Lose Twenty Pounds
LoseTwentyPounds.net is produced to help provide tips and best practices regarding diet and exercise to help people lose 20 pounds in a safe and sustainable manner. Over the course of my life I have experienced 20-25 pound weight swings sever times, and never quite figured out how to avoid this until the past few years. The key for me has been keeping to a regular exercise schedule (3-5 times a week for 30-45 minutes a shot), and actually paying attention to my diet! My hope, is that through enabling the reader with recipes, workout ideas, and other tips that you too can lose 10, 20, or even 30 pounds if that is your goal!
What This Website Won’t Do
This website will not try to sell you on the latest diet pill, fad, or starvation diet. I have to be honest. I love to eat, and
Steps to a Healthier You, the new Food Pyramid
have never personally found it possible to keep myself from eating enough to be full. That is why the recipes and meal plans that you will find on the site will be designed with the intention of giving you a healthier alternative for your meals without starving you to death!
Making Healthy Eating Choices
Making the decision to eat healthy can be a challenging one. Many folks work a much longer than 40 hour work week and are constantly on the go. The trap that I would always fall into was not preplanning my lunch, and then skipping breakfast when in a morning rush. Next thing I knew, I would be pigging out at lunch, or even worse at dinner. This would result in me eating a lot more calories than I needed to be and putting on weight. Making the decision to eat healthier requires effort. I’ve found it easiest to plan out the week’s worth of lunches over the weekend. I then do as much preparation as possible on Sunday and finalize my packing for the next work day before going to bed. This has 1 – Allowed me to eat a lot healthier at lunch, 2- Eat breakfast more often since I prepare the next morning’ meal when I do the lunch, and 3 – Helped me save money by not eating out nearly as much at work. You have to make the decision to do so; however, and if you are married this will require your family to buy-in to eating healthier.
Getting Over the Hump with Working Out
Now for many of us, the hardest challenge with working out is to actually make ourselves get out there and do it. For me, the first two weeks of regularly working out are the hardest. By about the third or fourth day, I’m sore, I’m sleepy, and I try to find any excuse that I can to skip the next day’s workout. One of the tricks for my body that seems to work decently after a layoff is to take it easy for the first week or two. I prioritize actually getting out 3-5 times a week for 30-60 minutes a shot over the difficulty level of the workout. For me, this means walking for 45 minutes instead of jogging. Calisthenics instead of weight, and lots of stretching. For you or your body type it may be slightly different. Once I pass the two week point, I’m home free and start to increase the difficulty level of my workouts.
Do You Really Want to Lose Twenty Pounds?
Finally, the key for me and for many of you is do you really want to lose weight? Is it important to you to lose twenty pounds? If so, then making the decision to make changes in your life to include diet, exercise, and general lifestyle will help you reach your goal. At some level, many Americans and other world-citizens want to lose some degree of weight. Finding the strength within yourself, to make a plan, then stick to it long enough for it to have an effect is the hard part!
