Personal Hack

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Here are several ways to ensure that you live a boring meaningless sad depressing crappy life

1. Let fear control your life
   There are all kinds of fears including fear of failure, fear of success, fear of rejection, fear of change, fear of uncertainty, etc. If you let fear control your life you will just become a comfort zone zombie. How do you work on your fears? You simply make a conscious decision to gradually get out of your comfort zone.
2. Live for others validation
   Validation is just another word for acceptance. Peer pressure is easy to spot among teenagers. It’s adult version is seeking others validation or acceptance and caring what everyone thinks. Stop caring what everyone thinks.
3. Become a fan
   Every famous rock star has lots and lots of fans. Fans are usually very reactive, they are acting in reaction to the rock star’s actions. The rock star takes the action of getting on stage, and the fans react by cheering. The rock star makes news in the tabloids or magazines and the fans react by admiring him or trash-talking him.
   In the same way, often times we live our lives like fans. When we are out we are looking around at others to entertain us. Instead of creating an exciting life of our own we become fans of the people in reality tv shows. Since we don’t have anything exciting going on in our lives we gossip about others.
   Here is a quick tip to build an exciting rock star lifestyle:
   Travel more, here are some cheap flight and hotel fares to great destinations.
4. Think too much
   Being smart and intelligent is a blessing yet it can be a curse at times. One bad thing about being a smart intelligent human being is the ability to rationalize any action whether it’s good or bad. For example I’m sure you can come up with 10 reasons why you can’t follow the last tip I gave about booking a quick fun trip. I’m sure you can even give me 10 more reasons why you need to put it off. However the sad truth is that most people rationalize, and live very crappy boring lives, is that what you want? Very few people live a life without regrets. Sometimes you need to just stop thinking and start doing.
5. Stick to your little tribe
   Having close friends and a stable social circle is necessary and rewarding. However it can be limiting. In addition to staying in touch with your current friends, you should be always trying to meet new diverse people. Meeting a new people will help you learn more about yourself and develop. Every time you meet a new person it’s like seeing your reflection in the mirror. If there are things about them that you like and admire, you realize that maybe those are some strengths that you have and just need to develop more. If there are things about them you dislike, you learn more about your personal values and you might even discover some of your insecurities. Seeing your reflection in the mirror is just another way of stating that we project our strengths (as likes) and insecurities (as dislikes) onto others.
6. Have a closed mind
   We often hold on to our past perceptions and judgments. This tricks us into thinking that we are all knowing and even makes us feel a false sense of security. Sadly this will lead to a very predictable boring life. Each day will be the same routine, with the same thoughts and mostly even the same actions. Try this for a change, think of yourself as a clean slate. Approach life with the open mindedness of a child.
7. Think inside the box
   It’s interesting, I still remember a very influential English literature teacher in college who always encouraged thinking outside of the box. While he was a very passionate teacher, he failed to tell us one important thing. He didn’t tell us how to cultivate thinking outside of the box or thinking in more creative ways. According to him some people had this ability and others didn’t. An easy way to start thinking outside the box and to increase your creativity is by learning different kinds of performance arts including acting, improv or standup comedy, singing, or how to play a musical instrument. Learning performance arts will increase your creativity in every other area of your life, especially if you are a very smart logical person.
8. Be negative
   It’s easy to be negative. It helps us create more excuses to why we can’t achieve more success in our lives. Different studies have shown that most of our negative thoughts or worries never come true anyways. This is why you should cut off negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. Positivity will make you happier and more successful in the long run. Most of the very successful people that I’ve met tend to be overly optimistic and very positive. Even in the worst of situations they will still find a positive way to look at things.
9. Hate yourself
   Do you love yourself? Think carefully about this. I always thought my lifestyle was okay, maybe a bit above average but nothing too spectacular. Recently I discovered that I didn’t love myself. To love yourself you must take some time to discover what you really want out of life, and go for it. One of my personal preferences is staying sober and avoiding alcohol. There was a period where I was invited to different social events and was pressured into drinking, and after a few of those events I started developing a light depression, I even started feeling like I don’t deserve anything good in life. Once I started saying no to alcohol, or acted in line with my persona preference, I noticed I gradually started liking myself more. Ofter times loving yourself will mean putting your personal values and preferences before others. To love yourself more you need to take more actions that are in alignment with your personal values.

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Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. ~ William Feather

Perseverance, or persistent determination, is a common personal development topic, and therefore I will not be discussing perseverance in it’s traditional sense. What I will be discussing is smart perseverance. The problem with the traditional concept of perseverance is it’s vagueness. When should you persist and when should you just quit and move on? When is perseverance smart, and when is it just a waste of time?

Smart perseverance simply is a conscious persistent determination. It involves regularly evaluating each one of your goals and actions deciding whether or not you should keep going. The following tips will shed a lot more light on smart perseverance.

