I use to think in order to lose weight, I had to stop eating. Oh boy…How wrong I was and I will give you my complete story on how to lose 15 pounds in a month without starving and to top it off, you will feel great…
As many of you, I was bombarded with many different “weight loss plans”, and as many of you, I’ve tried few of them, and yeah, some worked but on some I managed to lose the pounds and I gained many extra pounds back.
So after that terrible disappointment, I made a deal with myself. I am only going to do what feels right! No more “hard diets”! I want to enjoy life and still lose 15 extra pounds. I did not want to feel guilty when I ate some chocolate! I could not imagine life without chocolate! So I knew I had to make some decisions and stick to them! I knew I could not go on living the way I did, but of course, I had to compromise a little!
I know you heard this before, as I have. In order to lose weight, you need to:
You need to Exercise
You need to Drink Water
You need to Eat the Right Food
Because….. It helps you speed up the metabolism.
Now I know you, you are going to say, I dislike exercising? I cannot eat the “healthy gross food” all the time, and ok, water is not that bad.
I felt exactly the same! But remember, I wanted to enjoy what I did so if I was going to exercise, I wanted fun exercise plan:
I put down on paper exactly what sports/recreations/hobbies/activities I liked. I was not looking at this as the exercise really, but a way to do something fun.
So I came up with:
- Walking
- Dancing
- Hiking
- Bike Riding
- Gardening!
Now, I bet you are thinking, hm, that is not a work out! Walking is fun especially when you have company. So once a week, I get together with my very good friend and we go for a walk. We select different routs every single time so they are not boring. There are couple of new neighborhoods being build in the area, so we go around to check out new houses. I benefit two ways with this, I get to catch up with my friend, see something new and get away from my house.
Ok, I like spending time in the woods. For the last few years I could not do it as both of my kids were too small. BUT, now that my son grow up a little, he enjoys outdoors as well. So once a week, I get to spend 1 full hours with him and do what I also enjoy, hiking.
Bike riding is also fun, and we have a 10 mile route close to our home, and I take it every once in a while. However, when the weather does not permit, I have an elliptical trainer I use at home.
Dancing…I cannot do dancing at home, so instead I go out dancing with my friends when I can. While it seem strange, it is actually a lot cheaper then going to the gym.
And once a week I combine gardening into my workout. Did you know that raking leaves for one hour can burn around 500 calories? Yes…So not only do I enjoy it, it is useful as well. 
Now, because I am so active, drinking water is not a big deal and I carry a little bottle with me where ever I go.
But in order for me to lose 15 pounds, I had to change my eating habits. Now, I bet you are thinking, here it comes…The bad “hard” diet! Well you will be surprised . I did not give up any food, in order to lose those 15 pounds.
I’ve read somewhere that if you want to speed up your metabolism, you should eat more small meals per day, instead of 2 or 3 big meals. And I’ve also read that there are certain foods that speed up metabolism. Now the first was not hard, but I really had no idea what foods do speed up metabolism. So I found a meal plan, called calorie shifting diet, and I’ve used it to help me with choice of foods.
I mean I ate everything from chocolate to potatoes and eggs with this meal plan and I ate 5-6 times per day. I did not spend 2 hours at the gym and dreaded the work out, but I did manage to lose the 15 pounds and finally get back to the way I looked before. The best of all, I did it only with the activities I enjoy and the foods I like to eat.
