Lazy Ways to Lose Weight

The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action
Herbert Spencer

You will not find anything new here, what you will find is that they are not being applied in our lives. You will not find anything new here for our problem is not ignorance, but inaction.

This is NOT an academic reference...
This is NOT a collection of lengthy jargon-filled articles...

Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always successful
Paul Valery

This is a collection of successful recipes. Something that works. Something that you can apply straight away from, well, NOW. And I know, you don't care about chemistry, about food digestion, about the carbon chain in your next meal. You want result and you want them quick.

Therefore, I will write practical, concise article that you could use NOW. You don't come here to know what this is all about. You are looking for action. OK. On your mark... GO! (oh, I forgot to say get set)

Enjoy this page? Vote for it at Digg and add it to your favourite. Thanks!

This lens is growing. For your [and my] convenience, I decided to put all the content and link to them, here.

I'm jumping out of my skin!

If you're motivated enough, you'll lose weight effectively

Get all the supports you need: Join online support groups!

How to Lose Fat without Limiting Fat Intake

What Time Management, Budgeting and Reading Books Taught Me About Losing Weight

If There Are Only 3 Simple Steps to Lose Weight, Here They Are!

Top 5 Quick Tips to A Better Diet

My friend said, change a habit is as hard as eating an elephant...

OK. You want to lose weight. You write your goal and put in on your wall. But sometimes, instead of weight, you lose focus. You lose motivation. Losing weight seems like eating the entire herd of elephants!

Follow these tips in any combination that works for you to motivate yourself towards losing weight. They can be applied to achieving any goal, but hey, you're here to lose weight!

1. Just get Started. Instead of waiting the 'right' time, the perfect condition or until you gain enough knowledge, just get started now! You'll learn a lot more in the process. Have you ever feel something like this: you're so lazy to get up and prepare your breakfast, but as soon as you get up and start, everything flows naturally. Well, u got the idea.

2. Start small. This is something related to tips #1. Sometimes you don't start because you're too idealistic and thinking too big. Be realistic. You can't easily lose 20kg, gain muscle, eat organic food, be vegetarian and get Olympic medal in marathon. It seems like a hard task, isn't it?
Start by just aiming for a smaller goal. Instead of changing your whole diet, just change one meal at a time. Instead of working out for 45 minutes, aim to just take 10 minutes of your time to work out.

3. Break into smaller goals. This is the continuation of tips #2. Again, larger goal look hard. Indeed, it is. And it will take longer time during which you'll lose motivation. It's hard to stay focus on one goal in such a long time. Or worse, if you've specified deadline, you'll procrastinate it until the very last minute. Instead of losing 20kg in 10 weeks, why not consider lose 2kg per week for 10 weeks.

4. Have enough whys. Sometimes people lose focus and motivation because they even know why they even started in the first place! As Covey said it: Begin with the End in Mind. Have powerful reasons to lose weight. What's your reason? I'm sure you have something in mind.

5. Don't break the chain. The idea is simple. Work towards your goal. For every single day that you work for it, mark it. After a few days, you'll have a chain and you'll hate yourself if you break it. You can try it here.

Other tips:
Motivations to do things you dislike
Pictures as Motivation - Before and After your Workout
Motivation for Smart People

You'll never walk alone. Join online support groups. It's important that you not feel alone and reaching out to friends can help you to stay in your journey. The people in the support groups may know something that you don't know and probably have experienced the same thing that you experience now. You can share stories, laughter, successes, frustration, tips, and ugh whatever - share them. Plus, you'll make some friends.

Often, you lose motivation, you lose focus. And as I mention earlier, you need the motivation to get going. With your new friends, you can support each other and make this whole new lifestyle an interesting one. That's why it is important to meet people of the same goal.

There are so many online communities - the groups of people that share the same dream and goal with you - out there. Just look for something that will fit you.

I found two groups on Yahoo Groups:
Weight Loss Buddies
Friends of Weight Watchers

Imagine... by the end of this post, you'll be able to lose fat without limiting your fat intake all because you learned how to 'tame' the fat and get them work for, not against, you. Here are the things you should do.

1. Differentiate between good and bad fat. Yes, there are two kinds of fat.

The good fats are: polyunsaturated fats (especially Omega 3) such as those from peanut butter, egg yolk and olive oil and monounsaturated fats such as those from nuts and fish.
The bad fats are: saturated fats such as those from animal and coconut and worse, trans fatty acids, fats that have no value such as those from junk food, chips and fries.

2. Now that you know the difference, limit the intake of the bad fats. Why? Simply because they are, well, bad!

3. Get good fats. Lots of people tell you to stay away from fats. But you know you really need them. Here's what you don't know: good fats help you burn fat.

