Tip #38 - Thomas The Tank Engine

This one is a tip from the past. Thomas the Tank Engine always said “I Think I Can, I Think I Can” when going up a hill. He always made it to the top. Trying to lose weight is no different. Weight loss is mental. You are climbing up a steep hill trying to lose weight. As long as you think like Thomas and believe in yourself, YOU WILL SUCCEED at losing weight (or whatever you set your mind to).

Tip #37 - Eating Before Bed Is Allowed

There is a common misconception that eating before bed is a bad thing. This is not true. What counts the most is how much you eat in a day or more importantly over a 7 day period of time. It is okay to eat before going to bed, just remember that it is part of your total for the week. The key is to keep the amount of food you eat in a day or a week under control. You should not really worry about when you do that eating.

Tip #36 - What to do if you do not listen to Tip #35

If you decide not to stay off the liquor when trying to lose weight there are things you can do to minimize the effect of alcohol on your weight. First of all, stay hydrated before, after and during your drinking adventure. When you come home from a night out it is ok to eat something, but make it healthy and full of protein, like nuts or whole wheat bread and peanut butter. Set out portions before you go out so you do not over eat. In the morning the first thing you must do it go to the gym. This is a must!!! Not only will it make you feel better, but you will also be burning some of what you put on the night before. Try to follow Tip #35 and limit the liquor, but if that is not entirely possible, make sure you follow this routine to help minimize the negative effects of alcohol on your weight loss.

Tip #35 - Limit The Booze

Alcohol is a problem for many reasons. First of all, alcohol has a lot of calories in it. Even a light beer has at least 100 calories, mixed drinks have many more calories. The major cause the the Freshman 15 is the introduction of alcohol in a persons diet. The other problem with alcohol is that people tend to get hungry when drunk. This leads to binge eating or uncontrolled eating. It is okay to drink socially, but if you really want to lose weight. STAY OFF THE BOOZE!!!

Tip #34 - Keep The Food Away

Keep your food cabinets and fridges away from where you hang out or do work. Having food close by when you are working is terrible because you are stressed out and it is very easy to grab the food. The same idea applies when watching TV. There is no effort involved in getting a soda or some chips, just a reach of the hand. It is best for the food to be a good size walk away from where ever you spend most of your time. This way getting food can be seen as a break and you cannot mindlessly grab food. You must decide it is time to get up and go eat.

Tip #33 - Control Your Eating Under Stress

We are all stressed at different times in our lives. This is not to mention that losing weight can be a stressful process. DO NOT let stress be an excuse to eat more. DO NOT take out your frustrations or stress on food. Eating more during stressful times is only going to make weight loss that much harder. Also, you will feel more stressed and guilty after you eat excessively.

Eating while stressed is not an easy thing to combat. My best advice is to have a bottle of water handy. Drink water when your stressed, you will feel full and drinking gives you that quick break from work that you would get from popping a chip in your mouth. Another way to combat too much eating during stress is the use of gum (sugar free of course). I chew gum all the time when I am stressed, it keeps my mouth busy, and I can take out some stress on the gum. With water and gum as alternatives, try to avoid over eating when you are particularly stressed out. MORE EATING WILL ONLY LEAD TO MORE STRESS!!!

(With all tips, if you have any advice you want to share, please post a comment.)

Tip #32 - Exercise More And More Everyday

You will not be able to go out and run a marathon the first day you hit the treadmill. It is important for you to start small and build up. The same way you cannot go full speed when you start exercising each time, you cannot start a work out routine by running for an hour on the first day. The best thing is to do a cardio work out for as long as you can (even 5 minutes if that is it). Do that for a few days to a week. After that, build up your time, adding 5 minutes every few days. You can also try mixing in different speeds and levels of cardio. By doing this, you will get a sense of accomplishment and your body will be used to working out for up to an hour in no time.