1. Pursue Your Heart’s True Desires.

   Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about. ~ Unknown

   A lot of the time we aren’t really going after what we want because of fear or insecurity. We end up pursuing lives that never even feel like they are truly our own, instead they are just what society and others consider appropriate. On your death bed do you want to look back on your life with regrets? This is why you must really go after what your heart desires. It can be difficult to find your hearts true desires because of social conditioning and many of society’s implied rules which you are raised with. You must approach it like an innocent young kid, who sees a world full of endless possibilities. Once you are pursuing your heart’s true desire, smart perseverance takes care of itself. You will be naturally motivated to pursue your desires.

2. Do Not Confuse the Means with the Ends

If asked, what do you want out of life? Most of us would conclude happiness. We all want to lead happy satisfying lives. However sometimes we associate the wrong things with happiness. It’s common in a capitalist society that money is associated with happiness. This is done in tv shows, the movies, and advertising. Money is necessary however it’s important to realize that it’s just a mean to an end. The problem is that a lot of people pursue making lots and lots of money as one of their goals. And once they make the money they realize that longterm money by itself never makes a person happy. Your real goal should be happiness. And once you make this clarification you will realize that there are many more means to happiness than just money. As an example building friendships with fun exciting happy people will always add to the quality of your life, and leave you feeling happier. Giving back to your community will also increase your happiness. Taking time to reflect on all of the great things that you have been blessed with in your life will also make you happier.

3. Do Not Give up Because of Laziness.
   

   Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. ~ Thomas Alva Edison

   An easy happy satisfying life is an ideal. There are no shortcuts to happiness. Life is a journey not a destination. Living a lazy easy lifestyle will never be satisfying in the longrun. In fact it usually leads to feeling a light depression. Living a happy satisfying life is hard work.

4. Do Not Give up Because of Slow or Lack of Progress.

   Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. ~ Dale Carnegie

   This will take care of itself if you are pursuing your heart’s true desires, because your desire will be so strong, that progress will become irrelevant. However there still will be times where you might become discouraged because of the slow or lack of progress. Remember that while in a movie you can see a character progress or change his whole lifestyle in a matter of 2 hours, in real life progress is much slower. This is why most people don’t stick with their goals. Aim for steady slow progress.

5. Success is Closer than You Think.
   

   Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ~ Thomas Alva Edison

   Success might just be around the corner. Even if it’s not, by persevering in pursuing your goal you are building a great lifelong habit. If you give up on your goal, how do you know that you will not give up on your next goal or the one after that? Be careful not to make giving up a habit. If you hang in there and keep working at it, you are building a persistent determined character.

6. Be Flexible & Willing to Change.

   Do not let your current identity or self image limit the pursuit of your goals. Be willing to make changes, to try new things, and to learn new skills. Be willing to look like a fool every now and then. Remember that if you keep doing the same things you will always get the same results. So to achieve a new goal you must slowly make changes and try different things.

7. Start Visualizing.
   Visualization is very powerful especially as you use it more and more. Whatever goal or endeavor you are pursuing, close your eyes and start visualizing yourself as having achieved it. Visualize how happy you feel as a result.

   If, for example, you are pursuing weight loss then visualize a thin version of yourself with your ideal weight and body shape. Visualize how lean your body looks, how well clothing fit you, how confident and happy you are with your amazing body shape. Visualize how energetic you are. Visualize becoming a lot more successful in other areas of your life because of the confidence you now have from achieving your weight loss goal.

   Daily review your goals, and visualize achieving them.

8. Add Emotions to Your Goals

   A goal is just a goal, a few words or sentences. However once you add emotions, it starts becoming part of you. Achieving that goal becomes a strong part of your character. Lets say you set the following goal “I want to lose weight”. This is a very plainly stated goal. What does it look like when you add emotions? “I want to lose weight because I’m sick of always having to buy new clothing that are a size or two bigger. I want to lose weight because I’m sick of looking in the mirror and seeing all those fat rolls.” The more emotional reasons that you come up with for why you must achieve a goal the better. You should regularly review and add to your list of reasons.

9. Regularly Review these Words of Calvin Collidge
   

   “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
   Talent will not; nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
   Genius will not; unrewarded genius is a proverb.
   Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
   Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

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Since I’ve started project weight loss I have been actively learning more about weight loss, healthy eating habits, exercising and fitness. The following 100 weight loss tips are divided into 4 sections: Get Moving, Adjust Your Eating Habits, Adjust Your Thinking, and Additional Tips. Your comments are welcome and encouraged at the end of this post, feel free to refer to any of the tips by number, or even share some of your own weight loss tips

image credit: Hamed Saber

Get Moving - 26 Weight Loss Tips

Obviously the more physical activity your body performs, the more calories it will burn. The more physical activity you do, the faster you can lose the weight.

