obvious and laziness is a habit that’s terribly easy to fall into. But hopefully, by the end of this post, I will have kicked your butt out of it.

Think about it. Why do you wake up and go to work each morning? Why do you do laundry? Why do you do anything? Chances are you do those things because you either a) choose to do them or b) have to do them.

And what happens if you don’t? Bills go unpaid, clothes get dirty, things fall apart. That’s not exactly Heaven if you ask me.

When it comes to weight loss, I’ve learned that there’s no amount of carrot sticks or low-fat foods that by themselves will help you reach your goal. To realize maximum benefits, a proper diet—eating right, not following a magazine’s weight loss fad—must work in conjunction with a daily exercise routine which, if you think about it, can be of anything you choose.

Who likes to exercise? Lord knows I don’t, and there are days when I simply don’t feel like walking during lunch. If I don’t, what would I do? I’d sit at my desk for 50 minutes and not burn a single calorie. Talk about a waste of time!

But if you want to lose the weight and keep it off, you have to shift your thinking. You have to look at any kind of physical activity as forms of exercise: laundry, yard work, walking, etc. You should never think of them as being dreadful because you’ll never get them done. If you think of them as being ways to move, stretch and sweat, they instantly become alternate ways of exercising as opposed to going to the gym or whatnot. Not only that, you need to start thinking that with each move you make, whether you’re mowing the lawn or painting the walls of your bedroom, you are burning calories and are getting closer to your goal.

I’m in no way preaching that cutting the grass should replace normal exercises; I’m just offering an alternate view of what some consider arduous tasks. The reality is that you need to make daily exercise a part of your routine for life. Sure, a day off is fine now and then but in order to keep the weight off, nothing’s better than sweating off those calories on a regular basis.

To summarize today’s tip: eat less, move more. It just doesn’t get any easier than that!

By the way, I’m taking a blog break for the weekend. Hope you have a good one and keep things under control

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