Tip #31 - Stay Away From Soda

I will admit that I have a hard time sticking to this tip. Of course, everything I say not to eat can be eaten in moderation or as a treat. Always remember, Tip #23 Moderation, Not Elimination. So what I am saying in this tip is not to stop drinking soda, but to severely limit your soda intake. If you drink regular soda, the caloric count of regular soda is extremely high. For those people who prefer diet soda, refer to my previous comments about putting chemicals in your body. Whether you are drinking empty calories or chemicals, soda is not good for you diet. Minimizing soda consumption is key to trying to lose weight.

Tip #30 - Stay Away From Processed Foods

The trans fats that I spoke so negatively of in Tip #29 are the main reason for staying away from processed foods. The other reason is that many processed foods tend to be made with more chemicals than actual food. Make sure you check the ingredients. If there are a lot of things that you have never heard of before, that food is probably a processed food and it is most likely not good for you. Again, this tip is not only for weight loss, but also for a generally healthy diet. The best foods are those that you make yourself. When you start buying pre-made foods and those that have been processed, the nutritional value goes down. Processed foods tend to included trans fats and chemicals that are harmful to your diet and your body. As a general principle, try to eat homemade and natural food as much as possible. It will help with weight loss and general nutrition.

Tip #29 - No Trans Fat

One of the main reasons why junk food is so bad for you is the fact that they contain trans fats. Trans fat shows up as partially hydrogenated fat on the ingredient list of most foods. Trans fats originated during the no fat era of weight loss. A common example of a partially hydrogenated fat is margarine. Trans fats are lower in fat than normal sources of fat but are much worse for the body. While trans fats will not necessarily hurt your weight loss, they will hinder your ultimate goal of having a healthy and nutritious diet. Most companies are realizing the harmful effects of trans fats on people and are therefore removing them from their ingredients. Many items at the grocery store contain partially hydrogenated or trans fats. Watch out for these ingredients on the labels of foods you commonly buy. These fats are horrible for your body and should be avoided at all costs, no matter if you are trying to lose weight or just live a healthy life.

Tip #28 - Say No To Junk Food

Junk food is probably the worst type of food you can eat when trying to lose weight, and in general. It is even worse than fast food. Typically, people consume junk food, like Doritos or Fritos or store bought cookies, not one piece at a time, but one handful at a time. Not only are these types of food bad for you, but also people are prone to significantly over eat junk foods. The best way to solve this problem is by substituting junk foods for whole-wheat pretzels or non-fat popcorn (like Boston brand popcorn). Always remember, even when eating snack foods, to use portion control. See Tip #19 for portion control tips for snack food. The point is that junk foods are full of empty calories, fat, and other ingredients that are harmful to your body. There is no need to consume junk food. If you must snack, choose healthy options like those listed above or even eat carrots or celery sticks. Fruits and vegetables are great substitutes for unhealthy snack foods when you are on the run or are hungry in between meals (keep baby carrots and cut up pieces of celery in bags in the refrigerator for easy grab and go snacking). Elimination of junk foods in your diet is essential to losing weight; there is just no need for all those wasteful calories.

Tip #27 - Eliminate All Fast Food

There is absolutely no reason why anyone in this world needs to eat fast food. It is some of the worst food on earth. I am talking taste and health wise. The amount of calories that one consumes while eating a fast food meal is off the charts. Below are links to McDonald's and Burger King's nutritional guides for more information on what I am referring to:
McDonald's Nutritional Information
Burger King's Nutritional Information

Aside from the health aspects, fast food just does not taste good.

I know that there are new healthy options from the fast food chains, but in all honesty, you are better off going to a deli and getting a sandwich or a salad (minus the mayo and light on the dressing). There are many ways to get quality "fast food" from super markets and delis and avoid having to eat food from the fast food chains. I have not had fast food in over 3-years; eliminating fast food from your diet is one more step towards losing weight.

Tip #26 - An Introduction To Foods

Tip #26 is less of a tip and more of an introduction. The tips and entries to follow are going to detail some foods that should and should not be part of your diet. Each day I will publish a new post on a certain food or category of foods. Along with the type of foods, I will also try to explain why each food is good or bad for your diet. I have not determined how long this series of tips will last, but while they do I hope they are helpful.