1. Clean up your home. Cleaning up your home more often is a great way to increase your physical activity level. Organize your closets, do the laundry, donate old clothing or other stuff you no longer use, take out the garbage, or mow the lawn.
2. Use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. Maybe you can use the stairs at your work building, your school, your apartment building, multi-level shopping stores you frequent, or malls.
3. Go for a walk during your lunch break. It’s best to do this after you have eaten lunch so that your body will start digesting the food right away. Most jobs provide a long enough lunch break to grab a quick bite and go for a walk. If you are going to school, go for a walk in between classes. Try to walk for at least 10-15 minutes. Taking these short walks on a daily basis adds up.
4. Walk or bike to work. If the weather doesn’t permit, and you have to drive to work, park a few blocks from your work building, and walk those blocks.
5. Park your car farther away from your destination. When you go shopping, park your car at the far end of the parking lot, and walk across the parking lot to the store’s front doors. If you use public transportation, try getting off the bus or train a stop or two before your regular stop, and walk the difference.
6. Workout for 30 Minutes Twice a Week
7. Attend group fitness classes. Most gyms will have free (for members) or very cheap group fitness classes. These can include yoga, strength training, or cardiovascular fitness classes. These classes will always be much more fun than working out by yourself. Also try to make a friend or two in the class, this will motivate you to attend the next session at least to catch up with your new buddies.
8. Pay for a couple of personal training sessions. Personal training sessions are usually a bit expensive and that’s why they work. If you pay for personal training sessions, you will show up, no matter how lazy you are feeling.
9. Sign up for some dance classes. Salsa is a favorite of mine. There is also tango, swing and hip-hop dancing classes. Anyone can take a dance class, believe me if I did it anyone can Also keep in mind you are taking the class to increase your physical activity, so there is no pressure on how well you perform during the class. Who knows you might even learn a cool dance move or two
10. Try rock climbing. Many gyms have rock climbing walls and trainers that will teach you.
11. Go Ice Skating. Ice skating is easy to learn and is lots of fun. Ice skating is generally pretty safe and painless because when you fall you just slide down the ice.
12. Take a biking trip this weekend. Get your bike ready, and ride it for 10-15 miles. Make sure you pack enough water and small healthy snacks. Take your camera along and take a few photos to show off to your friends later
13. Go camping. Camping requires some physical activity whether you are walking around the camp site, setting up your tent, or packing your stuff. It’s also relaxing.
14. Sing up for a 5k run. This is a great way to stick to your weight loss commitment. Once you sign up, you will be a lot more motivated to go for short runs. During the run you will usually be surprised on how much you can push yourself when you have other competitive runners around you. When I did my run I was very surprised about how well I performed.
15. Ask your company to sponsor a recreational activity or league. My last company rented us a basketball court on a weekly basis during the winter and even sponsored a softball team during the spring and summer.
16. Walk your dog more often. If you don’t have a dog, this is a good reason to consider getting one
17. Jump Rope. This is a very fun way of losing weight and exercising. You can also jump rope practically anywhere even in your own house.
18. Go on a hiking trip. Hiking is a great reason to take a short weekend trip.
19. Play some Tennis or Racquetball. You should be able to find a close by gym with racquetball courts. The greatest thing about racquetball is that even if you can’t get a a friend to play with you, it’s still fun to practice by yourself.
20. Go swimming. While getting in a bathing suit might make you feel a bit insecure about your body shape, it is a great reality check and will make you want to lose the weight even more.
21. Try some home exercise videos. My favorite is Billy Blanks Tae Bo: Fat Blasting Cardio & Total Body Fat Blaster. If the weather is horrible outside or you just don’t feel like going to the gym, you can always do a home exercise video.
22. Shop for Clothing. Walking around different department stores is fun and is a great physical activity. Also trying on clothing is a great reality check. It might be be a bit uncomfortable to look in the mirror and see how clothing fit your body. However that discomfort will motivate you to lose the weight once and for all.
23. Start on some home improvement projects. Maybe you need to paint some walls, fix the roof, or buy some new furniture. Home improvement projects always requires some physical activity.
24. Listen to your favorite music. While exercising or doing other physical activity, listening to your favorite song will make the time fly.
25. Lift Weights. The more muscle you build, the more calories your body will burn. Pro weightlifters eat thousands of calories per day to maintain their muscle mass. Lifting weights and building muscles will increase the rate of your metabolism even when your body is at rest.
26. Try CrossFit. CrossFit is a great workout that is becoming more popular. It is used by many celebrities to get in shape quickly for an upcoming movie or music video.

image credit:Savannah Grandfather

Adjust Your Eating Habits - 39 Weight Loss Tips

Adjusting your eating habits is important for losing weight. Let’s face it, all those extra pounds are the result of foods that were consumed at one point or another. Starving yourself certainly doesn’t work and isn’t practical, instead here are some tips to help you eat smart and lose weight.

