What was your favourite tool in your weight reduction journey? What is the one investment you made that you believe everyone should have? What’s the one appliance you bought that gave you an advantage?
For me, it’s two things. A paid subscription in a weight loss app available in my nation. I receive calorie tracking, daily motivational speeches, progress tracking, and other basic stuff. In addition, I have a diet and exercise coach who is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They customised my eating and exercise regimen for me and adjust it on a monthly basis. It has an interactive exercise module that shows a video of the exercise and counts. I basically follow it on a daily basis. It absolutely feels like someone is working out alongside me, without being judgemental. Also, since it’s paid, I’m more motivated to get my money’s worth. LOL!
The second one is my cross-trainer. It has a modest impact and does not leave me feeling useless or fatigued, as a trademill does. I feel like my entire body gets a workout, and I enjoy doing it. Definitely better than jumping rope, climbing up and down stairs, walking, sprinting, and so on. They made me self-conscious or caused knee discomfort. It comes in second place since I owned it for a year before utilising it, and it was the app that helped me overcome the mental roadblock while the cross trainer did the majority of the physical effort.
A really good set of jogging shoes. I began losing weight despite the fact that I despise jogging and any other form of exercise that required me to be on my feet. When I invested a little additional money on higher quality shoes, I discovered that I was less likely to get hurt and felt more inspired to accomplish the activities I wanted to do because I wouldn’t get any horrible blisters.
A water bottle is a close second. Make sure you’re fully hydrated and you’ll prevent any boredom hunger AND make your skin look amazing.
Similarly, I used to despise the treadmill since my feet would hurt for days afterward. For me, the cure was appropriate post-workout stretching and increasing endurance with low impact steady state with the 15-3-30 regimen. Now I can run an 8-minute mile and keep going, which may not sound very amazing, but it was unthinkable for me a year ago.
I have a food scale at home, but I also purchased a portable food scale that folds up and can be carried in my bag to work and elsewhere. It’s really helped me with calorie counting.
YouTube. I’m an introvert. Have no desire to go to the gym yet still want to workout. My favourite channels are Yoga with Adriene and Body Project. I’ve gotten into the routine of doing yoga in the morning and cardio after dropping my child off at school.
A membership to a real gym that isn’t Planet Fitness! I have a coach who I see every M/W/F who gives classes for free with the membership, and he’s amazing at working with your fitness level while not making you feel like an idiot. Plus, because I go at 6 a.m., the classes are pretty small (5-6 people is the most I’ve seen so far), so you get a lot of individual feedback. Also, I’ve met some pretty great people who share my aims (I had pancakes with my workout group this morning!) and took up rock climbing as a sport because it is primarily a rock climbing gym!
I purchased a tiny WFH treadmill; I don’t want to be theatrical, but it has changed my life lol. I’m also thinking about weekly calories rather than daily calories to assist balance weekends spent eating and drinking out. And on Mondays when I’ve overindulged the previous weekend, I’ll undertake a bone broth “fast,” keeping in mind weekly vs. daily calories! Fitbit overestimates calories burnt but remains consistent.
For me, it’s a large jar of dill pickles. I’ve been a big nocturnal snacker in the past; it’s a major flaw. So, instead of snacking on chips, cookies, ice cream, and so on, I eat a large dill pickle, which has almost no calories and keeps me full until bedtime. It’s strange, I know, but it works for me.