How I Plan to Lose 40lbs

There's no set schedule for this. My plan is to be 40lbs lighter by the end of 2021. I have done it before and I know the steps I need to take to do it again. It isn't easy. It wasn't easy losing it the first time. Sometimes I wish I could turn back the clock to 2018 when I was doing fairly well financially and I was in the best shape I had been in for quite a while. However, time has to pass and life has to happen. Admittedly, it was easier to stay consistent when I had a trainer, but that whole quip about life proved true and I don't have a trainer anymore. Let me backtrack to 2019 though. You can skim past this to the actual plan below if you're not interested in reading my entire spiel or you could try my workouts. I have an entire program including videos that I created in Google Classroom called Fit2BeMyself Masterminds. Join my class here. Sign up using your Google account.

A little background...

In late 2018, my personal trainer thought I had the potential to also be a trainer. He had encouraged me to follow in his footsteps to become a trainer and be profitable. At the time when I met him, he had an online fitness group as well as in-person clients and he led spin classes. His first suggestion was that he train me to become a spin instructor. But...life and other things...

I started this blog with the possibility of building a following in mind and also because I think I'm addicted to starting blogs. I started an online group and recruited a few people that I know. However, I had so many ideas and not a whole lot of guidance because the support that I was hoping to get from the person who gave me the idea in the first place...well...life...

I obtained a Group Fitness Instructor certificate and I worked diligently to come up with exercise plans for the group. I had been attending pole dancing classes for a few months and had fallen in love with it. I mostly attended the exotic dance classes called Sexify, which involved every type of dance except pole, but it kept me in shape and I couldn't get enough. Once I got the nerve to really pursue pole, I made so much progress and felt so good about myself physically and mentally. Apparently, I was being watched much closer than I thought I was because around October 2019 the owner of the dance studio asked me to become an instructor. I was beyond flattered and excited, but I had to refuse. My mother was sick and a few months away from dying. I was broke and by the time I had received this offer, I had done a 3-day stint in a psych ward. I don't have a ton of fitness fanatics in my immediate circle and the negative judgment towards pole dancing is real. 

Pole dancing and yoga were literally the things that kept me sane and when I could not participate in them the way I had become accustomed, it was just one more thing for me to mourn along with the death of my mother and literally starting my life over again from scratch in a women's transitional home. With some hard work and favor from my guardian angels, I was able to work my way through all of that and now I'm trying to reclaim my body again. 

I was an OTR Expediter for about six months. Basically, I was a truck driver except I drove a sprinter-style cargo van instead of an 18-wheeler. In those six months, I put on about 40lbs. My feet stayed swollen due to the lack of physical activity that comes from being in the driver's seat for 8-14 hours a day. My diet was terrible. Despite my efforts to try to keep foods that are not as high in calories and sugar, the ease of slipping down the fast-food rabbit hole that comes along with frequenting truck stops defeated those good intentions. Now that I'm back in the real world, I look at photos and videos of myself from just two years ago when I was at the dance studio 2-3 times a week and was trying to lead a very small group of women into better physical fitness, I miss the body that I had. Not necessarily because of how it looked, but because of how it felt. I started exercising because my weight was making it hard for me to breathe. At this point, I am at an even higher weight than I was before, so I definitely am finding moving around more difficult than it was two years ago. Now let me discuss my plan.

How to Effectively Lose 40lbs 

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and I need to renew my fitness certification, which is on the to-do list. Consult with your physician and do your research before starting any new exercise regimen. 

1. Control eating habits by not eating late at night - Some would call it intermittent fasting. I simply say, don't eat too close to bedtime. Without getting too sciency, if you eat and then go right to sleep, those calories pretty much have nowhere to go. While you are sleeping, your body goes into a fasting state. However, when you eat while you are awake, you have a chance to actually burn the calories you consume. A great way to start intermittent fasting is to stop eating at least 3-4 hours before you go to bed and delay or skip breakfast once you awake. Here's an article from the Mayo Clinic that gives some basic info about fasting -- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/intermittent-fasting/faq-20441303
2. Eat more vegetables - It seems like common sense, right? The thing is, eating more vegetables is easier said than done. There are so many fast food options, ready-made dinners, and boxed snacks. When I got settled into my current apartment, I looked in the pantry and realized that it was full of cereals, crackers, baking mixes. The refrigerator had some lean meat in it. I could count on one hand how many packages of frozen or canned vegetables I had in either place. Of course, there weren't any fresh veggies anywhere near the kitchen. It is convenient to pick up a box of something. In many cases, that box or bag of whatever will probably have a longer shelf-life and it likely tastes better due to all the added sugar and/or salt that it probably has. Make it a point to keep some frozen veggies in the freezer because those will taste better, last longer than fresh, and have more nutrients than canned. Keep a few cans of no salt added vegetables on hand in case of the apocalypse or if you don't have a lot or any freezer space. Some veggies are better than no veggies.
3. Drink at least 64oz of water every day - I remember when I was pregnant my obstetrician told me to drink half of my weight in ounces of water every day. Before I jumped into the deep end of my fitness journey, one of the first changes I made was installing a water tracking app on my phone so that I could keep up with my water intake. I'm a plus-size girl and not even on my best days did I consume half of my weight in ounces. I figured that I needed more than 64 ounces, so I set my goal at 80 ounces per day. That worked for me. I never felt dehydrated nor did I ever feel that I overdid it. On days when I had intensive workouts or the weather was very hot, I drank more water. Your water consumption should be based on your weight and I believe for a smaller person, less than 64oz will suffice. For a larger person like myself, more water is needed to stay hydrated. I know a lot of people will try to drink a gallon of water every day. I think that that's a bit excessive for most people. Here is an article from the Mayo Clinic that gives more official info about how much water you should consume.
4. Workout 3 times a week - My movement of choice is yoga. I also try to keep track of the number of steps I take by wearing my Fitbit. My intentions are to include more bodyweight exercises and use the light dumbbells that I own to help build up my muscles, which is very beneficial to overall health.
5. Keep track of my numbers - Depending on your personality, keeping track of your weight, blood pressure, etc, on a regular basis may not be very helpful. I personally find keeping up with my stats to be very useful. I happen to own a personal blood pressure monitor and a scale and as mentioned in #4, I wear a Fitbit daily. There are also a few sleep apps that exist that listen to you while you sleep and help analyze your sleep patterns. Although I can wear my Fitbit when I sleep, it's not comfortable for me to do so. Instead, I'm trying an app called Sleep Cycle, which has both free and paid options. I'm using the free version, for now, to test it out. 

None of this takes the place of visiting a doctor for regular checkups and medical advice, however, there are ways to help yourself take your health into your own hands. I'm not doing anything drastic. I am just making life changes and adjusting to both my environment and my changing body as I go through different stages of my life. As of this post, I have already lost 6lbs out of the 40. It can be done.