1. Read the Nutrition Facts food labels. This will help you separate the high calorie foods from the healthier low calorie foods. Remember to not only check the total calories but to also check the serving size and number of servings per package. Sometimes food manufacturers have a very small serving size to trick the consumer into thinking that they are buying a low calorie food. Here is a great guide that will teach you everything about the Nutrition Facts food labels.
2. Use Calorie King. It is a great tool that will help you find the number of calories in any food, even ones without a Nutrition Facts label.
3. Calculate your weight maintenance calories. This is how many calories you need to consume per day to maintain your current body weight. Once you know this number and you decrease your caloric intake by 500 calories a day, you can expect to lose 1 pound of body weight each week. Here is a great tool that will calculate your daily caloric intake for weight maintenance.
4. Try to eat 5-6 smaller meals per day instead of the traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner. Try a Breakfast, a Lunch, an afternoon snack, a dinner, and an evening snack. Eating smaller meals keeps your metabolic rate high throughout the day because your body is constantly using up energy to digest the food you are eating. Eating smaller meals will also leave you feeling lighter and more energized throughout the day.
5. Do not skip meals or starve yourself. Skipping meals or starving yourself puts your body into survival mode. This is where your metabolism slows down to conserve energy. This is why your body can survive without any food for several days. Of course when your metabolism slows down your body burns a lot less calories. Try to eat a meal or a snack every 3-4 hours.
6. Decrease your consumptions of White Carbohydrates. White carbohydrates include bread, rice, fried foods with breading, cereal and pasta. White carbs encourage weight gain, here is a great quick read to learn more about carbs.
7. Decrease your consumption of processed foods. Processed food is just another name for junk food or fast food. Processed foods tend to be high in calories and in fat content. Typically your body will just store those extra calories as extra pounds. Here is a great Junk Foods vs Whole Foods guide.
8. Eat more fruits and vegetables. They are generally low in calories and high in fiber which is why a small serving will satisfy your hunger. Fruits and vegetables are also full of vitamins and minerals.
9. Drink diet sodas instead of regular sodas. Try to only drink diet or low calorie drinks. Regular sodas have a lot of sugar and extra calories.
10. Drink lots of water. Drinking water while eating a meal, will help you get full faster and eat less. Consuming more water will also improve your skin, and cleanse your digesting system.
11. Eat slower. Savor each bite of food, and chew it slower. The slower you eat the faster you will get full. You can even try to eat half of your meal, pause from eating for 5-10 minutes and then resume eating.
12. Decrease your fast food restaurant visits. If you have to eat at one try to get a salad. Many will have grilled chicken salads. Go easy on the dressing. Check out this guide for specific healthy menu items from many of the most popular fast food chains.
13. Avoid Mindless Eating. Do not eat while watching television or surfing the web. This is Mindless eating, where you are distracted by something else and aren’t conscious of what you are eating. When you eat mindlessly you tend to eat more. If possible try to avoid doing anything else while consuming a meal.
14. Have some healthy frozen microwave dinners in your freezer. Lean Cuisine and healthy choice make many great healthy frozen dinners. They are perfect when you are in a hurry and need a quick healthy meal. Since they are quick to prepare they will help you avoid the temptation to stop by a fast food restaurant.
15. Eat sugar-free snacks. These are low calorie snacks that are sweetened with sugar substitutes. They are a great way to satisfy your sweet cravings. Two of my favorites are Sugar Free Jell-O snacks and Del Monte Sugar Free Diced Peaches fruit cups. Both these snacks are available in most grocery stores.
16. Try Philadelphia fat free cream cheese. It’s very low in calories and tastes delicious.
17. Eat more lean grilled meats. They are lower in fat and calories and pack a lot of protein which will satisfy your hunger very quickly.
