Tag Archives: frugal weight loss

Frugal Weight Loss Update 220

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Great news today!

I weighted myself and I’m down 30 lbs from where I started (March 15th, 2012)!

What is my secret? Did I spend a lot of money or do some incredibly intense workout program?

No, all I did switch to a low carb diet and spend up to 10 minutes every other morning doing a light exercise routine of a set or two (depending on how late I’m running on getting to work) of pushups and situps.  My exercise routine is so light that I hesitated in calling it exercise!

Did I spend a lot of money since my diet is more protein based?

No, Eggs was a primary stable and they are incredible cheap. Eating eggs for breakfast enabled me to reduce my breakfast cost by at least 75% versus the way I use to eat. Lunch and dinner was more expensive though, so it was a wash with respect to the cost overall.

Do I miss desserts and other carbs?

Yes, but I deviate from a totally low carb diet by occasionally getting dessert when we go out to eats on the weekends and sometimes I’ll even eat a slice of bread at those restaurants, on the weekend during the same sitting.  For the dessert, I split it with a family member and actually, it’s really their dessert and I’m just eating a third of it.  After I get down to my target weight range, I’ll continue to increase my carb intake, making sure that I continue to eat healthy.  By healthy, I mean skipping the pre-process sugars and flours found in too many sweet snacks these days!

What is my goal at this new weight?

Not much really, just to stay the course.  After I lose another 10 pounds, I’m planning on introducing a light weight workout routine.  Such a weight lifting program will be more for vanity than health though.  Although there is some bone density benefits in doing so, and possible a delay of aging (or so I’ve read).  Personally, I just like looking good when I workout with weight and also it might be a good model for my son and daughter to follow.

Bests,

MR

Accelerating Weight Loss Cheaply With Light Exercise

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So what exactly do I mean “Accelerating Weight Loss Cheaply With Light Exercise?  And why didn’t I start out with such an exercise program to begin with?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to loss more than 10 pounds!  Considering how out of shape I was, that’s the magical number than means I have some wiggle room to be more aggressive with my weight loss program.

My theory is that by losing some weight before I start working out means that I would be less prone to injury or feeling sick from working out.  I think too many people jump right into a rigorous exercise program at the start of a weight loss effort and get discourage because they make themselves sick because they lack that wiggle room that I mentioned.  The last thing I want to do is defeat my weight loss program practically before I start.

 

The advantage of losing some weight before exercising are as follows:

  • By weighting less your body is still used to the extra weight, so your body is stronger than it was when you were heavier.
  • You have more energy because your body doesn’t have to work as hard to accomplish the same things as before when you weight more.
  • Hopefully the harmful impact to your body will be reduced since you are slightly lighter.  This is the wiggle room that I mentioned above.
  • You can visually see and feel that you are smaller and feel more mobile and agile when you move.

My Cheap, Light Exercise Program!

So to start my “Light Exercise” program, I’m going to increase both my anaerobic and aerobic activities.  Now having a two targeted approach to weight loss might not sound cheap, but don’t be deceived, it’s not a complex nor as expensive as it sounds  since I don’t plan on working out more than two or three hours a week at home!

Anaerobic Portion:

For this portion of my workout routine, I plan on taking 15 minutes in the morning (or afternoon), every other day to do the following “Light” workout routine:

  • 2 sets of pushups, doing 10 repetitions each.
  • 2 sets of situps (or crunches) again, doing 10 repetitions each.
  • 2 set of leg bends, for 10 repetitions each.

Now I plan to do the three types of exercise above in a casual circuit like style.  so the combination of (pushups, situps, and leg bends) will be done as a continuous superset with a couple minutes break between the 2 supersets.

The supersets are primarily for time reasons, not necessarily some secret weight loss secret.

After I lose 10 more additional pounds for a total of 20 pounds of total loss from the beginning of my weight loss program, I’ll increase my sets to 3 each per exercise, and also increase the number of reps in each set above to 15 then 20.  The reasoning for this is that if I’m an additional 10 pounds lighter, I should have more energy and strength that I do now at my current level of fitness.

Aerobic Portion:

With this part of the “Light Exercise” routing, I’m just planning on mowing my lawn at a brisk pace once (or twice a week), and then walking the dog a few times a week for 10 to 15 minute walk intervals.  Nothing to strenuous on this portion of my exercise program, but still it’s a start!