Why?

Omega 3 fatty acids increase your metabolic rate and this means you'll burn more calories.

Omega 3 also increases the effectiveness of insulin. It helps the body to store less fat. For the already stored fat, insulin helps to convert them into energy.

Omega 3 also helps to produce testosterone which responsible for building new muscle. More muscle means more calories burning and less fats.

1. Log your meal. A time management freak will log his daily life in a journal. From that, he will how he had spent his day. How bad was his day? Where can he improve? It is generally the same with a financial management freak.

Why don't you do this in your journey of losing weight? Log your meal. From that, you will see how bad your eating habit is. And you realise that there are so many ways that you could improve it. You cannot improve unless you know which specific aspect that is need to be improved.

2. Weigh yourself and chart it. Ever been to Shelfari? It is a social site where book lovers get together. One function of the site is you can list down all the books you've read and put it on a virtual shelf.

I'm a book lover myself. Once I put all my books on the shelf, I feel the desire to read more and more. Of course I've felt the same before, but listing it down there is taking my reading spirit to a whole new level!

Same thing can be applied to losing weight. When you know where you are in your journey to lose weight and how much have you accomplished, you will feel the desire to improve more and more and more even more. The more you accomplished, the more motivated you are to keep it moving. And you'll accomplish more. And the more you accomplished, the more motivated you are to keep it moving. And you'll accomplish more. And the more you accomplished... (repeat till fade).

So what the hell are you waiting for? Just do it!

Some of you are list freak. Feel free to skip this monologue if you want. :P

It doesn't really matter how much you know. You can talk about the toughest exercise regiment, about the types of carbohydrate you can't even pronounce and about re-engineering your entire lifestyle. But, nothing will happen until you DO something. And the sooner you start, the sooner you will get the result.

I'm a practical person. I don't want to count calories. I don't want to know the scientific theories. And yes, I don't care about the heated argument of the best ways to lose weight. What I do want is something that I can do and I want to do it NOW. I want something that ordinary people like us can do.

Nothing is great about the list. It is so simple and your common sense will tell you that they will work.

1. Find healthier alternatives for your everyday meal. This is not rocket science. Every time you are about to eat, ask yourself 'is this food good for me?' Most of the time, you yourself can provide the answer. This is so simple, but most of us just eat without even question its impact upon us.

Be reasonable. Remember, you are not going to change your whole diet overnight. You simply can't. Just ask this simple question and just change your food to a healthier alternative, one per day. When you're comfortable, replace another food and then another then another. Well, you get the idea.

Examples: If you eat burgers, try a veggie or fish burger. If you fry, why not try bake or steam instead?

2. Start exercise. Running, on treadmill or outdoor, cycling and swimming. Try different kinds of activities. You will work out different group of muscles. Try something now, just to get the ball moving. And then, you will find a pattern that suits you.

Be reasonable. I don't mean go hiking, run 10 km, cycling 20 km and swim for one hour a day. Most people starts enthusiastically. They do everything on the first session, cycle, treadmill, running, walking, swimming and hiking. Then, skip a session or two and blow it altogether. Start easy. Really easy. Hold your excitement. Just do it small. Instead of run 4 km, try 2 km first. You can always add more km later.

3. Eat more frequently. Yes, losing weight is not about starving. Worse, skipping meals will make you gain weight. I tried not to eat all day long, and eat as much as I can for the dinner to compensate for the lost food, and, guess what, I was so full that I go straight to bed. Not good.

Warning: You must eat to lose weight. You must eat to keep your metabolism high. Just eat smaller meals and snacks. Here's how to do this. You already have 3 main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Just add some mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack. Make sure the snack that you have are the healthy ones. And don't forget to make the 3 main meals smaller.

Dieting seems like a big task. Here's 5 quick tips to make sure that you'll think twice before saying it's hard!

1. Clear you kitchen/cabinet/drawer from junk food. This is a surefire way NOT to eat junk food. Toss the junk food and never buy any more.

2. Get a good snack. Of course, often you feel that you want to munch something. But, do consider healthy alternatives. With the junk food's gone, now you need something to fill the vacuum. Get an apple instead of corn chips, as an example.

3. Drink water. Instead of coffee, tea, soda and those colourful and fancy drinks, just drink plain water.

4. Eat nuts. I mentioned in other article, nuts is the source of the good fats. Add them in you daily diet. Or you can have it as snacks (that, will make you cover tips 2 as well). But, please, only take ones that is free or low in salt.

5. Baked, instead of fried. For obvious reason, less bad fats intake.