CommandaPanda wrote: »

Hi Nina,

I was in the same boat as you not too long ago. I had a trip abroad which actually impacted my self-esteem so much that I wanted to get back to the US as fast as possible to change my life. People didn't make fun of me that I noticed, but I hated being perceived as the stereotypical American. Within a week into my trip, I was pretty dead set on my objective to lose weight and get in shape, which needed to fall into 2 new habits:
1) Exercise
2) Disciplined eating (including tracking/logging)

I returned to the US on a Saturday and was in the gym on Sunday morning. Starting the diet was probably more challenging because I didn't know where to start. Ultimately, I just made some things I knew I liked. Grilled chicken thighs for lunch with a side of broccoli, 8oz ribeye grilled for dinner with a side of green beans, and greek yogurt with 1TBSP of walnuts for "dessert." I skipped breakfast because I'm not the biggest fan of breakfast, and I didn't want to discourage myself by holding myself to making it.

So that was my brief story of how I got back into things. But how YOU can get started right NOW is by setting clear and measurable (and realistic) goals. Everybody has their method, but here are a few to get you thinking:

• Picture what you will look like at goal, focus on that every day (even meditate on it if that's your thing)
• Know exactly what you want to weigh and estimate how much you need to lose per month to get there (this will give you a more realistic monthly loss goal)
• Weekly body measurements: neck, chest, shoulders, arms (upper), forearms, waist, hips, thighs, calves; There will be weeks that you don't really lose a lot of weight, which can be discouraging. Taking body measurements will give you another measurable metric to show that your body is changing in ways that can't be seen on a scale to help you keep up your motivation
• Track days in the gym to start. Set a clear goal of how many days and how much time you are in the gym each week. Start by committing 3 days a week, then eventually you'll probably increase that to 4 days, or maybe even 5 days (who knows). The day you start doesn't matter as long as you start. Having a "tomorrow" mindset is a toxic place to be, mainly because we want to be in the mindset of getting things done NOW.

If you haven't been a gym rat at one point or another in your life, it can be incredibly intimidating. I recommend searching for a workout routine that suits your needs. I'm a fan of workouts from Muscle & Strength as they have so many options to suit your goals, and each workout has videos for every exercise to show you proper form.

All this said, the main theme I'm trying to convey is making sure you are setting realistic expectations and goal setting. 20 lbs is quite the endeavor in 1 month. To further share where I'm at in my "journey," I started exactly 5 weeks ago. I am a former gym rat, so I'm familiar with the mindset required to get the most out of my gym sessions (still, in the beginning, you need to start slow). I've lost 17 lbs so far (in 5 weeks). This includes going to the gym 4x per week focused on strength training, 3x cardio days per week, logging everything I eat for every meal to ensure that I'm always in a deficit and under 20-30g carbs per day, fasting on days where I'm not in the gym (to include a 48 hour fast at the end of each week), and no compromises (read: no cheat days). I think that I'm on the extreme end of the spectrum as far as a discipline to routine goes.
This is all to say that, although not impossible, you'll want to level set with yourself and maybe say, "I want to lose 10lbs by Easter". If you set a goal of 20lbs lost in 4 weeks and then you only lose 6lbs by week 2, you're going to get discouraged and want to quit.

All right, I'm done. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you find this helpful and encouraging.