Ensight – Jeremy Wright

Well, it’s now the start of Week  2 of #10morepounds! How’d you do?

If you answered this question with “I sucked, I binged, I didn’t work out enough, etc” then let me reboot your perspective. Did you do better last week than you would have done otherwise? Did you make healthier choices? Did you drinnk less pop? Did you get into the mindset of “healthy is better than giving into my urges”?

If so, then you’ve made huge progress this week, and you deserve a big pat on the back. I’d mail you one, but that’d be creepy

Week 1 Recap

To recap, the goals for week 1 were pretty simple:

• Get started
• Drink more water, eat smaller more frequent meals
• Start some form of regular exercise, but nothing that’ll burn you out
• Eat better, especially grapefruit, drink better (especially no pop)

Did you do these? How many? How often? Every step counts. Celebrate your victories!

How We’re Doing

Well, personally,  I’ve gone from 232 to 226, so 6 pounds in a week. I know most of that was water and that the real work starts NOW though!

Only a handful of people have reported in so far today (come on, report in y’all!), but weight loss so far is: 32 pounds!

New Participants

Here is a list of new participants (if I’m missing you or you want to join, let me know!):

• @merlene
• @erin_bury
• @robynmcmaster
• @zaneology
• @suzemuse
• @ciaraj13

Week 2 Goals

For week 2, we really just want to build on week 1. You probably weren’t perfect (not that perfect is the goal), so stepping up your food, spacing of meals, water, pop intake is all critical. Your eating habits are the ones you need to change most because they’ll have the biggest impact on your heart, health, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

But, since our goal is weight loss, adding in some exercise will only accelerate that.

If you don’t have a regular exercise program, my recommendation is to build a “tiered” approach. The problem with doing something big like “go to the gym 3 times per week” is that it’s easy to feel like you’ve failed. By building a 3-tiered program, you’re able to feel like you’ve done 2/3 things or 1/3 things, instead of “pass/fail”.

The way I do this is the following:

• Foundation: easy, regular, quick workouts 3x/week like 100pushup challenge, 200situps challenge, etc (Google if you don’t know what these are). I’ve recently added stretches to my mix. This takes 5-10 minutes per workout, so is easy to fit into your day.
• Cardio: Cardio = life. It’s great for your heart. It’s HARD to start (ask @acowboyswife!), but so worth it. 20-30 minutes twice a week is huge, will increase your energy and make you feel great.
• Sculpting: Some kind of toning, whether it’s yoga, weights, resistance training, etc. Getting this in 1-2 times per week is ideal.

Image via Wikipedia

If you’re doing nothing now, start with the foundational stuff. Next week, add cardio. The week after, add some kind of sculpting.

By varying stuff, and doing multiple things, you’ll keep your body guessing, work different muscle groups and generally feel like you failed less.

Talk Back

Have thoughts, tips, etc? Comment so other #10morepounds folk can learn along with you!

Interested in Joining In?

Use the #10morepounds tag on twitter, comment or email me (jeremy@b5media.com)!

Some Useful Articles

• The Most Effective Alternative Medicine Weight Loss Recommendations (healthlifestyleforever.com)
• Exercise Programs (healthlifestyleforever.com)
• How Goal Setting Leads to Losing Weight (mariaslastdiet.typepad.com)
• Tweak of the Week: Boost Your Metabolism (via Diet & Fitness Blog) (healthnews.ediets.com)
• Ask the Trainer: How to Lose Love Handles (via Diet & Fitness Blog) (via eDiets Weight-Loss – FriendFeed) (via eDiets Weight-Loss – FriendFeed) (healthnews.ediets.com)
• Reliable Weight Loss Keys (healthlifestyleforever.com)
• Calorie Shifting or Calorie Counting? (fitnesstipsforlife.com)
• What Is Pilates Exercise? And How It Works (healthlifestyleforever.com)
• Physical Activity, Weight Loss, and Fun! (womenandweight.com)

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