Tip #25 - Make Sure You Exercise After A Splurge

I know I am beating a dead horse on this whole splurge concept, but it is an important part of weight loss and weight maintenance. As necessary as it is to splurge and treat yourself every once in a while, you must also make up for those extra calories you are eating. Working out an extra 15-30 minutes the day after splurging easily does this. Everyone knows the days after I have treated myself, because those are the days I go on my longest runs. You must compensate for the extra caloric intake, and the best way to handle this is through extra exercise. While everyone loves a good cookie or a treat, you must make sure to work it off the next day with nothing more than a little extra exercise.

Tip #24 - COOKIES!!!

While the title sounds intriguing, this tip is not too exciting. Basically, I want to get across the point that when you are eating anything, it is only the first and the last bites of each particular food that you will remember. Whenever you are eating cookies (hence the title, because cookies was the example used when this was explained to me), it is only the first cookie and the last cookie that you will remember. Based on this logic, it only makes sense to have two cookies. I cannot stress enough how important portion control is to losing weight. This cookies tip goes along with yesterdays tip of moderation, not elimination, and the idea that it is ok to splurge every once in a while. When eating anything, especially treats, you only need to have two because your brain only remembers the first and last pieces of candy that you eat.

Tip #23 - Moderation, Not Elimination

I must give credit where credit is due. Moderation, not elimination is a core piece of advice that was given to me by my former nutritionist Lisa Bunce. She stressed the fact that you never have to remove something entirely from your diet. Just as every once in a while you are allowed to splurge, having a little desert every so often is not a bad thing. There is no need to take the things you love out of your diet. What is necessary is that you limit your consumption of the foods that are not good for you. For instance, it is ok to have a cookie or two, but there is no need to have any more than that. Or, it is fine to eat some cream soup, but you should not have a bowl of it, a cup will suffice. This all goes back to the idea of portion sizes. If you are going to treat yourself to something that is not on your diet, it is ok, but make sure you do not have too much. Always remember, while losing weight and during weight maintenance (I still follow this rule), you diet is about moderation, not elimination.

Tip #22 - Splurge Every Once In A While

As important as it is to stick to your diet, it is also important to splurge sometimes. If you get an opportunity to eat world-class food, go for it. Of course you must keep some sense of what you are eating. Just because you can splurge does not mean that you can eat as much food as you want. It just means that if your mother is making her famous New England clam chowder that she makes a few times a year it is ok to have a bowl. Your life should not revolve around your diet; your diet should work around your life. This means that for all the times you are very good at keeping your diet and watching what you eat, you are allowed to cheat every once in a while. The occasional splurge will keep you sane when trying to lose weight; the emphasis here is on occasional. I must also stress the idea of a controlled splurge. You are not allowed to have an eat fest, but bending your diet every so often is a healthy thing.

P.S. For the first few weeks and months, try not to splurge because it will be hard to get back on track. Once you have lost some weight and found a successful diet, it will be rewarding to splurge occasionally.

Tip #21 - Train Yourself To Be A Good Eater

Aside from the obvious goal of losing weight, another goal of a weight loss effort should be to train yourself to be a good eater. There are so many stories of a person losing 20 pounds and then gaining 30. Do not let this happen to you. Change your way of life forever. One way to achieve this is to avoid going on a "diet" and instead create a new healthy diet. By healthy diet I mean something that you can use for weight loss and weight maintenance. At this point, I look at a bag of chips and say I do not need to eat that. I have created a way of life and diet that I can follow for the rest of my life. It is this concept that one must harness in order to not only lose weight, but also to keep it off. By teaching yourself what is good to eat and what you should not be eating (as well as how much of everything), you will successfully change your life by never having to worry about your weight ever again. As long as you can train yourself (with the help of a weight watchers or dietician) what you should eat now and in the future, you will never again have to struggle with the weight loss problem. And that should be the ultimate goal in losing weight, to make it a one-time experience.

