My top 5 weight loss tips

People ask me all the time how I am losing so much weight. This is an old post from May 2020, I’ve lost a lot more weight since then.

These are my tips for losing weight permanently if you are obese. I put them in order of importance. This is just to get you started, there are other tips I have as well.

1. Get a therapist. I know therapy is a privilege many can’t afford. I pay $6 a week for my therapist at the local university. She is a graduate student. You need to find out why you gained weight and how to resolve those feelings that led to your weight gain. Overeating is a mental health issue. If you eat certain foods to make you feel better, that is a mental health issue. I ate desserts to feel better. They were a coping mechanism for my depression and bipolar and anxiety. Therapy can be your new coping mechanism and accountability partner. There are therapist online thru
   http://www.betterhelp.com

   They charge about $50 per week.

2. Download a calorie tracker to your phone. Make sure its one that scans usp codes. I use MyFitnessPal. Use it every day and for EVERY thing you put in your mouth whether its 10 calorie water or a slice of pie and a pint of ice-cream. Never forget to input your calories. Do not wait till the end of the day to input your calories. Input them as the day goes on and immediately after eating. Do NOT FORGET!!. Looking at this eating track record will be very helpful for you. You can hook up other apps to it as well. Do this before you even start dieting to get into the habit. It will take a few months to make this a habit. It is imperative that you know how many calories you are currently eating daily. You cannot change to an appropriate amount if you dont have an accurate count of what you’re eating currently. Add me on MyFitnessPal , my name on there is : realvickinicole

    
    
3. Eat in a caloric deficit. After you’ve done some preliminary work by getting a therapist and tracking your calories. Lower your calories to below your BMR. MyFitnessPal calculates this for you as you update your current weight on it. You could also use a BMR calculator: https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html
    

   That BMR calculator says I burn 1,740 Calories at rest. So I have to eat less than that to lose weight at 240 pounds. MyFitnessPal says I need to eat 1460 calories a day to lose 1 pound per week. DO NOT lower your calories too low though as that will back fire, you will be hungry, your weight will plateau‎, and you will gain the weight back. If your body thinks it’s starving, it will fight you. Trust me. This happens to me all the time. Then I have to eat more to get back on my body’s good side. Just lower it by a few hundred calories. No more than 400 calories at a time.

    
4. Start moving your body. For the first year that I lost weight I did not exercise at all. The most I did was work at my job on my feet for 4-6 hours twice a week. I wanted to get accustomed to the eating less first and moving your body makes you hungry. I also didn’t want to get burnt out by doing too much all at once. You need to develop habits slowly and methodically. At the end of last year I bought myself a FitBit to track my steps. Then I decided to get a goal, which was to do 10,000 steps a day. When I worked I would make sure to walk a lot to get my steps in. Then I started occasionally walking to work or to the store. Then in March when Corona Virus started I decided to walk every day for 7,000 – 10,000 steps. I prefer to hit 10,000 cause I have my FitBit app hooked up to MyFitnessPal app and MyfitnessPal will give me additional calories when I’ve walked at least 10,000 steps. The amount of calories it gives you varies but this is very helpful for if I need to eat a little more on a certain day. I try not to make a habit of eating all my additional calories. But walking helps keep me in a caloric deficit every day.
    
5. Weigh Yourself every week. Weight yourself naked, first thing in the morning after you wake up. I weigh myself every day but I do not really recommend that. Being obsessed with numbers sucks. For me it’s helpful cause it tells me how to eat that day. If I’ve gone up a pound, I will eat a little less or a little more strict. If I’ve gone down a pound I know I’m on track. I would keep a record of my weekly weigh ins. I keep mine posted here on this website. It really makes a difference to see how you’re making progress. I’ve been recording my weight for 2 years now. It’s very motivational and it teaches you a lot. Like I can look at my weight chart and see that for about 6 months last year I made no progress in my weight loss. I needed that time though to get adjusted to different eating patterns and different foods and figure out what works and doesn’t work. So it’s fine. But I took everything I learned last year and used it to refine my eating habits and other things this year. And this year I can look at my weight loss chart and see how I am really progressing beyond my expectations.

Check out this link for a bonus tip: https://fattofiguregirl.wordpress.com/2020/10/01/lifestyle/

Sold more clothes

I actually was able to sell to both resale shops today; Uptown Cheapskarte and Plato’s Closet.

Uptown Cheapskate gave me $31 in store credit so I was able to buy 6 size medium and small workout tops for this summer and fall, since I got rid of all but 4 workout tops that I had cause they were way too big.

Plato’s Closet gave me $28 which I spent half of that on 3 salads for the next 3 days and the other half I used to buy a dress in a size small today from Francesca’s, it was a little less than $11 with tax on clearance.

I am completely broke, I have $8 in my bank account. But I get paid tomorrow so I should be able to buy my last book which cost $140 tomorrow.

More protein

I decided I need more protein in my diet.

So I just went to Target and bought a plant based protein powder in the vanilla flavor.

Each scoop has 60 calories and 9 grams of protein.

I will add 1 scoop to my oatmeal in the morning.

This generally fits in my caloric goal. Most days for the next week, my calories were below my goal. So adding this protein powder will put me closer to my goal.

It looks like my protein per day will average around 68 grams each day now which is way closer to my goal of 70 grams of protein per day.

1 can of this protein powder will last 24 days, so almost a full month. That’s really good for less than $20 per can.

This makes me happy.

The Create Your Future Self Project

https://30dayfutureself.com

DAY 19:
Key Insight: You are what you say “yes” to. Your future self says “no” to things you’re currently saying “yes” to, just like you now say “no” to things your former self said “yes” to. It’s time to get serious. What do you need to say “no” to? What are the few things you will say “yes” to?

