Monday, February 20, 2012

How I lost weight without a special diet

August 22 2011, 26 weeks ago today, I weighed 113,5 kg (250.2 lbs). February 20 2012, today, I weigh 84,5 kg (186.3 lbs). So how did I lose 29 kg (63.9 lbs) without a special diet?
I basically just did two things:
1. Stopped eating candy, snacks, cookies and so on. I don't eat much "fast food" so there wasn't really anything of that to stop eating.
2. Started exercising.
I have a very unhealthy relationship to candy. If I have a bag of candy I will eat until it's empty. Doesn't matter how big the bag is or how sick I feel while eating. So, that's not good.
When I say I exercise I don't mean that I go to a gym and work out for hours. I have an exercise bike in my apartment. It's right over there in front of the tv. Watching tv or even better tv-shows on dvd (to avoid the commercials) is a great way to exercise without thinking too much about it. American tv-shows have 20 (or 40), or so, minutes long episodes. British tv-shows are closer to 30 minutes.
My exercise bike has 8 resistances and in August when I started exercising I had it on the second resistance and could only do 10 minutes straight. Then I took a break for a few minutes and then did another 5 minutes. Perfect for a 20 minute episode of an American sitcom (The Big Bang Theory for example).
With time I have been able to increase the resistance (up to fifth/sixth resistance now) as well as doing more than 10 minutes at a time. Monty Python's Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, Neverwhere and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and a few others, worked well for when I started doing 20+ minutes at a time.
I have watched a few movies on dvd too. When I do watch a movie I will do a 40+ minute workout each time. Usually takes 2-4 "sittings" to finish the movie.
I haven't started with any tv-shows that has 40-minute episodes yet, but I have Firefly on dvd that I will start watching soon. Just need to get well first.
Lastly I do not exercise every day. It was 4-6 times a week in the beginning and 2-4 times a week now. Although the last few weeks I haven't done anything because I've been feeling ill.
So in conclusion if you want to lose weight and you spend 15-30 minutes watching tv every day. Get an exercise bike and work out while watching your favourite shows. It worked for me, so it might also work for you. Although I can't guarantee that it works for everyone.
My current goal is to get down under 80 kg (176.4 lbs). My ultimate goal is to stay somewhere around 75 kg (165.3 lbs).

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