Losing weight is a war.

Choose your weapons, because losing weight is a war and when you go to war you go prepared and you go with an objective to win.

Exercise as a weight loss tool.

On previous blogs I discussed how you need to have your tools in place. Exercise is an essential part of the process to lose weight and is one of the tools you will use on your weight loss journey.

In choosing our preferred weapons or exercise type as part of the war on weight loss we must accept the fact that we are all different and therefore we all have different preferences when it comes to the type of exercise we choose as part of our weight loss regime. Some people prefer power walking, others running or rowing and then others like me are mad about cycling.

I chose cycling for a number of reasons:

• Firstly I used to cycle in my young days and even at a later stage in my life when I was still young (We talk about thirty years ago).
• Secondly my body wouldn’t allow me to run or even walk because I experienced constant pain as a result of rheumatic gout and to be honest the times I tried running I looked really awkward. Even walking was a sight to behold. To quote an Indian businessman that I frequently walked past in a local shopping centre and who knew me from repairs he did to my cell phones. “Sir you are walking like a normal person now”, and then he mimicked my awkward duck like gait and said “That’s how you used to walk”. My walking style developed over a number of years and was forced on me due to severe pain in my knees. So when walking I would walk with stiff knees and only pivot in my hips. If anything abnormal happened like a slight misstep I would end up crashing spectacularly and over the years I started making a habit of laughing at myself, even writing some humorous sketches on Facebook about these incidents. So that explains why the bicycle became my automatic choice.
• Lastly the bicycle was a good choice in that it allows you some resting after every uphill when you can coast downhill. This works similar to interval training, a technique that I will address in a future blog, but basically allows you to get more out of your exercise regime and also gives you an afterburn effect that burns calories for anything between 10 and 72 hours after exercising.

Weapons of war.

So depending on your preference you will select the following weapons before starting the war:

• your exercise method (cycling, running etc. and of course the bicycle and/or gear that you will require),
• an accurate electronic scale,
• a means to manage your goal by recording your progress against a target (See my blog: How I used apps and devices as tools to manage my goals – Part one) and
• an eating plan (See my blog: Let’s talk diet).

Manage the target or goal.

Managing your goal is a critical part of the motivation process. Once the weight loss becomes considerable, the visual impact and the positive feedback from people will start driving your motivation and when your clothes start hanging on you like bags and you have to start replacing your entire wardrobe you will really be on fire.

Don’t quit!

If I have convinced you to go to war consider this. This journey is a war so treat it like a war. Don’t back off when things get hard. Don’t consider bailing out when you injure yourself because the chances are that it will happen along the journey. Your target weight becomes the object of victory and every milligram or ounce that you shed is a step to victory.

When you think about quitting, remember why you started.

Please contact me if you need specific advice on how to start the war, or if you need assistance in making a decision on which tools to use or if you just need me to convince or motivate you.