Tip #20 - Do Not Eat or Snack While You Are Cooking

Just as it is bad to snack on foods because you never really know how much you have eaten, it is horrible to pick at what you are cooking. If you are making dinner, you will end up eating half a meal while cooking, and then sit down and have a full dinner. Having little tastes of the food is ok, but not preferred. You lose a lot of control over how much you are eating by tasting foods while preparing dinner, and then sitting down to dinner. It is much better that you cook and then eat, as opposed to eating while cooking, and then eating the meal (there is just too much eating in that one sentence to make it good for weight loss).

Tip #19 - Separate Snack Foods Into Servings

We all live incredibly busy lives where we are constantly eating snacks on the run. Typically, if people are on the run and are hungry they will grab a bag of chips or pretzels and eat it on the go. This breeds portion control problems. The best way to handle this is to make your own packages of snacks. When opening up a fresh bag of goldfish or pretzels, count out the bag into servings and put them into Ziploc snack bags. This way, if you are in a hurry, you can grab a snack bag and you will have exactly a serving. This will eliminate over eating while snacking as well as make your cabinets a little neater. Very often, we will grab a bag of snacks and end up finishing the bag. By dividing each large bag into single serving Ziplocs, the chances of over eating are significantly reduced.

Tip #18 - Take Time To Eat Your Food

As I have always said, sometimes it is not what you eat, but how much you eat. Often times, you will eat more than your body needs before your stomach has time to figure out that it is full. The best way to avoid this is enjoy the food you eat. Take time in consuming meals. This way you will eat less because your stomach will feel full before you consume too much. A trick I like to use to help me eat slower is to chew my food 25 times before taking another bite. Another option is put down your fork and knife after each bite. Talking during a meal is also a great way to slow down your eating. There are many ways to stretch out a meal. I understand it is sometimes hard with busy schedules, but the longer you take to eat a meal, the less food it will take to make you full. And consequently the less food you will eat.

Tip #17 - Do Not Nosh

Noshing on food is probably the worst thing you can do when trying to lose weight. If you are hungry have a structured snack or meal. People who nosh end up eating way more than they are supposed to or intend to. If you are looking for something to eat, do not roam around the kitchen eating a little of this and a little of that. Take what you want to eat, sit down and eat it. If you are constantly taking a little of this and a bit of that, then you will feel like you have ate nothing when in fact you have had way too much to eat. Do not nosh on foods; if you are hungry have a meal.

Tip #16 - Only Be As Precise As You Can Be

When keeping food diaries, it is important to give a good estimate as to how much of each food you are consuming. Am I suggesting that you weigh your food? No! That to me would be a little insane. What I am saying is give your best gestimate as too how much you are eating. Look online for guidelines on how to determine what is a serving of each type of food. When keeping food diaries, be as accurate as possible in how much you eat, but by all means do not spend as much time measuring your food as you spend eating it.

Tip #15 - Portion Control

Portion control is probably the hardest part about losing weight. You are eating the right foods, yet you are still over weight. This is most likely because you are eating too much. There are a couple of ways to help control how much food you are eating. First of all, look back at your food diaries for how much of each food you ate. Also, stop taking seconds; eat what is on your plate and that is your meal. Another portion problem is created by eating meals family style, with huge containers of food sitting at the table ready to be eaten. Instead, serve each person from the kitchen so it is much harder to eat more food. Finally, use smaller plates, this way you will not be able to fit as much food on your plate and will be forced to eat less. Sometimes it is not what you eat, but how much that is preventing weight loss.

Tip #14 - Keep Food Diaries

It is important to keep a log of what you are eating especially at the very beginning of a diet or weight loss routine. Very often we find ourselves eating food and not even realizing it. Make sure that you write down EVERYTHING that you eat. If you do not, you are only cheating yourself. Do your best to estimate the quantity of the food you are eating. i.e. 3 ounces of chicken is about the size of the palm of your hand. At the end of each week, review your diaries and see where you need improvement. Remember, you always want a well balanced diet with fruits, vegetables, proteins, and all other food groups. These diaries will help in improve your diet the next week and in the weeks to come.