18. Eat more nuts. Nuts contain healthy unsaturated fat, and are very satisfying. You should eat nuts in moderation because of their high caloric content.
19. Try light wheat bread. It’s lower in calories. My favorite is Wonder Light Wheat bread which can be found in most grocery stores.
20. Try fat free plain yogurt with real fruit. Fat free plain yogurt is available in most grocery stores, and has fewer calories. It also tastes great when you add in your own real fruit bits, and is much more nutritious than the prepackaged fruit yogurts.
21. Try fat free cottage cheese with berries. Cottage cheese is very healthy and satisfying. It tastes delicious when you mix in some blueberries or strawberries.
22. Eat baked chips instead of regular chips. All the big potato chip manufacturers now make baked chips which are lower in calories and wont leave your fingers greasy.
23. Satisfy your chocolate cravings with fat free chocolate pudding. It’s low in calories and is still delicious. Kraft makes it so it is available in most grocery stores.
24. Use non stick pan spray for cooking. It has a lot fewer calories than oil or butter.
25. Use herbs to seasons your foods. Herbs make a great replacement for high calorie dips, sauces, and salad dressings.
26. Replace butter with olive oil when cooking. This is of course if you can’t just use non stick pan spray. Olive oil is a healthy fat and contains fewer calories than butter.
27. Eat low fat ice cream instead of regular ice cream. It tastes good and has a lot fewer calories.
28. Avoid bringing unhealthy foods into your home. Try to avoid buying unhealthy foods as much as possible. Try to avoid bringing them into your home. If you feel like having an unhealthy snack, buy it in a small one serving size. Avoid buying junk food in family size or in bulk. Junk foods aren’t good for your or your family members.
29. Try these 75 healthy meal ideas
30. Prepare healthy meals in advance. Make healthy meals in bulk over the weekend and store them in your fridge or freezer. This will save you a lot of time during the weekdays. This will also make eating healthier much more convenient.
31. Eat a variety of foods. This will ensure that your body is getting all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber and amino acids it needs to function optimally. If you also eat the same couple of healthy foods/meals over and over you will get bored really quickly. Always buy and prepare a variety of healthy meals.
32. Get familiar with the food pyramid. The food pyramid teaches you how much of each food group you should consume to maintain a healthy weight.
33. Eat cheat meals. If you try to have a very strict diet, it will be very hard to maintain, this is why you should have cheat meals. Cheat meals can contain any kind of junk food you crave or really like. You should plan a cheat meal at least one day in advance. This ensures that you will not use cheat meals as an excuse to consume junk foods in moments of weakness. Also watch the portion size of your cheat meals, obviously the smaller they are the better.
34. Drink alcohol wisely. Alcoholic drinks contain a lot of empty calories that can easy turn into extra pounds. Try to limit your alcohol consumption as much as possible. At the bar it’s okay to order a diet coke or bottled water. If you are a beer drinker try drinking light beers. If you like mixed drinks try a tonic water and lime.
35. Eat junk foods in controlled small portions. If you decide to eat a junk food, maybe it’s part of your cheat meal, only eat it in a controlled small portion. If you decide to have 2 slices of pizza it’s a really bad idea to buy a whole large pizza. It will just increase the chances of you eating more than 2 slices. Instead just buy a personal sized pizza. If you decide to have a slice of cake, it’s a really bad idea to buy the whole cake. It’s better to go to a bakery or a restaurant that will sell you an individual slice.
36. Learn about Glycemic Index. Low glycemic index foods will satisfy your hunger for longer periods of time in comparison to high glycemic foods. The best low glycemic index foods are the ones with the fewest calories.
37. No mayo. Mayo is full of fat and is very high in calories. Try replacing mayo with mustard or try light mayo.
38. Bake foods that you normally eat fried. This works great for fries.
39. Read this Ethnic foods guide. If you like Chinese or Mexican food check out this guide, it’s fully of healthy ethnic foods.

