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Hi harivendrannathan,
I would like to share my experiences. In the past, it was humiliation and embarrassment that got me to exercise and change my lifestyle. It worked because I didn't want to be made fun of for being overweight. Just to illustrate how well it went for me then, I went from 58kg to 43kg in 2 years (height 157cm). I was skinny by the time I finished my first year in college. I lost weight but my negative perception fed my low self-esteem and it did no good to improve my confidence.
A decade has past and I've managed to keep the weight off. I've been a gym-goer for 5 years now and I've had personal trainers to help me with my work-out goals. I'm currently with my fourth instructor and he's a wonderful guy who is serious with his work and clients. He's my main motivator now. We work together to help me achieve my current work-out goal, which is to improve my posture, build my strength and endurance. It is no longer humiliation and embarrassment that used to be my only drive to lose weight. I exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle to live well. I feel it puts me ahead in everything I do in my life.
I'm much more confident now and have a better self image. I have zero cravings for junk food and sweets (I can ignore and pass an isle of chocolates and not feel a thing). I eat regularly and eat well. I'm more active physically and more alert mentally. I love shopping for gym clothes and work-out shoes and I freaking look forward to going to the gym, can you believe that? I'm not a gym/work-out/health freak. I love the lifestyle cos it's put me in the right state of mind.
I think when it comes to choosing a lifestyle that you are commited to, it's very important to ask yourself why you're making this decision to change it. Why do you want to lose weight? Be specific with your answers and be honest with yourself. Do you want to lose weight to feel good and look great? Do you want to change your eating habits and lifestyle because you have to do it for health reasons? Is it peer pressure for you to go on diets and be of a certain weight? It can be anything at all and it's fine whatever it is as long as you're honest about it. You have to know Why you're making this decision.
Ask yourself how much you're willing to put in to this to make it work for you. Are you commited enough to spend time everyday to exercise? Are you commited enough to give up the bad food that you love and crave everyday? Are you commited enough to keep this up and keep it going until you've reached your goal? What are you willing to do to make it work for you, e.g. balanced meals, regular exercise, sufficient rest, positive mindset, etc?
Give yourself a reasonable and achievable time frame. It is always important to set a timeline for yourself. Indefinite timelines will always be just that, plans that will stretch exponantially over an indefinite period of time, i.e. forever. Set small goals that are very easily attainable, e.g. lose 2kg in 4-6 months. Don't go overboard with quantities because if you can't reach your goal you'll get discouraged and it'll put you off. Always remember: Baby steps at a time.
What can you do to lose weight? There are good ways of losing weight and there are bad ways of losing weight. The bad ways of losing weight are bad because they are only quick, short-term, temporal solutions to a lifetime goal. They can also be hazardous to your health and may cause permenant damage to your body. This can range anything from fad diets like the infamous Atkins Diet, diet pills, eating disorders like bulimia, anorexia, etc to excessive smoking, hard-liquor, alcohol and drugs. Stay away from these.
The good way of losing weight and to keep it off is to eat well, play/work well and sleep well. It's as simple as that. Be sure to have your well balance meals at regular time intervals, e.g. breakfast, lunch and dinner. Be sure to have your fruits and veggies (vitamins, minerals and fibre), meats (protein, calcium, iron and fatty acids = cell regeneration) and grains (carbohydrates = energy) in equal moderate portions.
Drink plenty of water. Sufficient water hydrates and delivers nutrients to your organs and tissues and expels toxins from the body (helps with bowel movements). Water retention during the first phrase of working out should be the least of your worries. How much of water to drink? You can go by the rule of approx. 2L per day or you can use this guideline:
1) Measure your weight in Pounds.
2) Halve this number (divide by 2).
3) This is the amount of water you should be drinking per day in Ounces.
You won't need junk food, sweets and soda drinks but if you crave them, allow yourself a treat every once in a while. Don't punish yourself brutally. Everybody needs a break, including yourself. Just remember not to get too carried away with it. Have a little but never deprive yourself of anything. You'll start to binge on bad food and you'll ruin all of your hard work.
Work-out with cardiovascular exercises (running, jogging, walking, step training, rowing, swimming = fat burning), weight training (barbells, dumbells, weight machines, fitball, abdominal crunches = muscle building) and stretches (warmup and cool down). Everything should be in moderation. When training with weights, make sure you let your muscles rest at least 48 hours before working them out again. Resting is just as important as working out because it allows the tissues to repair and heal.
Most importantly is to get 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep everyday. This allows your body to completely recover from the previous day's activities. If you don't get enough sleep you won't be able to perform to the best of your abilities the following day.
If you feel you need a personal trainer to help you out with basic training, I highly encourage you to do so if you can afford it. They're expensive (sessions are usually charged by the hour) but they're definitely well worth the investment. Working out the wrong way can cause injury. You can also end up wasting time doing exercises that don't help you achieve your goals. Ottherwise, there are plenty of good reliable websites online that can show you how to plan your weekly work-outs and how to work specific muscles groups in various positions and ways.
Results can be slow to come but keep it up. You'll notice long term changes in you physiologically as well as psychologically. You'll thank yourself for it years later.
I hope this helps. Good luck to you and I hope to hear good progress from you soon!
Regards,
WS
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Nov 10 2010, 02:23 PM, updated 15y ago
.help me. 
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soon to be..IN PROGRESS!
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