Phase 3 of my transformation from fat-ass

So I covered the initial "shock to the system" in terms of diet changes and just as a quick recap I eliminated all but around 50 grams of carbohydrates per day. I also added foods heavy on protein and ate as much of it as I wanted. I had read and was told by a nutritionist that one of the worst things that a person can do on a new diet it to not eat when they were hungry. When I was hungry I ALWAYS ate. This is what made my new diet a bit easier.

However, I knew that I needed to incorporate a bit of exercise into my life and that is what I will talk about now.

Changing your diet is great and all, but if you are successful in dropping weight (and you will be, if you remain dedicated) you are going to end up with some loose skin and well, nobody wants that. After I had lost about 5kg i decided to up my game a bit but I knew it had to be baby steps because people who attempt to go from "zero to hero" almost always fail.

Here is one piece of advice that I give to anyone who is attempting to turn their life around

Go for a walk

No matter the sort of shape you are in, you can almost certainly handle the complexities associated with walking. I wasn't as big as the fella in the picture (who is named K. Tighe by the way and he's a bit of a hero since he does marathons now) but i was big enough that running or what not hurt, especially my knees and back, and I got winded very quickly.

However, i lived near a beach and I would just pop on my headphones and walk from one end to the other and get in about 3-4km of walking in the shade. Obviously over time I started to jog a bit and up my game, but I did this gradually and never pushed it to an uncomfortable level.

You see, if training becomes something that you dread or that hurts you, a normal person is less likely to go back and do it again and the idea here is that it becomes a lifestyle change, not just a crash diet where i jump up in down in weight in perpetuity.

The walking up and down of that beach in the picture is literally the only intentional exercise that I ever got. I would speed-walk, jog a bit, get my heart rate up and that's it. I never tried to set any land speed records and i used this time to find new music on youtube or even listen to audiobooks or learn a few words in a foreign language. It was a really beneficial time for me.

You can use an app like Strava or again MyFitnessPal to track how far you went and it will estimate how many calories you burned. If you are combining dietary changes and exercise, i recommend MyFitnessPal. If you want more accurate records of distance and what not, then Strava is better.

Both of these apps are free and easy to find in all app stores. They were truly instrumental in my progression and at the price of nada, why not?

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In summary, it is a horrible mistake for a person who has become overweight to try to overdo it - this will almost certainly lead to giving up and simply returning to the old lifestyle. The natural progression will be to gradually try to do a bit more but you can't force it, just let it come to you. This isn't a competition and while it is a cliche it is still true.... "this is a marathon, not a sprint"

Just take it easy, the progress will come.

_{Just as my usual disclaimer of sorts I want to re-state that I am not a professional trainer or nutritionist. There is no one fix-all for everyone and there are a lot of different schools of thought out there. I am just describing what I did in my own life and it worked for me. I lost over 50 pounds over a year or so and now I keep it off.}