How to take the right starting point

You can do it by losing only 10-15% of your original weight in the first week, by eating ketogenic or low-carb foods, or by adding some vegan cheeses, nuts, seeds, and vegetables into your meals at least 3 times per day.


But even if you have no problem with this plan, if you don't want to lose just 5-10% of your initial body weight, you need this plan.


1. Prepare a cheat sheet

It may be hard to prepare a cheat sheet for such a large number of foods but do your best to take note of what you will eat and when. It is easy to skip some things and forget about others. You don't have time now to prepare everything in advance, so you should have enough to fill up two big bags (one for everything, one for leftovers). Try not to add lots of extra ingredients; you might add something later to try and increase its volume (for example, chay juices).

 Don't add too much sugar because most people skip that part. If you have a sweet tooth, add some mint leaves instead of sugar. Add all the other ingredients you think are good to add in the cheat sheet but you can leave out anything else. These are usually more important later. Just write down everything and remember to return to it whenever you want. Now that you have written everything down, start thinking about the recipes you want to use. For each recipe, add a little bit of protein.

 So, a burger with cheese will come from any restaurant but there will be differences between restaurants. Start thinking about how much protein you can put in your burgers, fries, salads, and smoothies, and then work on preparing them so you feel like going somewhere (and eating outside) by yourself and getting delicious burgers.


2. Keep an eye on your calorie consumption

You need to work out the number of calories that will be needed to gain weight in order to lose them. This doesn't mean that you should never have a cheat sheet though but rather understand what kind of energy deficit your body has. A person who burns 100 calories per day is also in a deficit. This person needs to change the way she exercises and diet in order to achieve her goal.

 The next thing to consider is how many calories do you use per day? Do you exercise? Take care of your body or do you watch TV or play video games all day long? There are a lot of options here and it is hard to make some decisions without doing a proper calculation. Make sure that these numbers work better for you.


3. Adjust the calories you eat

If your fat intake is too high (i.e. too many carbs), it can affect the results that you achieve. Weight loss is only possible if you burn more energy than you consume. It shouldn't be a surprise then that your body will get tired of losing weight, at least it will if you were just talking about it. In fact, it can be helpful if you cut back on the protein in your diet.

 When you don't have enough carbs or protein, it causes your muscles to weaken and won't function as well. So even though you started exercising to lose weight, you still need to adjust your calorie consumption in order to have a positive result.

 However, I've seen many people achieve great results by working out just once a week (to train more muscle mass) and then cutting out every other day of food until they haven't used up all their energy (usually, the last 3 days or even less, depending on whether you were tired, low or hungry). As an added bonus, this type of planning also gives you room to experiment with different types of workouts and see which ones are good for you.


4. Get moving

It's extremely hard for people to lose weight by sitting for hours at home while watching over the clock, even worse are those who choose to spend hours by themselves watching tv and playing video games instead of taking a walk around the neighbor hood. But even if you didn't want to go out, you need to move at least 5-8 times every day, in addition to the workout. If you haven't already, try to do exercises you enjoy doing.

 Yoga is an excellent exercise program and is very engaging. Even though you don't have much experience doing yoga, you can practice it for weeks and develop your own routine. Some apps like Zwift will help you learn how to do basic poses and simple moves. Go for it, don't let your mind wander. Be careful that you are not hurting yourself. Also, remember to breathe! Breathe deeply! It is normal to have those moments where you stop breathing because you are worried about if you've hurt yourself but don't worry if you hurt yourself.

 Every time you feel your heart beating out, think about the moment you were struggling a few minutes ago. It is important to calm yourself and focus on the present moment.


5. Get creative

When we can exercise our minds, we are able to form new ideas and new solutions to problems. Not much time, but still we are able to find the answer. The same goes for dieting. Sometimes our bodies aren't capable of making us lose weight, so in order to lose weight, we need to get rid of what is causing obesity in the first place.

 That means that more often than not, what we eat is what our body needs a lot of the time. Most likely it is our thoughts and feelings that cause the excess weight of the past. Try to eliminate what is really causing your weight: bad habits, poor habits, depression or sadness, or loneliness. Change your feelings and habits.


6. Let yourself know that you are making progress

You can see the difference and feel amazing about it. You need only to give yourself a pat on the back and say thank you for the journey. You don't need to hit the gym to lose weight but you need to know that you are slowly improving every day. To make this even easier, you can write down all the small steps that you've made in the first couple of weeks. Maybe you've lost 15 lbs or maybe you haven't eaten for 30 days. Write everything down where you did it and then look back on your list at the end of the letter.

 Remember those little things and start enjoying them. . You can't expect to go to the gym every day and see a huge improvement overnight, but if you start enjoying it more, you will slowly become aware of how much you actually need to do it. Yes, even if you haven't reached your target, you've got another 50 pounds to lose (or even more if you're willing to work in the gym). And remember, after three months have gone by, your body will be ready.


So start working! It's hard, especially if you don't have access to the internet, but if it doesn't go as planned, start making the changes now!