Here is article: Tell Me What You Say Yes To, And I’ll Tell You Who You Are

Challenge:

-What do you truly want to say “yes” to in your life? Sticking to a budget, living below my means

-What does your future self say “yes” to? Saving money

-What do you need to eliminate from your life? Overshopping, not saving money or having a savings or emergency fund, using credit cards improperly

Bloating Gone?

I haven’t had bloating ever since I started taking these probiotics about a week ago, this probiotic has 60 Billion PROBIOTIC with prebiotic Fiber blend

I hope this lasts

I’m a size Large

I’m a size Large now

I went thru my clothes today

both my backup clothes and my clothes I had hanging in the current section of my closet

In my backup clothes I had a bunch of active/workout sets in a size large, so I tried them all on and they fit now

In the current section I removed all my size XL tops, and leggings and packed them up in bags to take to the resale shop tomorrow

Pizza

I ate a super large slice of stuffed spinach pizza today

I forgot to bring my food to work, so I ended up going to the Food Court for pizza

The Future Self Project

https://30dayfutureself.com

In this training, I explain the importance of having regular PEAK EXPERIENCES.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, “A mind that is stretched by new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” 

These are those moments that change your life. 

Peak experiences change how your view yourself. They change how you interpret your past and how you view your future.

You can and should have peak experiences all the time. 

Today’s training will show you how.

– Dr. Benjamin Hardy

DAY 18:
Key Insight: Most people are defined by experiences in their past. What would happen if you planned out amazing “peak experiences” for your future self? What if you were defined by experiences you planned to have in your future?

Challenge:

-What are 3 amazing experiences you want to have in your future? Travel to Paris with my husband and family, Buy a luxury handbag in the store boutique, fly on a private plane

-What is “normal life” like for your future self? Didn’t you already ask this on Day 5? I hate repeating myself. It’s boring. Wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, have dinner with my husband, cuddle, go to sleep. On weekends go shopping or to a gala, once a year go on vacation.

Over 40 Skin care Routine

Hey guys I forgot to post this yesterday. Please check out my latest video and give it a thumbs up as that helps my channel. I post every Monday at 9am.

The Create Your Future Self Project

https://30dayfutureself.com

DAY 17:
Key Insight: Power moves are aggressive behaviors toward your desired future self. They are usually out of your comfort zone and require courage. But when you take these actions, you move closer to making your future self be what is “normal” for you.

Challenge:

-What are 3 courageous actions you can take toward your future self in the next 7 days? I don’t think I need to do anything different than what I planned on doing which is start this next semester of classes, continue with my weight loss efforts and enjoy going to work.

I can’t buy no more clothes

yesterday I took all my winter clothes I bought for this winter 2021 back to the plus size stores I bought them from. I got $475 for them.

I won’t be able to fit plus size clothes this winter, if my weight loss continues on the trajectory it has the past year.

Not only that but I bought a bunch of sweaters in a size medium for winter 2021, but I can almost fit them now. Which means I might be a size small in the upcoming winter 2021.

but I will wear my damn medium sweaters this upcoming winter even if they are a little too big. They are so cute.

But I did buy a size small sweater today at Target, it was on sale for $6. I have bought that sweater in every color now. I love the shape of it so much. I have 3 of them in a size medium. The price of them kept going down every week till now they are on sale for $6!!

I had to return all my bras to Lane Bryant and Victoria Secret because I bought a size 36DDD and I am already a size 35DDD so I skipped right over the size 36. I ended up just having Lane Bryant put the money back on my credit cards. So now I only owe Lane Bryant $8. For Victoria Secret I exchanged the bras for a 34DDD.

But I can’t fit nothing at the lane bryant store anymore. and I gave my Lane Bryant credit card to my mom so I can’t shop there online either. They only have one size I can fit online anyway. So that’s one credit card that will literally never be used again, not even in the future when I feel I am responsible enough to have my credit cards back.

The other plus size store I got store credit for half the stuff and they were able to put the other half of the money back on my store credit card. I got store credit for about $200, now the thing about store credit is it’s not the same as a store credit card. Store credit has to be spent or you lose it. I can only fit one more size at that store and I will be that size this summer. So I bought a bunch of summer clothes with my store credit. The only thing I can fit at that store after this summer is shoes. So that card will be paid off by April.

So that is 2 credit cards that will be paid off and never used again, except I might occasionally buy shoes from that store cause they have really cute shoes sometimes. So if I spend $30 on shoes there every 3 months, I don’t think that is bad.

I don’t have access to the store credit card so I won’t be shopping online, but I can have them look up my account if I am in the store. But that will be rare. so basically I just have 2 cards that will stay paid off.

I will save so much money not shopping there and not having to pay on those cards. I can put that towards other cards that need to be paid off.

I really don’t think I will buy any more clothes till September 2021. The reason is I don’t know what size I will be once I get to my goal weight. I expect to get to my goal weight in August. I have a budget of $500 that I can spend in September for clothes. I do have a couple of size medium coats that I can wear this winter so at least I won’t have to buy coats.

I can no longer guess at what size I will be, cause I didn’t expect to be a size 12 right now. I thought I would be a size 12 this summer and a size 10 this upcoming winter. I am a size 12 now and will probably be a size 10 this summer, I don’t know what size I will be fall/winter 2021.

so yea I’m not buying any clothes till I know exactly what size I will be. I’m not even buying panties cause I don’t know if I will need a medium or a small. I have lots of mediums, that I can wear this summer. But I don’t know if I will be a small or even a extra small this fall/winter.

I have never been a size small before.