Left Two: May 2012, approx. 400 pounds - Right Two: August 2017, approx. 135 pounds

I spent most of my life overweight, obese, or morbidly obese. I had a traumatic adolescence and young adulthood. There was a lot of abuse throughout my life: Physical, sexual, psychological, and emotional. But the abuse I subjected myself to was, by far, the worst of it. On top of it, I was born with a lot of genetic mutations—Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (or PCOS for short) being one of them. This contributed greatly to my weight gain as I got older.

Eventually my unhealthy lifestyle resulted in an ovarian tumor the size of a bowling ball. But since this article's aim is to briefly touch upon the methods that helped me lose weight, I won't go too much into my backstory. I've already written about some of it in this article.

How I Did It

For starters, I did my research. It's important to know what does and doesn't work for your body. But a little common sense can go a long way. Too much or too little of anything is unhealthy. If you drink soda, energy drinks, or dump a lot of sugar into your beverages then you can start by eliminating that altogether. Yes, altogether. But if that seems overwhelming to you, then just start small by slowly reducing.

Get rid of all your junk food. Give it away or throw it out, but don't have it in the house. This is important for beginners. It's all too easy to be tempted when we're just getting started. And it's also all too easy to fall off the wagon and not climb back up. If you live with others, ask that they support you by not bringing junk into the house. Or, at the very least, keeping it out of your sight.

One Day at a Time

For me, this was the key. When you weigh as much as I did, you know you've got a long journey ahead of you. But if you think about how much you have to lose, you might think that the task is insurmountable. You risk giving up before you even begin. It's essential that you don't think about the long-term. While you can have an end goal in mind, it's important that you don't dwell on that.

State your end goal once. Write it down. And then forget about it. Set a monthly and weekly goal. Write them down. And then forget about them. Don't place too much importance on those goals. Why? Because if you fall short of your goals, you may feel discouraged. But, if you focus on each day, then you'll likely surpass your goals.

The only thing that matters is today. Right now. What can you do in this very moment that you know will help you lose weight? Do it, get it over with, but remember that it's a gift (and not a punishment) that YOU CAN!

Count Your Calories

Keep track of your calories. There are a lot of applications you can download for your phone that'll make this so easy. It'll also help you keep an eye on the nutritional value of what you're eating. You'll see if you're getting too much or too little of something and will be able to adjust accordingly. This will help you to learn how to control your portions.

30 Minute Workouts, 5-6 Days a Week

The body needs about 20-30 minutes of aerobic activity a day to stay fit. This can all be done in one shot or broken up into intervals. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) are short, intense bursts that are great for when you're super busy but need to squeeze something in. You can go high-impact or low-impact, depending on how healthy your joints are.

To lose weight, we need to create a caloric deficit. So, say you're limited to 1,400 calories a day, and you eat your daily allotment but then workout. Say your workout burns 200 calories, putting you at 1,200 calories. You can either 1) Eat that extra 200 calories, and expect to maintain only or 2) Don't eat any additional calories and watch the pounds come off.

Switch up your workout routine. Try something new. If you do the same workout more than 6 days in a row without upping the ante, your body will become too conditioned to it. You can join a gym, buy a bike, get a program, go out for a walk or jog, download a fitness application, and even find free workouts online. There are so many different things you can do. Not having money is not an excuse. Don't limit yourself to just weight training or doing cardio only. Be sure to do a little of both.

As you gain muscle mass, you may notice a slight weight gain at first. Or your weight loss may plateau. Should this happen, don't panic. If you're on track with everything else, then you can be assured that this is a good thing.

One Cheat/Rest Day a Week

If you don't allow yourself a day off from working out, you'll burn out. Our muscles need time to recover, especially when we're not accustomed to working so hard. It's important to push ourselves, but never past the breaking point. You can overdo it. Listen to your body to prevent injury. Take at least one day off a week to give yourself the spa treatment! You've earned it!

Additionally, we need a cheat day. Need, not want. We need to remind ourselves that we're not actually being deprived of anything. That we can enjoy our favorite guilty pleasure, just in moderation. Allow one cheat day or cheat meal a week to eat whatever you want. Feel free to eat food from the "no-no" list, unless you're on some special nutritional program. If you're doing a program or challenge that doesn't include a cheat day, resume a weekly cheat day when the challenge is over.

Cheat Day Revised

My bowel perforated in March of 2015, and I lost two feet of my small intestine as a result. This happened after I had had one of my cheat days. While I can't necessarily conclude that that day's overeating was the sole cause of the obstruction and perforation, I know it was a contribution. After major weight loss, everything shrinks. On a cheat day we might think it safe to binge, but hindsight has me strongly advising against this. Our eyes (appetite) might still be bigger than our stomach.

Continue to portion things out as you would on a regular day, and wait at least 20 minutes or more before going in for seconds. If you're a fast eater like I am (a bad habit I am still, to this day, trying to correct), you won't notice how full you are once you've cleared your plate. If you don't give the food time to settle and you go in for seconds, you'll regret it and feel sick for the rest of the day.

Do go ahead to eat whatever you want. Have that soda, but limit it to one. Eat the junk food. Again, still be mindful of your portions. Don't worry about how many calories you're consuming on this day, but don't feast like it's Thanksgiving either. When we reduce our daily caloric intake to lose weight, this little spike in calories will remind your body that there's no lack. This will ultimately promote further weight loss, just so long as a cheat day doesn't become a cheat week, month, et cetera.

Hopefully you found this helpful! This concludes today's article for my 30 Days, 30 Posts challenge. Tomorrow's topic of discussion will be about Control. Yesterday's article was about Emergence.