Maybe you’re thinking about losing weight and asking yourself ‘should I go on a diet?‘ In my personal experience, the answer is no. Based on what? Years of dieting that got me nowhere. So, how do I lose weight? Read on….
If it’s your first time reading this blog, thanks for checking it out. I’m Roberto, radio and television presenter, voiceover and self proclaimed weight loss guru – I once weighed over 23 stone, lost 10 of that and have kept it off for nearly 10 years! Through my own personal weight loss journey and experiences, I now want to help others lose weight and get fit. I’ve been there, I know how hard it can be but I also know that amazing, unbeatable feeling of achieving your weight loss goal. I used to love food, still do, and I had will power the size of a flee, but if I can lose weight and keep it off, you can too. I’m slowly building up the blog with tips and advice on weight loss that I wish I’d had whilst trying in vain to lose weight most of my early adult life. I’m also developing an app to help you exercise and get fit, again, based on the stuff I did to lose weight. So bookmark the blog, follow me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date with everything.
Do diets work?
Well, that depends on what your goal is. If you want to lose weight, then slowly put that weight (and possibly a little more) back on and do your body some damage at the same time, yes, diets work! If you want to lose weight and keep it off for good, then no, diets don’t work!
I was set a challenge by my grandfather when I was 15, he was concerned about my weight so bet me I couldn’t lose a stone in a month. If I succeeded, I got this amazing stereo/hifi system I’d wanted for ages. At the time I was around 15 stone, big for a 15 year old! Long story short, I dieted my butt off – ate really healthy for that month and lost the weight. I then figured now I’ve lost this weight and got the hifi, I can eat normally again, and I did. Not long after I’d lost that stone, I’d put the weight back on…and an extra half stone! Had I carried on eating well, I could’ve probably lost more weight, but Id got what I wanted, liked food WAY to much and didn’t understand how my body worked back then…plus I was 15, thought I was invincible and didn’t really care!
There are two points here really:
1) The word diet is evil. It leads you into a false sense of security. You feel great when you’ve lost the weight, can fit into that outfit and look amazing…but once you come off the diet and go back to eating normally, its game over, the weight creeps back on and brings along some extra buddies! That not only damages your confidence, but also adds extra wear and tear to your body. There’s a good chance that whilst you were ‘dieting’ you also lost some muscle (more about why that is bad in this blog post) and therefore now don’t need to eat as much food as you did before to keep your body going, and anything that’s not used by the body/muscles tends to turn to fat.
If you really want to lose weight and keep it off, don’t go on a diet but do change your eating, drinking and exercise habits for good. (I’m going to do another post about habits, pretty much everything in your life is a habit, its easy to make bad ones…and easy to make good ones, too).
2) In order to lose weight and get fit you’ve got to REALLY want to do it, for yourself. Don’t try and do it because someone wants you to, thinks you should or because people make fun of your size. That kind of motivation may last for a while but in the long run its most likely to fail because you’re not really dedicated to it. Find a motivator that is so powerful it will stop you tucking into the cookie tin when you’ve had a bad day. For me, that motivator was love. After an ex broke up with me, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror one morning whilst getting dressed and thought ‘who is ever going love something that fat, you’re going to be single forever’, I was over twenty three stone at the time! That single thought motivated me every time I didn’t feel like going to the gym, really fancied a pizza or some chocolate.
Later on this year I’m getting married to the most amazing and beautiful girl in the world, but I’m still motivated to stay fit and healthy, not by the same thought as before, obviously, but by the thought that I never want to be that size again. Through losing over ten stone, I now understand my body, have learnt so much about food, drink and exercise and enjoy staying healthy and keeping fit. If you’re really motivated to lose weight, you will, and I’m going to help by giving you the tools and knowledge that I wish Id had.
Have a think about what’s going to motivate you. Check out more of the weight loss blog posts here and lets get cracking.
For now, all the best,
Roberto
