How to lose weight

Everyone talks about it, it's all around us, on TV, magazines, ads and articles online. People make their new year resolutions and promise themselves that this year's gonna be different. This year they will finally lose some weight! I've been there too... For the last 10 years, I've been dreaming of losing weight, getting all slim and fit. I've tried all kind of diets, but nothing kept the weight down forever. It always came back, sneaking on me. I tried to keep in mind that it's all about burning more calories than I consume, but my love for sugar and white bread was so strong, that I just couldn't let these pleasures go.
Signing up at the gym, didn't make things better. I was really into it the first couple of weeks, then I realized that exercising wouldn't change my bad eating habits and I stopped. Instead I was trying to walk 30-45 min. a day, eating healthy food all day and drinking a lot of water, but when winter came, I just got more and more tired and lazy and eating pastries on the couch while watching Dr. House was my reality during the cold winter months.
Some years before I was really into the Atkins diet and it worked, but then I started gaining weight. I wouldn't recommend it, 'cause it's hard for the body to lose weight that fast and absolutely not worth the pain. I had the most terrible headaches throughout the Atkins weight loss program and my stomach just stopped working. Losing 5 kg in two weeks was great, but I felt exhausted and a few months after these kiloes were back.

The only thing that worked for me was to realize that the weightloss will take time. It will happen, but not as fast as I wanted. It will take at least 6 months to a year, maybe even more. When I was completely okay with that, I began to make small steps in the right direction. Such as: eating less sugar or no sugar at all. Let go of juice, soda, tea with sugar, all kind of sweets, cakes, but also WHITE BREAD!!!! White bread and pastries were my biggest enemies, I had my battles with them and they used to win over me :((

Also the amount of food plays a very big role. There's no need to eat more than you actually can. It's okay to leave something on the plate or save it for later. I used to eat much more than I needed and I don't know why. A year ago I could eat 4-5 times a day, really big meals. Now I'm down to 2 meals a day, sometimes only 1 and that's not healthy at all! But I prefer to eat small amounts of food throughout the day instead of 1 killer meal that will make me tired and sleepy. I eat fruits, veggie snacks, meet/chicken/fish, eggs, brown bread, drink fresh juice, a lot of tea and water and the result is great. During the first 6 months I lost 8 kg and after a year 8 more. My total weightloss until this day is 16 kg.

Now I have a different relationship with food. I eat when I'm hungry, but not when I'm bored or watching TV. Food is enjoyable for me and I love to choose really delicious things to eat, I don't just put junk in my mouth as I used to. Sometimes I eat a slice of whitebread or even a few bites of a cake, but never too much, because I simply can't. After I stopped eating all the sugar, cakes became way too sweet for me, so now I only need to take a few bites to feel the sugarrush.

If I could do this, I believe anyone can. I used to be so lazy and because of the wrong food I didn't have any energy whatsoever. I was barely moving around the house and slept a lot.

But a few steps changed everything for me, so let's make a quick summary:

• If you're not into the gym, don't waste all your money and end up staying at home
• Stop eating while watching TV or whenever you feel bored, eat when you're hungry
• Say goodbye to sugar and pastries (at least until you get used to living without them)
• Think about the amount of food and how many meals you eat a day
• Stop eating junk and choose the food you eat, make it as enjoyable as never before
• Eat healthy food and drink water

GOOD LUCK! ;-)