51 Ways to Lose 25 Pounds
Speed up your weight loss results with these awesome 51 strategies:
1. Prioritize Exercise
Exercise, whether it’s running, weight lifting, cycling, you name it, is the backbone of an effective weight loss plan. However, for the exercise to be part and parcel of your life, you gonna have to prioritize it; otherwise, you will be skipping the workouts, achieving no consistency.
Therefore, you have to find what type of exercise works the best for your lifestyle, then stick to it by committing to work out at least three to four times a week.
Action Step
Put your runs and workouts in your datebook and schedule them the way you schedule an important work meeting or family event. Give your training schedule the priority and the urgency it calls for, and you will achieve staggering consistency.
2. Develop Healthy Habits
When it comes to losing weight and keeping it off for good, building long-life healthy habits is the way to go. Sustained weight loss is all about building and developing healthier habits. They are the backbone of optimum fitness and health.
However, changing habits is tricky, and trying to change them all overnight is the recipe for failure.
Action Step
Don’t try to change your life overnight. Instead, adopt the gradual approach by changing one habit at a time.
Here are 3 simple steps to follow:
- Start small and set clear and concise rules for a set habit.
- Build a ritual around the new habit,
- Then stick to the ritual for at least a month.
That’s enough time for it to turn into a habit and become a part of your new lifestyle.
For example, if you‘d like to eat more vegetables, then add at least three different veggies to your menu each day.
3. Run your Butt Off
Running is one of the best exercises that can help you lose weight and keep it off for good. In fact, I got into running because I was overweight and wanted to slip down and get into a better shape.
I started running for 15- to 20-minute three times a week, and along with some dietary changes, I lost more than 30 pounds in 3 months and had tons of energy and vitality. Not bad.
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| Image Credit – Serinletici Com through Flickr |
4. Lift Weights
I love running and can talk about the subject all day long. But when it comes to losing weight, running is just one exercise among many. To speed up your weight loss effort, incorporate at least three weight lifting sessions a week into your exercise program. Strength training boosts metabolism levels for hours after you have stopped and can also help you build muscles—key for a leaner and sexier body.
Action Step
Add at least three strength training workouts per week into your training program. Do total body exercises such as squats, deadlifts, burpees, push-ups and pull-ups. These exercises recruit a lot of muscles and can crank up calories burn like nothing else. Free weights are an option too.
5. Exercise in the Morning
According to study, people who exercise first thing in the morning tend to stay more consistent with their training routines, helping them lose the extra pounds and maintain a healthy weight for the long haul. Not only that, study also found that people who exercise first thing in the morning workout harder than those choose to hit the gym or the running field later on in the day.
Action Step
If you really want to be consistent with your running and exercise routine, I strongly urge you to do it in the early morning, before the rest of the world—especially your children—start waking up.
6. Set Realistic Goals
Setting unrealistic goals—by believing that you are entitled to the fast results advertised on late night commercials—is the recipe for disaster. In fact, I can’t see anything worse than setting unrealistic goals when it comes to losing weight and getting in shape. Those late night commercials do more harm than good.
Unrealistic goals will only slow you down and hinder your progress. And they are also a true source of pain and setbacks, and frustration. I can go on and on about the futility of impractical goals…
Action Step
Get your head out of the clouds and set small, attainable weight loss goals. Set the right goal—think small, achievable benchmarks, like losing a pound a week—and you will be setting yourself for success. However, if you want to learn more about goal setting, be sure to check out The Fitness Expert Next Door. That’s an awesome book that will teach you everything you need to know about the subject.
7. Build the Habit of Exercise
Running a couple of times every now and then is not the best approach for losing weight. In fact, it’s counteractive and the recipe for chronic sore muscles and disappointments. We, humans, are defined by the habits we build.
For most of the time, we are bound to repeat 99 percent of our physical and mental patterns from one day to the next, which is a double-edged sword since you can choose to build healthy habits, and vice versa. I learned this while reading The Power of Habit. This is, by far, the best book you can read about habits and how powerful they are.
Action Step
Build a regular exercise routine of at least three sessions a week, then do your best to stick with it for 4 to 6 weeks, which is enough time to help you build the habit of regular exercise into your life. Do whatever you can to keep the exercise building process kicking and alive. Run, bike, swim, hit the gym, do Yoga, even, just walk. The more active you become, the stronger the exercise habit becomes. So don’t limit your choices here.
8. Dodge Injuries
Injury can stop you in your tracks—especially if you are doing any sort of high impact exercise such as running. And truth be told, there is nothing worse than a runners knee or Achilles tendinitis—two notorious running injuries—in the middle of a fat loss resolution. As a result, make pain-free and injury-free exercise your main goal, especially if you are starting out.
Action Step
Approach your exercise plan with a beginner’s mind, build it up slowly and listen to your body for any signs of trouble and pain. Back off, even call it a day, when you feel something wrong—that usually happens when you are pushing it too far, or when you are skipping proper recovery between hard workouts. In case you are serious about warding off injury for good, then check out Dr. Jordan Metzl’s Running Strong book on Amazon.
9. Walk More
If you are really out of shape or have some medical condition that makes high impact exercise out of the questions, then WALK. Walking is a great low impact exercise that can help you lose weight and get in shape. Walking briskly for at least 45 minutes a day—that’s about three to four miles depending on how fast you are—can help you shed more than 30 pounds in a year as long as you are keeping your calorie intake in check, according to a Duke University study.
Action Step
Go for daily 45-minutes walk at a brisk pace, and feel free to add a few jogging bouts whenever it’s possible.
10. Exercise at the Same Time Each Day
Regardless of the time you choose to exercise at, working out at the same time, day in and day out, can help you stay consistent and build the exercise habit into your life. Clarity is king and can always help you stay more consistent and focused.
Action Step
Choose a specific time of the day, my bets are on the 6 to 7 am and do the exercise.
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