Tip #13 - Never Stop Eating

I talked about how you need to balance yourself and be extra strict one day if you decide to indulge during another, but strict does not mean you not allowed to eat. Anorexia is a serious disease and it will NOT help you lose weight, nor is it healthy. Your body needs food and energy to survive. No matter how hard you find losing weight is, always keep eating. What you need to do is eat the right things and exercise. These two things combined will help you lose weight. Eating no food is NOT the right way to lose weight. YOU WILL HURT YOURSELF.

Tip #12 - Forget About The Past, Think About The Future

Just as you want to leave your days of being over weight behind, you need to learn to forget about mistakes and think about how to rectify them. For instance, if you ate too much one day, make sure that you are extra strict for the rest of the week, or throw in 20 more minutes of exercise a day. I know if I splurge one day, I must exercise extra the day after. Just remember, what’s done is done. You cannot go back and eat less; you just need to figure out ways to make up for your previous splurges.

Tip #11 - The Glass Is Always Half Full

Make sure that you look at everything that happens during your weight loss from an optimistic angle. If you weigh the same two weeks in a row, do not worry, that is a good thing. You have stopped the weight gain. As long as you are not gaining weight you are ahead of the game. There is always two ways to look at a situation, always take the positive side.

Tip #10 - Don't Go Crazy Over Weighing Yourself

Tip #9 talked about the importance of measuring your weight loss and keeping track of your progress. Tip #10 is about keeping yourself sane. For your sake do not weight yourself more than twice a week. You will end up going nuts. You know if you had a good day or a bad day in terms of eating. Base your daily intake on this gut feeling and not what the scale says. If you continually are weighing yourself you will get too caught up in the number on the scale and stop thinking about the ultimate goal, losing weight and creating a healthy lifestyle. Weighing yourself too much will only hurt your progress and your feelings. Make sure to step on the scale at least once a week to know how you did for the week, but do not abuse the scale. It is there as a guide, not something to rely on everyday. And remember, I only say this for your sanity. I only weighed in once a week with the dietician (or weight watchers or Jenny Craig, whoever you decide to use) and it worked like a charm.

Tip #9 - Measurement

There are many ways to measure weight loss. A scale, the mirror and your clothes are just a few. Make sure you use as many as possible. At the beginning of your weight loss, it is important to weigh yourself in order to get a benchmark of where your weight is. Also, take note how you look in the mirror and how your clothes fit. All these things are good indications of how your weight loss is going. Sometimes you will not see results in all areas of measurement. Do not be discouraged. Weight loss works in mysterious ways, as long as you see some improvement you are on the right track. Any improvement is a plus. Be certain to have at least a scale and maybe a few other forms of measurement for weight loss. These become great motivations for losing more weight.

Tip #8 - Water

This is about as easy a tip to follow as I can give. Drink tons and tons of water. Don't drink it as a substitute for food, but nothing helps a diet more than drinking at least 8 glasses of pure water a day. I drink so much water a day I lose track. It is good to drink in order to flush toxins out of your body. Also, water is important not only for weight loss, but your body in general. A minimum of 8 glasses of water a day is optimal for weight loss and a healthy lifestyle.

Tip #7 - Get A Pedometer

The easiest way to get the needed exercise is to invest in a pedometer. A pedometer is a tiny gadget that you wear on your belt to track the number of steps you take per day. This is a device that costs no more than 20 dollars and it can be the most useful piece of exercise equipment you will ever buy. Studies show that walking 10,000 steps everyday will help you lose 1-2 pounds a week (of course, along with a healthy diet). I started using a pedometer as an exercise monitor and that way I knew how much extra physical activity I needed a day (to hear more about my pedometer stories follow the My Teenage Weight Loss link to the right). Buy a pedometer, they are cheap and it is a great way to get you on the right track to more exercise with less effort.

