Original post: bearlamp.com.au/object-level-weight-loss-tips/
.bearlamp.com.au/object-level-weight-loss-tips/
Finding specific instructions on weight loss is difficult. They are all buried in the internet. Covered in clickbait and a waste of time to find. And plenty of them don't work. So here's my list. As object level as I can.
Weight loss is hard. Life is busy. But it's do-able
1. Make a list of healthy foods that you eat.
To me this looks like this:
This list specifically excludes asparagus and a few other green vegetables that I don't really eat despite them being supposedly good for me.
Now when you go shopping, only buy things on that list. Use an app to keep track of the list.
2. fix the "ooh it's cheap, it's on special I should buy it" habit.
I care more about health than I do about cheap products. Yet somehow I can still get tricked by a half price chocolate, or various other foods discounted. Fix the part of your brain that makes this mistake. Accept the better argument. Optimise for health over expense.
3. Remove unhealthy things from your house
If you eat it and it's unhealthy and as of this instant you don't want to - it's okay to throw it away. It's also okay to give it away. But ideally throwing it away is better.
4. Eat healthy as a baseline.
If you are at home, just eating the normal meals, they need to be the right things. If they are not right then you are probably on a general weight gain trajectory. Fix the basics first. If necessary learn to cook some healthy meals. You probably already know enough about what to cook.
5. Stop wasting food.
You know what would be a waste. It would be a waste to throw out that food because it's food. But you know what else would be a waste. It would be a waste to eat it when you don't need to. It would be wasteful to your waistline. When it's bad for you and going to make you more unhealthy. That would be a waste too. And that's the more embarrassing waste.
6. When you go out to food with friends.
Don't buy the "cheapest thing on the menu". Don't buy the "most delicious thing on the menu". Buy the "healthiest thing on the menu". If that's not healthy enough, don't buy anything. Or maybe you value maximum delicious over health. Or maximum money savings. That's fine. Don't try to lose weight if you want to maximally save money.
7. Track metrics
Any metrics are poor. But you can still weigh yourself daily. You can still measure your waist once a week, and you can still keep a food diary (not talking about full all out calorie tracking, just simply each morning writing down the things you ate the day before. Keep track of it in an app.
8. Exercise
Not a magic bullet but the thing I want to say about exercise is that the best exercise to do is the exercise that you enjoy. If that's rock climbing and it's not soccer. Don't play soccer. If it's soccer and not rock climbing - don't go rock climbing!
Also - make it easier to exercise, prepare your exercise stuff so that you can go exercise easily.
9. Immunity to change
In the immunity to change process, you look at the competing commitments you have, for example: eating my grandmother's cooking and losing weight. It's okay to have commitments to other things, but at the end of the day - one of the commitments will win. It's important to look at the commitments and what's behind them, and work with them to try to design a good strategy. The process has more details but look up Right Weight, Right Mind if you are interested.
10. Eat less carbs, and more protein, oil and low calorie vegetables (Essentially keto - reduce fruit, cheese, sugars)
It's not rocket science. A steak doesn't add to your waistline like soft drink potentially does. If you eat more protein, say - double your protein and eat less carbs, you will have an easier time losing weight.
There are more because there are always more. But that's enough for now. The best ones for you might not be in this list. Feel free to add yours below.