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Adjust Your Thinking - 20 Weight Loss Tips

Increasing your physical activity and eating smart will help you lose weight only if you have the right mindset. If you have the wrong mindset all the weight loss tips and tricks you learn will not work.

1. Have measurable weight loss goals. I just want to look thinner isn’t a specific measurable goal because “thin” means a different number of pounds to different people. Also “thin” isn’t specific so you can’t really achieve it because you can always be a little thinner. A good goal is “I want to weigh 175 pounds” or “I want to weigh 125 pounds”. This is measurable because you can always step on the scale and see your progress. Another good goal is “I want to achieve 15% body fat”. This is also measurable because you can always measure your body fat and see your progress.
2. Make a list of why you must lose weight. Make a list of all the different pains that you feel from being overweight. After that make a list of all the pleasures you will gain from losing the weight. Take your time creating both of these lists. Update and add to these lists often. Review these lists regularly. These lists will help you stay motivated to lose all the extra weight.
3. Start now. Start working toward your weight loss goals right away. Stop reading and implement at least 1 tip from this page right away. Taking immediate action will increase your chances of sticking with your weight loss efforts. If you are serious about losing weight and are sick of all those extra pounds, stop reading, and implement 1 tip, you can always come back later and finish reading this list.
4. Track your weight loss progress daily. While stepping on the scale and checking your weight on a daily basis might sound intimidating, it is a great reality check that will certainly keep you motivated. Always use the same scale to weigh yourself. I recommend you weigh yourself in the morning right after waking up, otherwise if you weigh yourself at different times throughout the day you might get different numbers depending on when you ate your last meal and your body’s water levels. Also keep in mind that there are certain uncontrollable factors that might cause sudden weight fluctuations like getting sick, or going through the menstrual cycle for women. However if you are monitoring your weight everyday you will notice these sudden spikes and be able to diagnose them. The Tanita BC533 Body Composition Monitor is one of my favorite scales that measures both weight and body fat percentage.
5. Track your body fat percentage. Tracking your body fat percentage will help you recognize if the pounds you are losing are mostly fat or lean muscle mass. Many people lose a lot of weight yet don’t end up looking lean because they still have a high body fat percentage. Check out this article Are You Losing Fat, or Just Losing Weight? I would recommend that you measure your body fat percentage at least once a week. It’s another great way to track your progress. I recommend the Omron HBF-306C Fat Loss Monitor, it’s affordable and works great.
6. Use a Measuring Tape. Using a measuring tape is critical especially when you first start losing weight. If you are trying to lose weight, and only check the scale you might be disappointed at the slow weight loss. However if you are using a measuring tape to measure different parts of your body you will notice the inches coming off very quickly. If you don’t have a measuring tape I recommend the MyoTape Body Measuring Tape by Accufitness.
7. Record what you are eating. Try recording each food you eat and it’s caloric content at least for a whole week. This will give you an idea of how much calories you are consuming. Also record your emotions and stress level for each day. This will help you identify any emotional overeating habits you might have. Recoding your eating habits will also help you stay more focused and on track towards achieving your weight loss goal.
8. Avoid very restrictive diets and other fads. Diets don’t usually work, and even if you do lose the weight on a diet you will most likely gain it back once you get off the diet.
9. Focus on building life long healthy habits. Don’t worry so much about how fast you lose the weight now. Just focus on slowly improving your eating habits, and slowly increasing your physical activity levels. As long as you build healthy habits the weight will come off.
10. Do not lose more than 1-2 pounds per week. If you lose weight quickly you increase the chances of gaining that weight back. Losing 1-2 pounds per week ensures that you are slowly improving your eating and exercising habits, and building a healthier lifestyle. If you lose the weight slowly, you tremendously increase your chances of keeping the weight off for the rest of your life.
11. Make a public commitment. You should not make your weight loss efforts a secret no matter how ashamed you are of your current body shape or fitness level. One easy way to make the public commitment is by posting your weight loss goals and progress on your blog. Check out my Project Weight Loss commitment. If you don’t have a blog here are 33 reasons to start a blog. Another quick way to make a public commitment is by sharing your weight loss goals with family and friends. Making weight loss a public commitment makes it much harder for you to slack off. If you slack off, you will not only let yourself down, but also others who you made the commitment to.
12. Be okay with failing. Weight loss isn’t always the easiest goal to achieve. Be okay with slacking off, falling off the wagon, and then trying again. The only way to not lose weight is to give up. Don’t be hard on yourself.
13. Be patient. You can lose a lot of weight very quickly when you start implementing healthier eating and exercising habits. However as you progress the weight loss will gradually start slowing down. The hardest pounds to lose are the last 10 pounds. However these last 10 pounds will make all the difference, especially in your body’s shape and leanness.
14. Make gradual changes. Do not overload yourself and try to implement all these tips at once. This will make weight loss seem overwhelming and impossible. Instead try implementing a new tip or two every weak. This will make weight loss almost feel natural.
15. See a therapist if necessary. Maybe you have been trying to lose weight for years now without any lasting success. Maybe you overeat frequently to deal with emotional issues. Maybe you overeat to deal with stress. If you can relate to any of these symptoms you should consider seeing a therapist. There are many therapists who specialize in eating disorders which include overeating. Try at least one session and then decide whether or not it’s right for you.
16. Don’t let others distract you from your weight loss efforts. Never cave in to others requests to try this or that unhealthy food. You might think that by complying with their requests you will make them happy. You are not. While you might make your friend happy right then and there, you will feel disappointed on the inside. Overtime these disappointments will steal away your happiness. If you aren’t happy with yourself then you can never make anyone else around you, including that friend, happy. If you aren’t happy with who you are you will not even have that much value to provide to others. Lets face it, we all have our own share of problems to deal with and no one wants to be around an unhappy person who’s carrying a lot of disappointment on the inside.
17. There is no Magic Pill that will help you lose weight fast and keep it off. Check this out Hard Work or a Secret Formula?
18. If you overeat one day you can undo it, just do an extra long workout the next day or perform an extra physical activity to burn the extra calories you consumed. Don’t expect to ever have perfect eating habits. Perfection is an ideal, it’s not real.
19. Visualize a thin fit happier you. As often as you can, close your eyes, and visualize a thin version of yourself with your ideal weight and body shape. Visualize how lean your body looks, how well clothing fit you, how confident and happy you are with your amazing body shape. Visualize how energetic you are. Visualize becoming a lot more successful in other areas of your life because of the confidence you now have from achieving your weight loss goals.
20. Consider the effects of each meal. Before each meal consider the short, medium and long term effects of what you are about to eat. For example say you feel like eating junk food. In the short term it will taste great in your mouth, that will last for the duration of the meal which is probably 15-30 minutes. In the medium term, or the following few hours, you will probably start feeling sleepy, tired and wont feel like doing much. In the long term, a few years from now, if you keep eating junk food you will gain more weight, develop all kinds of health problems and will dislike yourself even more. Say you are about to eat a healthy meal, in the short term or the 15-30 minutes you eat it, it might not taste great. However in the medium term, or the next few hours, you will feel light, energized and ready to get all your work done. In the long term, or after a few years of eating healthy foods, you will be in great physical shape and will probably live a happier more satisfying life.

Additional Tips - 15 Weight Loss Tips

There are other great weight loss tips that didn’t fit into any of the previous three sections.