Tip #6 - Work Up To Exercising 5 Days A Week

In my last tip i recommended that you try to exercise 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. I will admit that this is no easy task to start doing all of the sudden. I suggest that you build up to working out about 45-60 minutes 5-6 days a week. I recommend you strive for an exercise routine that can be this intensive. A workout schedule that is 5-6 days a week and 45-60 minutes will surely garentee weight loss when paired with a balanced diet.

What you should do is work in time in your schedule to exercise for 30 minutes 3 days a week. After a few weeks add 2-3 more days, this way you are working out 5-6 days a week. As you get conforable with exercising almost everyday, then it is time to increase your physical activity per day. Do not dive into a work out routine head first, you will only get discouraged. The best thing to do is build up to a comfortable exercise regiment with the ultimate goal being 30-45 minutes of physical activity 5-6 days a week.

Tip #5 - Exercising

There is only one way to successfully lose weight, and that is with some sort of physical activity. Aside from the fact that I was eating the wrong things and had a portion control problem, my main issue was not enough exercise. I would consider my exercise to be playing baseball every once in a while with friends or any type of activity that i would partake in in gym class. But who was I kidding, I was not working out at all, I was just being a kid. I was a fat kid who was only gaining weight, the only way to stop and reverse this weight gain was with exercise.

While part of losing weight is controlling your diet, that must be combined with some sort of exercise regiment. Diet can help stop the weight gain, but the only way to lose weight is with a combination of diet and exercise. When i talk about exercise I am referring to at least 30 minutes of an elevated heart rate at least 5 times a week. With this sort of exercise and a healthy diet, your weight loss will occur.

Tip #4 - Stick With Your Weight Loss and Diet

Don’t go through the pain and struggle of losing weight or trying to lose weight if you are only going to adhere to the rules half the time or decide to only give a half hearted effort. If you are going to try and lose weight then you must commit yourself 100%. I know people who are on a diet one day and off a diet the next. Sorry, but this will never work. I have tried it in the past. If you are only dieting selectively you might as well not even diet at all because you will become extremely frustrated and you will never be successful at long terms weight loss. I know it sounds harsh, but you if you are serious about losing weight then you need to attack your weight problem seriously and that means going all out. Change your lifestyle, learn how to eat right, create an exercise routine. Weight loss is not a one-time deal; it is a lifetime commitment. If you lose some weight and then revert back to your old habits you have gotten nowhere. You will gain the weight back instantly. Losing weight has to do with changing your life for the long haul. You must decide when it is time to make this change and lose weight. I cannot stress enough that you cannot effectively lose weight until you have come to the point where you can become totally committed to losing weight, changing your lifestyle, and creating a new and improved life for yourself. Do not look at weight loss as a short-term fix to being overweight, think of losing weight as a long-term fix to your obesity.

Tip #3 – Find A Support System and Get Guidance For Losing Weight

I was very luck to be able to have two support systems throughout my weight loss process. Just having one is very important, but of course, the more the merrier.

Ever since I decided it was time to lose weight, I knew my father was with me 100% of the way. He had been through the weight loss process before and knows how difficult yet rewarding it can be. It was great having his success story as a motivation as well as having his guidance on losing weight, portion control and what to eat. My dad’s was especially helpful in the beginning, when I decided not to weigh each piece of food I ate, and not to count calories. It was great to base my portions on what my father ate. My dad provided the support and inspiration to continue trying to lose weight through adversity. My continual push to succeed ended up paying off.

My father was by far the best support system and guide available to me, but I did call upon one more person, a dietician. Lisa Bunce, my dietician, is the person I attribute to saving my life. Life more in social and psychological terms than physical terms, but do not get me wrong, if I continued to gain weight I had some serious medical problems ahead of me (for more information, see my story about my weight loss in the My Teenage Weight Loss link to the right). With my dad providing the inspiration and Lisa as my guide, I found a way to beat obesity. Could I have succeeded in maintaining a healthy diet and weight loss without a support system? Probably. But I certainly do not want to find out, and I think that the weight loss process would have been that much harder without Lisa and my dad there along the way.

