My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 2)

I knew a few things going into all this:

• I was eating too much
• It took me a while to put on the weight, so it would take a while to take it off
• It takes a loss of 3500 Calories to lose a pound

Armed with that knowledge, I made a few changes to my lifestyle that some might think are weight-loss secrets, but they're not. They are the truths you've known for a while that you've been refusing to accept.

First change was to actively try to eat less. Could I go to a restaurant and eat the 2/3 pound burger? Sure, easily. Did I need it? No. I could be perfectly satisfied with the 1/4 pound burger. How about ordering the small spaghetti rather than the large? Also I try to eliminate unnecessary caloric intake, like getting water with meals rather than soft drinks. Finally, I virtually eliminated red meat and fried foods. This was a very significant change in my eating habits, but continues to work well for me.

Second, I had to establish a realistic time frame for all this to happen. So a little math told me that a loss of just 500 calories per day will allow me to lose 1 pound per week. I wanted to lose 35 pounds, so allowing for a little wiggle room, I set my sights on 40 weeks for this project.

Next, I got help putting together a workout regimen using a single 30-minute personal training session per week. This was a two-fold help to me. The obvious part is that I had a professional assisting me and making sure that I was exercising properly. The other part is directly related to my own psychology. I love to perform and I hate to waste money. So by having a personal trainer track my performance, I could perform, showing how much better I was getting. At the same time, I was motivated to keep going because I don't want to just throw money down a whole and get nothing out of it.

In part 3, specifics on the fitness part.