1. Join online weight loss support forums. Networking and communicating with others who are also trying to lose weight can be very motivating. My favorite is John Stone’s Fitness Forum. Check out the fitness journals where others who are also trying to lose weight share their progress.
2. Find an accountability buddy. You can do this by making a friend or two on a weight loss forum, and requesting that they regulary review your weight loss progress posts. You can also do this by asking a close trusted friend to check in with you on a weekly basis. Having an accountability buddy makes it much harder to slack off.
3. Take Before Photos. It can be very intimidating to take before photos, especially when you dislike your current body shape. Taking before photos is in a way a reality check, it will help you realize how much extra weight you have put on. The pain you might feel from looking at your before photos will motivate you to get your weight handled once and for all. Also once you do lose the weight, you will love having before photos to show off how many pounds you lost
4. Take a daily multivitamin, here is why
5. Adjust your sleeping habits. Try to get between 7-8 hours of sleep per day. This will ensure your body is getting enough rest to burn off the pounds you are losing. Also getting very little sleep tends to increase your hunger and cravings throughout the day.
6. Read success stories. Regularly read weight loss success stories, they will help keep you motivated and remind you that weight loss is an achievable goal.
7. Look at before and after photos. Regularly looking at weight loss before and after photos will remind you that weight loss is possible, others have done it, and you can too. If you type in “weight loss before after photos” in any search engine you will get lots of results. Here are some of my favorites:
   Flickr Weight Loss Before After Photos
   Google Images Weight Loss Before After Photos
   Weight Loss Tips Before and After Photos
8. Try weight watchers or Jenny Craig. Numerous people had success with both these programs and highly recommend them. They have been around for a long time and aren’t just some new fad diets.
9. Try Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength. This is the probably the most popular weight loss plan that actually works consistently for people who try it. I know many people who have used this book to lose the weight and keep it off.
10. Make friends with healthy fit people. Spending time with them will automatically teach you healthy eating habits. They also tend to know a lot about fitness and can give you great advice from their own experience.
11. Take some cooking classes. Becoming a better cook will enable you to cook healthier nutritious meals more often instead of being tempted to always go to restaurant for food. While you can get healthy foods at restaurants, it’s always safer to prepare your own.
12. Take a nap or a shower when feeling strong cravings. When you have really tough junk food cravings, do an activity that makes it impossible for you to eat. It’s hard to eat while taking a shower or a nap. Doing this distracting activity will give you more time to question your cravings instead of automatically giving in.
13. Set Regular Rewards for achieving weight loss hurdles. Make sure those rewards don’t involve food. For example if you have been debating whether or not to buy that really nice expensive watch, or that pricey dress, decide that you can only buy it after you lose the next 5 pounds. Rewards will keep you motivated and focused on your weight loss goal.
14. Book your next beach vacation. Say you are down to those last 10 pounds, and decide that it will probably take you another 10 weeks to lose them. Book and pay for a beach vacation that starts 10 weeks from now. This will motivate you to lose the last 10 pounds since no one wants to go to the beach and feel fat in their bathing suit. Also since you paid for the vacation you now have another great reason to lose the weight.
15. Shop for tight clothing. Go shop for clothing and buy an expensive item that is one size smaller than what you currently wear. It should be very tight fitting on your body where you currently would be too embarrassed to wear it out in public. Hang it up in your closet where you can see it on a daily basis. This will give you another great reason to lose weight.

Your comments are welcome and encouraged, feel free to refer to any of the tips by number, or even share some of your own weight loss tips

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• Project Weight Loss Days 15-30 (4)
• Project Weight Loss - Introduction (37)
• Project Weight Loss - Days 9-14 & Meal Photos (1)
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This Post is part of my Project Weight Loss and a follow up to Days 6-8.

Meal Photos and Nutritional Information

The following are photos of some of foods/meals I’ve been eating. I’ve included the nutritional information to the best of my knowledge for each food/meal.

Lowfat Cottage Cheese & Strawberry Topping
Calories: 130
Fat: 2g
Carbs: 17g
Protein: 11g

Salmon Steak Sandwich (Made with Light Wheat Bread)
Calories: 250
Fat: 5g
Carbs: 20g
Protein: 30g

Fiesta Grilled Chicken - Lean Cuisine
Calories: 250
Fat: 7g
Carbs: 27g
Protein: 19g

Fruit Salad

As you can tell I like to keep my meals nice and simple

Weight & Body Fat Percentage Check

Day 9 - 195.2 pounds - 22.8% Body Fat
Day 10 - 197.6 pounds - 22.6% Body Fat
Day 11 - 197 pounds - 22.6% Body Fat
Day 12 - 197.6 pounds - 22.8% Body Fat
Day 13 - 197 pounds - 22.5% Body Fat
Day 14 - 196 pounds - 22.1% Body Fat

I’m guessing that the slight weight gain between day 9 and day 12 is due to recovering from my mild flu. It seems that I gained back a couple of the pounds I lost too quickly on days 6-8 due to catching the flu.

The slow weight loss and the small decrease in my body fat percentage looks great for days 12-14. It indicates that I’m minimizing muscle loss and maximizing the burning of fat.

Exercise & Workouts

Days 9-10 and 13-14: I did my regular 20 minutes of cardio followed by 20 minutes of weight lifting and strength training.
Day 11-12: These were my off days, I skipped exercising

Cheat Meal

One of my cheat meals during this period was a greasy Reuben Sandwich with Fries from a nearby diner. It was delicious and satisfied my cravings for fast food. Once I was done eating it I also realized that by avoiding fast foods I’m not really missing out on much. I will still have an occasional cheat meal every couple of days since I don’t expect myself to eat 100% healthy meals for the rest of my life. Having such great expectations would require a very restrictive diet that I don’t think I can realistically live with. Occasional cheat meals also boost the body’s metabolism, because the human body requires a lot more energy to burn their high caloric content.

Thanks for your continual feedback and support if you have any related ideas or helpful weight loss advice please share in the comments section.