I understand that not everyone can find this support as easily as I did. I encourage you to go to a Jenny Craig or a Weight Watchers. I know Curves has been great for my mother. Seek out these diet-consulting places; they can do wonders in advice and in keeping you in check. Always remember, you must weigh in every week.

As I said, my dad was very instrumental in helping me lose weight, but I think this is true not because he is my father, but because he is also my friend. Find a friend to help you lose weight, and use them as your #1 support. Lose weight with your partner, work out together, let them motivate you and vice versa. There is always strength in numbers. For example, my next goal is to run an Iron Man triathlon. The first thing I did was to call a few friends to find out if they would like to train with me. Friends are the most important people in your life. I cannot stress enough the importance of creating a support system around you in your weight loss endeavors. It will make the weight loss process that much easier and smoother.

Tip #3 is definitely a thank you to Lisa Bunce and my dad Eric. As much as they both claim that I can pull off anything I set my mind to, I would have had a hell of a time losing weight without them. Thank you Lisa and Dad, together the three of us saved my life.

Tip # 2 - Goals

It is very important that you set goals before, during, and after your weight loss. Have many different types of goals: long range, short term, easily achieved, slightly unrealistic. Make them specific. My first goal was to lose weight, that is nice, but what qualified as losing weight. I later refined that goal to losing 50 lbs and/or being at a weight healthy for my body. This was the main goal, but I also had little goals along the way:

-I wanted to lose weight every week. I never wanted to come into the dietician’s office having put on pounds.
-I wanted to fit into a smaller pant size. The best feeling in the world is going shopping for new clothes because your old ones fall off your body.
-I wanted to get into some sort of exercise routine that I enjoyed and was good at. I found running, it was incredibly successful for me.
-I wanted to beat my dad in a 5k race, or even be able to run and complete a 5k race for that matter.
-I wanted to be someone other than the fat kid at school. I wanted to have the self-confidence to ask girls out. Trust me, this all comes, but it starts with that first main goal, losing 50 lbs.

All the goals listed above are realistic, but that does not mean I don't have far fetched goals also:

-At first my goal was to run a marathon, but then I spoke to this guy who had run and Iron Man Triathlon and I decided that I had to become an Iron Man too. I'm still working on this one.

Now that is an unrealistic fantasy at this point, but that does not mean I'm not allowed to think about it and try.

The point is that you need goals so that you can achieve them. You need to see yourself succeeding in your weight loss by completing some of your goals. What kept me losing weight, even during the hard times (and there were plenty of those), was the desire to reach and surpass my goals. Just make sure that when setting goals you set all different kinds, weekly, monthly, annually. Be certain that you can achieve some of those goals in order to prove to yourself that you are moving forward in losing weight. Always remember, anything is possible if you believe in yourself you can achieve through all adversity.

Tip #1 - Lose Weight Because It Is Something YOU Want To Do

For my first tip, I think I must share what I feel is the trick to losing weight. The key to weight loss is to try and lose the weight for no other reason than because you want to. Don't try to shed the pounds because your doctor says you need to, or because your parents or friends are pressuring you. That is not to say don't let these things contribute to you deciding it is time to lose weight, but do it for the stupid reasons: you want to fit into a smaller size pant, or because you want to gain more self-confidence, or because you really want to be able to run a 5k race. All these reasons to lose weight are great, they are things that you want to do for yourself. I am just saying that in order to lose weight, you yourself must want to lose it.

I looked in the mirror and said "Aaron it is time to lose weight, you CAN be smart and good looking at the same time." I had that goal in my head from the beginning. This is not to say I was not pushed to create that goal by some of the factors like family pressure, but in the end, I wanted to lose weight for myself. I wanted to fit in the smaller pants, I wanted to look good, and I wanted to run (and beat my dad) in a 5k race. I think that is why I had so much success and was able to lose 75 lbs and achieve most of my goals.