Weight Loss Cheaply:

All aspects of my weight loss is that fact that I can do it cheaply.  I’m not going to join an expensive gym, nor am I buying a type of new exercise equipment.  Now I’m mentioned a similar approach in the past in the article called: Frugal Weight Loss and Body Shaping, and basically I’m following that principal because I know that it works for me.

The big difference between today and my prior article  is that I’m slowing the weight loss pace down more than I did last time.

I’m excited to add this new element to my informal weight loss program!

Cheers,

MR

 

 

 

Frugal Weight Loss and Body Shaping

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I just weight myself this morning and after a little over 3 weeks, I’m down 20 pounds!

So what’s the big deal about losing 20 pounds?

I’m going to exercising to start shaping my body into the athletic look that improved the way I feel and perform when doing physical tasks.  It’s nice to be thin, be even better to be in optimal shape to go with the look.

How am I going about it?

I decided to start my frugal weight loss using the Akins diet.  It’s a very cheap way to start if you use eggs and cheese as your stable during those first few weeks of the diet.

The problem with dieting is that while you’re losing fat, you are so losing muscle, but that’s where exercise comes in.  Exercising helps to maintain the muscle mass while stripping away the fat from your body while dieting.

A low carb diet is excellent for working out with weight and dieting at the same time.  Since your meals are higher in protein than your typical diet, if you work out with weights or some form of resistance training, your diet provides a steady stream of protein building materials.  They are perfectly complimentary to each other!

Vitamins are a stable!

While a low carb diet (like Akins) is high on protein, I’ve found that it’s necessary to supplement the diet with a daily intake of vitamins.  Not only are they required by the body, they also help expedite the weight loss process.  I might talk more about my selection of vitamins in a future post, but for now taking any multi-vitamin is good and can only help!

Starting slowly

Instead of jumping in and starting to lift weight right out of the gate, I’m going to start resistance training by doing pushups, situps, no weight squats and some curling with light weights.  I’ll do this routing for a few weeks to a month, then I’ll shift gears and start using the weights I have at my house to move into more of a heavy resistance-training routine.

And this is how I’m going to go about it!

Thanks for following me on the start of my new lifestyle, it should beat my middle class lifestyle!

MR

Losing Weight The Frugal Way Update 1

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It’s been 1 week and 2 days since I started my frugal weight loss diet, but since half the battle of such programs is the start, it’s time for a quick update!  I’ve been able to keep my meal expenses under $10 easily enough, so this part of my weight loss plan is working quite well.  I’ve also started cooking dinner for my family once a week, but I’m only partially successful with this new plan.

Diet Start

I’ve decided to go with a low-carb diet and since protein is more expensive that other food sources, having a $10 daily limit for the total cost for food has worked out well.  I still spend less than previously because I take advantage of my employer’s company resources such as their free coffee and filtered water.  While the diet isn’t a paradise for your taste buds, it’s a highly effective diet for the first 2 weeks to 1 month.  After 1 month, I plan on shifting to more of a south beach kind of diet.  I will be on the more healthy south beach diet for 6 months or longer.  After the south beach diet I plan on starting to adopt a new life style kind of diet mixed in with exercise and healthy eating.  For now though I’m just going to focus on the weight and putting one proverbial foot in front of the other.

So how much weight have I lost?

Eight pounds so far!  Low carb diets are highly effective, and that’s why I decided to use this diet for the initial start.  I do plan on shifting the diet from well know diets to more of a personal lifestyle diet that fits me better, but for now this is good.

 

Cooking Start

In a previous article, I mentions that I plan on cooking dinner for my family once a week.  Instead of jumping in and start by cooking something too complex, I decided to start just by grilling some hamburger patties.  I’ve cooked similar patties and this would be a good refresher for cooking on the grill since this will be my first time this year.  My downfall in this process was that I didn’t prepare any side dishes such as beans or another vegetable, so I grabbed some potato chips, and some “chips and salsa” for my family.  While the side dishes weren’t horrible, I should have microwaved some broccoli, corn or beans.

I’m going to cook steak (rib eye) for my next cooking experiment.  I’ve never cooked steak before so it will be interesting.  For the side dishes, I’m going to use the tried and true broccoli veggie!

 

Assessment of My Start

While I had a few issues with the cooking start, overall I’ve very please with the results.  The eight pounds that I lost so far on the diet is great, I feel smaller and lighter all ready.

Cheers,

MR