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• Project Weight Loss Days 15-30 (4)
• Project Weight Loss - Introduction (37)
• Project Weight Loss - Days 6-8 (0)
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• Project Weight Loss - Day 2 (3)

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison

Consistency and hard work are two of the least discussed methods for success these days. Much of today’s marketing and advertising is about selling a magic pill, a secret formula, or a newly discovered shortcut that will transform your life within a few minutes hours or days and poof you’ll reach your goal and live happily every after. Whether a company is trying to sell a weight loss product or a home-business starter kit, they are usually promising extreme success very quickly. Advertisers will also associate that extreme success with happiness and fulfillment. They will show how happy Stacy looks after she just lost 20 pounds. They wont bring up how many of her older friends are now a bit jealous of Stacy getting all the attention and prefer not to go out with her to social events. They will not tell you about how Stacy dislikes getting constantly accused by many of her relatives and friends of being way too skinny, or overhearing rumors about herself having an eating disorder. Here is a related article if you are not convinced:
You Think Making Money or Losing Weight Equals Happiness? Think Again

Success only Raises The Quality of Your Life

To clarify, I’m not saying that losing weight isn’t great, it is, in fact I’m currently doing my own weight loss challenge. Maintaining a healthy weight, being in a great shape, and regularly exercising will certainly raise the quality of your life allowing you to do and experience a lot more. However, I must add success will not solve all of your problems, in fact once you have lost the weight you will have a few new problems. The two Stacy problems I mentioned above I actually discovered from hanging out with a great friend of mine after she lost a lot of weight. I’m just clarifying that there are no shortcuts to happiness. Simply achieving a goal will make you happy momentarily, however after a little while you will want the next thing.

Always Wanting What You Don’t Have

Being stuck in this cycle of wanting one thing after the next is perfect for advertisers and marketers because guess what? They will always have something to sell you. By the way I’m really interested in advertising and marketing and think it’s great and necessary for selling a product, especially really good valuable products. For example many of the self help and personal development products that helped me grow the most had very good advertising and marketing behind them which is why I was attracted to buying them in the first place. However as a consumer I try to stay conscious of this process of always wanting what I don’t have, because it allows me to have more realistic expectations when purchasing a product. So next time a product appeals to you as a magic pill or a secret formula, pause and remember past products you have purchased because of this same appeal and how they turned out. This will help you save a lot of the time wasted in going after shortcuts and the secret forumlas. So what will you do with this free time? Consistent Hard Work.

What about the Secret Formulas that do Work?

All the so-called secrets of success will not work unless you do. - Author Unknown

Maybe you are still debating the value of hard work and can even think of a few secret formulas or magic pills that really do work. A great example is the Atkins diet. The Atkins diet is where you avoid any foods with carbohydrates and sugars. If you have tried this diet yourself you will see that it does work and you will lose weight very quickly, however you will discover that it’s very hard work after the first few days. You will constantly crave bread and pasta, and generally have a hard time finding Atkins friendly foods in social events. Even if you lose all of your excess weight on the Atkins diet, it’s very hard (if not impossible) to maintain the weight off as you are gradually reintroducing carbs to your diet. So I guess what I’m trying to convey is that even shortcuts or magic pills that do deliver what’s promised usually require some hard work.

Consistent Hard Work

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential - Liane Cordes

While consistent hard work might not sound very appealing, it is a great way to achieve fulfilling success. Hard work is always guaranteed to pay off, even if you don’t achieve your goal, consistently putting in the day to day work will help you grow a more disciplined self controlled character ready to tackle on your next big goal. Hard work is consistently doing the day to day tasks whether or not you are seeing results. Of course to be able to work hard on something you must really want it. When you make working hard one of your values you are no longer detracted by all of those things you were contemplating or thinking that would be “nice to have”, you end up going after what you really want.

Hard Work Example

Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it. - Author Unknown

The best example of hard work is a healthy approach to losing weight and keeping the pounds off. This approach will usually require that you eat more healthy foods than fast foods or sweats, however it will still give you some wiggle room. While this approach is gradual therefore slower it’s easier and therefore the chances of you maintaining it are higher. Also it will help you build healthy eating habits that you will have for life, leaving you feeling more energized every day you wake up. This approach will usually require some form of exercise, which will help you get red of your stress anyways. As you are exercising gradually you will start burning fat, and eventually building more lean muscle mass. This lean muscle mass will not only help you look better in most of your clothing, it will also decrease your chances of coming in contact with many of the disease related to being fat or overweight. Check out my Project Weight Loss

Working Smart while Working Hard

Working hard doesn’t mean having an unbalanced life where you are constantly working 10+ hour days. While some people are very passionate about their work that they enjoy working the 10+ hours that doesn’t mean that you have to. You should be trying to work smart. One way to work smart is to eliminate unnecessary tasks that are more time intensive yet provide a little or no payoff. A quick way to find out what tasks you can eliminate is to ask yourself in the morning, If I had only 2 hours to get one days worth of work done, what projects/tasks would I skip or not worry about as much? Another way to work smart is to outsource very time intensive boring tasks. A great resource about working smart is the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris where he discuses in detail many techniques for working smart.

image source: Tub Gurnard

This article is part of my Roadblocks to Success series. I will discussing more Roadblocks to Success in upcoming articles.

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