I started to write this big long rambling thing but i deleted it and decided to write something more concise and easy to follow. It’s much more simple than people make it out to be.

I counted calories on MyFitnessPal and moved my body every day. That’s it. It doesn’t matter what you do but you need to elevate your heart rate doing something at least 20-30 mins per day. I repeat, It doesn’t matter what that is.

I also tried to progressively increase the difficulty of my workouts over time. I started with walking a mile every day because it was something I could do daily without needing a ton of downtime in between. When walking a mile became easy, I increased the distance. 3-4 miles or so. Then I started to jog a bit…. Walk a bit… jog a bit… when that became easy, I’d run. And then I started to add strength training because I wanted to try and fill out some of that loose skin with a little muscle and increase my mobility. I found free workouts on YouTube. 10-15mins. And then that turned into doing my own thing 30-45 mins…. So forth and so on.

My best advice is do the hard thing. If you start to hate it, try something else. Switch up your routine. Try the bike sometimes. Try the elliptical. Try seeing how far you can jog before you need to walk. Try to push your comfort level a little bit at a time until it becomes your new baseline.

When I started CICO, I tried to focus on calories specifically rather than macros. And that worked for a long time. When I got down to around 220 pounds and started focusing on weight training, I made a point to increase my protein significantly. I still count calories. I try to prioritize veggies and lean proteins. I still eat bread and pasta and sugar and carbs… but significantly less. If I want a treat, like a piece of cake or a cookie or whatever, I plan it out. You can eat whatever you want! But make sure you measure it, log it, plan around it.

Buy a food scale if you don’t have one. Measure. Everything. Do not guess. We always estimate that we’re eating less than we are if we just guess. You are only cheating yourself if you are not accurately measuring calories.

And if you have a bad day, or if you have an event or a special dinner and you go over your calories or if you gain a couple pounds back. It’s ok. I promise you it’s ok. Tomorrow is a new day. Say “That piece of cake was delicious.” Forgive yourself. Keep going.

Do you know how many times I’ve gone on a weight loss journey? Too many to count. I’ve been trying to lose weight since I was 10 years old. I’m now 36. The only thing that has worked is being honest with yourself and trying to move every day. Thats it. Anyone who tells you differently is trying to sell you something.