The Hidden Secret of Losing Weight
Many books, personal trainers and television stars say, in various fashions, all you need to do is exercise to burn calories and you will lose weight. This is true; however, people keep jumping on the bathroom scales to see how much weight they lost by exercising. One day the weight goes up and the next day the weight goes down which reaps disappointment in seeing results. There is a secret to stop this yo-yo effect which causes many people to just give up.
One day I woke up and decided to enroll in a hospital weight loss program to see what those experts have to say. The first meeting their message was: your responsibility is to create a healthy body-our responsibility is to track your progress. You develop your exercise program and do it each and every day and ignore the one thing that stops weight loss. Can you guess what the one thing is that stops us from losing weight?
The medical staff asked how many of us had a bathroom scales that we could jump on every day. I proudly raised my hand because in preparation for the class I had just purchased a bathroom scale that gave me my weight and my BMI (body mass index) and it was computerized. They said to get rid of it. I remember one of their suggestions was to take your bathroom scale and put it in the trunk of your car; hide it; give it away or ask a family member to keep it at their house.
Here’s the secret-GET RID OF YOUR SCALE! You must throw (or give) away your scale for one year so you are not distracted from your ultimate goal of creating a healthy body. This is the really important part, exercise regularly and you can measure your success in two ways: 1) feeling better and gain many healthy benefits and 2) by the inches you will be losing – your clothes will show your body changes and you are losing your unwanted fat by walking.
Everybody can lose weight for short periods of time; but, the secret is keeping the weight off over a life time. Many people will lose weight and can achieve their ideal weight; however, it will not stay off unless you are committed to a lifetime of exercise and not stop. The message is clear:
1) Start walking today
2) Get rid of your bathroom scales
3) Have a mindset that walking needs to be a lifetime activity to maintain your weight and your health
Great advice! I’m on it.
Hi Rosalie,
I have been following your blog for some time now and just wanted to say how much I enjoy it. You are so right about the bathroom scale. I too have one that tells me weight, body fat and hydration. I jump on it every morning and do just what you say. It goes up, disappointment – it goes down and I am happy. I am about 30 pounds overweight and recycle pretty much the same 5 pounds. I walk daily a minimum of 3 miles. It will be hard, but I will try to wean myself off the scale. Anyway, thanks for your blog.
I am so happy that the post on our bathroom scales helped you. The only way that was effective for me was to put them in the trunk of my car – out of site – out of mind.
I was surprised when I went to my primary doctor for my flu shot that I had lost 8 pounds…something to celebrate for the day….glad I didn’t know in advance it made my
celebration all that happier (ha). Hang in there. If you are walking 3 miles daily you should be losing inches; if not, you could be eating more than your body needs. I just cut back
25% of what I normally eat and I think that was the result of the 8 pound lost. Thanks for your comment. Happy you enjoy the blog. Let me contiually hear from you on your progress.
Best wishes and I’m proud that you are a healthy walker!