How to Lose Weight

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. ~Henry David Thoreau

The good news is that losing weight is s-i-m-p-l-e. There are no tricks, no complicated diets to adhere to. Just eat fewer calories or expend more calories. It's simple math, beautifully logical. There is a baseline of calories that you need to maintain your weight (maintenance calories), and once you know what that is, all you have to do is lower the calories you consume by 10% daily, increase your exercise to burn more calories, or supercharge your results by doing both! (However, unless you are a professional athlete, exercise alone is not going to help you lose significant weight. Watching your caloric intake is more effective.) We all know that since it's common sense, don't we? But now, it's been proven with a medical study published in the New England Journal of Medicine! It doesn't matter what kind of diet you follow as long as you count calories.

Maybe you've tried cutting calories before, and it was hard because you were always hungry. The math for weight loss is simple - fewer calories will always provide weight loss, and it is the only way to do it. But what you eat matters. You can lose weight if you eat 90% of your maintenance calories as Doritos. Guaranteed. But if you only ate Doritos, your body would crave nutrients and force you to eat more to try to find those nutrients. If you are being more mindful about your diet and eating a wide variety of whole foods, you probably noticed that you have started to lose weight. Writing this blog has forced me to be more mindful, and I lost 2 pounds (I wanted to lose 3) without trying.

The Biggest Loser is a reality show with morbidly obese contestants who compete to lose the most weight. These contestants shed an astonishing amount of weight, and many of them manage to keep it off. Of course, they have a team of professionals helping them - nutritionists, fitness trainers, shoppers - and they have each other for support and competition. The principles that lead to success on the show are the same outlined here -fewer calories in, more calories out. One key thing they learn is to prepare their own food. Contestants have to shop and cook their own meals. Without learning this skill, they would gain the weight back once they get back to their old lifestyles. You have to prepare your own food. If you eat out all the time, you are consuming hidden calories.

You might not have a team of professionals, but you have MindfulEats, and we'll reinforce the same things for you. Forget about low-carb, South Beach, Atkins or pills. Once you stop these "diet plans", you will end up right back where you started. These diets and aides are common because they make money for the companies. To succeed all you have to do is be mindful and make healthy lifetyle changes. These basics will get you healthy and cause weight loss. As an added bonus to using this method to lose weight, you'll get healthier. Not only will you look great, but you'll have more energy and be happier to boot.

What to do - How to Lose Weight Easily for Real

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. - Michael Pollan

1. Make a real commitment to yourself to lose weight. If you're not truly committed, you won't. That's a fact. But if you want to, you will!  
2. Add weight loss to your Mindful Goals. Come up with a reasonable goal, and break it down to losing 1-2 pounds a week. Do not try to lose more than that, it's not healthy. You might, but don't try. You didn't gain it all in a week, you're not going to lose it in a week. Sorry, but that's the truth. You're planning on losing it permanently, so don't play the lose it-gain it game.  
3. Figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight (set goal to Maintain). There are lots of calculators out there, and they actually vary by person so this just gives you a gauge. Be honest about how much activity you get in since it will throw off the results of the counter. Now take these results and take it times 0.9.  That is how many calories you should eat in a day.
4. Create a Weekly Meal Plan. If you don't plan, you will fail since you will eat random things during the day. Use the Mindful Battle Plan, so you don't need to think about it too much.
5. Log what you eat in the Mindful Log, your diary or online (whatever works for you). Counting your calories. You can use a calorie counter, about.com, or WebMD. Your daily goal is to get 90% of what the calculator said you needed in Step 2. People that keep a food journal lose twice as much weight as those that don't. For instructions on how to use a log, look here.
6. If you want to see a nutritionist for help, bring in your Mindful Log and Mindful Battle Plan.  
7. Exercise. You can lose weight without exercise, but to turbocharge your results and look great, you have to exercise. If you are flabby and start getting muscle tone, it may "slow" your weight loss since muscle weighs more than fat. One pound of muscle is smaller than one pound of lard. This is actually good - you will be going down in size, and muscle tone always looks better than jiggly fat! Just think of the difference between a woman who has flabby triceps vs. toned ones. If you need help and can afford it, a physical trainer may be a good idea to jumpstart exercise.  
8. Be mindful of your eating and exercise. Be moderate and don't become extreme on anything. The pounds will start to come off, and you will start to feel better. You can do it! Remember, slow and steady wins the race. You're planning on winning for life.  
9. Don't beat yourself up if you have a bad day and blow your calorie count. Recognize it and understand why you did it, so you learn something for next time. You have another shot at it tomorrow. You're working on bettering your batting average - there's no such thing as perfect.

Do you have any tips that work for you? Please tell us how it's going!

Tip: Having support can help since you reinforce each other. Find some friends that are interested in losing weight, and review your Mindful Logs and exercise together. A professional support group like Weight Watchers can also be very helpful. And there are online communities like SparkPeople.com that might work for you.

What I ate: 2 slices of whole wheat bread, 6T of humus, 1 orange, 2 clementines, 1 banana, 2 oz. Mindful Mix, 1 hardboiled egg, 1 c. steel cut oatmeal + 2T ground flaxseeds, 12 oz. lowfat latte, 1 cup milk, grilled salmon sandwich, salad, dill pickle spear, 1/4 soft pretzel, 4 dark chocolate squares, 3 oz. rice and red beans, 3 oz. cheese, 2 crackers, 40 oz. water.

Exercise: Ran 9 miles