Weight loss plan for 2021

Today morning I broke a new record when I stepped on the bathroom scale. Unfortunately, this is not an accomplishment to be proud of as my weight ballooned to 108 kg (238 pounds) this winter and I have never been this heavy before. This is pretty far from my ideal weight which should be between 63.3 and 85.6 kgs. Well, it’s time to make a plan…

I firmly believe that the main component of weight loss is calorie restriction, but I probably should also take up a few healthy habits and do some exercise too. Let’s see the action plan!

Calorie restriction

To reduce the intake of calories I will mainly use 2 methods: Intermittent fasting and the No S Diet. I used them both successfully before and lost 8+ kgs with both of them. Unfortunately, after some time, I reverted to my unhealthy ways, so I’ll have to stay on guard even after reaching my goals this time.

Intermittent fasting

IF should be a relatively easy-to-follow and risk-free weight-loss method for healthy adults. There is a ton of relevant information on Wikipedia about it and it is really up to you to decide if it is a good match for you.

I will use the variant which provides an eating window of 8 hours and a fasting window of 16 hours. It shouldn’t be too bad as I will be sleeping during half of the fasting hours and my body should adapt to the eating window pretty fast.

I plan to eat breakfast at 9 AM every day and stop eating at 5 PM. The only hard part is between 7 and 9 PM, that is what I’ll have to power through.

To help with starting-ending times and visualization I’ll use the iFasting app on my Android phone.

iFasting app on Android

You can download the app from here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ibuild.ifasting

No S Diet

The No S Diet is a dead simple way to restrict calories and should be a really simple tool to loose or maintain weight. There are just three rules and one exception in it:

  1. No Snacks
  2. No Sweets
  3. No Seconds

Except (sometimes) on days that start with “S”…
(That is Saturday and Sunday)

The diet’s homepage has a lot of other information, way more than you need 🙂 If you are interested, visit http://www.nosdiet.com/

Healthy habits

As I understand it, being healthy comes down to having healthy habits. Unfortunately, I don’t have many of those, but I do have some unhealthy ones. Luckily I do not drink alcohol, do not smoke, and don’t use drugs either. Addiction would be terribly hard to overcome. Let’s see what I have to change!

  • Healthy snacks
    I do love nachos with cheese dip… but I’ll have to find healthy alternatives like carrots…
  • No sugary or energy drinks
    The only exception will be when driving for an extended period of time. A Red Bull seems to keep me awake and alert in such circumstances.
  • 8 hours of sleep
    I do tend to get way less, will have to force myself to close my eyes at 10 PM if I have to get up at 6 AM. I should also get up at 6 AM on weekends to keep the schedule fixed.
  • Active lifestyle
    My work and hobbies are all concluded by sitting at the computer for 10+ hours a day. I need to get off my ass and at least walk 30 minutes if nothing else. Perfect time to listen to podcasts…
  • Drink more water
    Yep, I have to put a water bottle on my desk or I do not drink a drop for hours…
  • Eat more fruits and veggies
    This is another thing to be mindful of, especially during shopping. It is hard to eat healthy food if you don’t have any at home.
  • Choose the stairs
    This is a pretty simple hack to smuggle in some exercise during your day. Whenever you have both an elevator and the stairs as options, choose the latter.
  • Cooking experiments
    I have some go-to recipes that I choose from, but the variation is not so great. Maybe it’s time to try new things, maybe peek into a healthy cookbook.
  • Soups
    Could be part of the cooking experiments, but I need to further emphasize the importance of having more soups as my diet severely lacked them.

Exercise

Unfortunately, my left shoulder is pretty fucked up. I need regular physiotherapy just to prevent it from hurting too much. I can’t do weight training or Martial Arts at all, so I’ll have to find some alternatives until can get it fixed by a surgeon.

  • Walking should not be a problem, I got used to it in the last few years. Of course, listening to podcasts during walking is a must.
  • Running is a challenge, as I simply do not like running. I will force myself to go out and run, but only when the weather gets better in spring.
  • Home workouts should happen, but I will have to choose exercises that do not use the arms because of my bad shoulder. Squats, core exercises, and stretching should be fine.

Motivation

The hardest part of losing weight is keeping up the discipline and motivation to succeed. Luckily there are a few things that can help:

  • Accountability
    If you declare that you are working on losing weight to friends or family, you set up yourself to be accountable for it. This can be a good motivator if you dread failing 🙂
  • Statistics
    Having a nice graph about your weight changes or exercise output can have an invigorating effect if you like things well organized.
  • Support group
    Having others to talk to, who share the same goals will help you when you need to whine or boast.
  • Marbles
    A variation of statistics is having two glasses on your desk. One is filled with as many marbles as much weight you plan to lose. If your weight decreases, transfer the appropriate number of marbles to the other glass to visualize progress.

Progress

Conclusion

I think I put together a solid plan that shouldn’t be too hard to follow. There is no strict schedule, no calorie counting, no forbidden foods except for sweets and sugary drinks.

I’ll come back with an update in a month to see if it works.

Updates

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