Lose Seven Pounds in Seven Days: Day Two

Day 2: Weigh yourself again! You're going to be doing this every day. The loss you can expect is usually dictated by how your life style regarding food was before this. If you were a chronic emotional eater, probably eating more than 2500 calories every day, you may lose 2-3 pounds today. If you had an average diet (1700-2200 calories) you are almost guaranteed to lose a pound by today, two if you're lucky. If you had previously been restricting, you may lose a pound today or one every other day.

Wakey wakey, tired? Of course you are. That doesn't matter. Push yourself anyway. Do 100 jumping jacks, 100 sit ups, 50 squats, 50 lunges each leg, 20 push ups. Just like yesterday, this is going to be routine. I don't care if your muscles hurt or you feel like you're running on air. Jog in place or run outside for about 15 minutes, then go shower and get ready for school or work. Drink your coffee or tea, this way you don't feel so empty. If you are really that hungry, make broth with a bullion cube to take with you. It will make you feel like you're eating.

At work or school, chew gum all day. Make sure it's sugar free! You don't want all those extra calories! Are your friends hating how grumpy you are? Good. It's been proven that people eat 30% more when they eat with friends than alone. Today you are going to be more tempted. If you get offered food or a snack or even a candy, you can not accept it. Cheating is what leads to bingeing, which is FAILURE. Do you really want to lose weight, or are you just doing this to fool yourself? You are the only one who controls what goes in your mouth. You have complete and total power to say no to cookies and yes to thin. Keep drinking your tea or coffee. Have a book or something to distract yourself when you have spare time. People who eat out of boredom will be most tempted now.

When you finish with school or work and you are home, DON'T EAT OUT OF TIREDNESS. You will want to eat because you think you have no energy. Nope. Take a fruit, not a snack food, but something that grew from the earth, and eat that. You will get real energy and nutrients which will make a bigger improvement than snack foods. No, yogurt does not count as a fruit. Even if it's some sort of fruit flavor, you need real, unprocessed food. It will feel like more because your stomach is adjusting to eating less. Some people will feel more hungry after this because when you start eating, you don't want to stop. This is enough for you to function and do your work, so once you start focusing on something else, the cravings will go away.

Ding ding dinner time! Think you're more hungry than yesterday, so you get to eat more? You really only need the same amount of food. Almost forgot... do some stretches! Making yourself wait longer for food demonstrates control over your body. When you are in control, you are less likely to make irrational decisions with food, and you will probably make healthier choices. Just like yesterday, no meat, no grains. Did you have potatoes yesterday? Doesn't matter, you can't have any today. That's the only vegetable you are served/know how to make? Get experienced then. Make a salad. You can buy premixed salads at the supermarket, they even tell you how many calories are in them. Avoid dressing and croutons, they carry too many calories and if you add some seasonings with far less calories, your salad can still be flavorful. Eat slowly also, wait at least 15 seconds between swallowing your last bite and taking your next. You'll know when you really are full, even if you think it's not possible to be full because your stomach must have some how turned into a black hole because you went more than 36 hours without a cookie...

Count up your calories. How many did you have? Compare them to this chart to see what you're doing today:
1-200: 60 second wall sit, 50 push ups, 50 squats
201-400: ^ + 40 lunges each leg, 45 second plank
401-800: ^^ + five minutes of jumping jacks, 30 minutes of running
801+: ^^ + PURGE IT ALL you only made it this high by CHEATING this is not okay. You are a failure, you probably aren't even taking this seriously.

Tonight, think about how you have done so far. If you have set a goal weight, how far from it are you? Have you kept up with the amount you need to lose every day in order to meet it? You can always reconsider a more realistic goal.