Weight Loss Blogging: The Best Dieting Tips I’ve Learned

This past week marks a momentous occasion for me. On June 17th I celebrated my one year weight loss blogging anniversary and I cannot believe how far I’ve come. When I was first asked to blog for Weight Loss Center I was skeptical that I would have anything interesting to say on a daily basis. However, as the days went on I always found pieces of my life that were related and could be shared. I also started to embrace weight loss blogging as a way to help myself lose weight and set weight loss goals. This experience of writing for Weight Loss Center has been life-changing and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that they have given me. Thanks guys, you’re the best!

I suppose there is no better way to commemorate my weight loss blogging anniversary that with a weekly weigh in. Last week was pretty impressive – I lost 7 pounds and was down to 204lbs. At this morning’s weigh in my weight was…

198 lbs

Yes, whoot whoot! I am ecstatic. I am elated. I am encouraged. I am, for the first time in over three years, below 200lbs. This is the best anniversary gift I could have given myself.

This week marks my one year weight loss blogging anniversary. In this post I share the best dieting tips I have learned over the past year.

Now that I’m calming down from my excitement of this morning’s weigh in I can begin to reflect on what I have learned over the past year of blogging. As I’m searching through my old posts and reading through some of my favorites, I feel that today would be perfect for pointing out the best dieting tips I’ve learned over the past year. Here they are, in no particular order:

Dieting Tip #1: Keep a weight loss journal. My weight loss became much more structured when I started setting goals for myself and started documenting all foods and calories I eat on a daily basis. Although keeping a weight loss journal by hand is time consuming, now that I use Fitday.com I am able to track all my calories consumed, calories burned and lots of other interesting nutritional info. On a daily basis I try to have a calorie deficit of 500 to 1000 calories. This works out to be a 2-4 pound loss of body fat a week, which is a healthy rate to lose weight.

Dieting Tip #2: Learn as much as you can. Weight loss blogging has helped me learn about myself and what it takes to lose weight. This is because when I am curious about a weight loss topic I am motivated to find the answer and share it in the blog. In this way I have gained so much more knowledge about dieting, weight loss, fitness and exercise and as we all know, knowledge is power. For all the dieters out there trying to lose weight I cannot tell you enough how important it is that you learn about basic nutrition and health. Read blogs, read books, participate in forums (Weight Loss Center has a great forum here: Weight Loss Forum) and learn as much as you can. Not only will this knowledge help you through losing weight right now, but it will give you a solid foundation for making long-term and permanent lifestyle changes that will help you maintain your weight in the future.

Dieting Tip #3: Stop Making Excuses! There are a million-and-one excuses we can make to avoid dieting or exercise. “I can’t afford a gym membership so I can’t exercise” (someone actually said this to me, see the post here “Weight Loss Done Cheap“) or “I don’t have time to eat healthier meals”. I used to be the queen of excuses and for that reason I have spent most of my youth and adult life overweight. What has changed these days is my determination. I really want to lose weight and I’m doing all I can to achieve that. This is what weight loss requires. You have to make hard choices, like exercising even when you have a cold or having only a couple of drinks at a party instead of a whole bunch. You may feel like you are missing out sometimes, but it’s worth it and it’s necessary.

Dieting Tip #4: Water is the essence of life and weight loss. Everyone who writes weight loss tips always, always mentions how important it is to drink lots of water. Without water your body becomes dehydrated and your metabolism slows down (refer to the post “How Dehydration Affects Metabolism“), which is not what you want when trying to lose weight. Also, drinking water is a great way to help fight hunger pangs and is a spectacular, zero-calorie and refreshing beverage to replace other high-calorie drinks with, such as juices, coffees and sodas. Enough said.

Dieting Tip #5: Protein is one of nature’s most powerful appetite suppressants. Using protein to curb hunger is something that I only started to do recently. This post that I wrote back in May, “How Protein Curbs Hunger” really opened my eyes to how easy and great a dieting tip this is. Since this post I have been making sure to have a source of protein every morning with breakfast, bring a lunch that also contains protein and also one protein snack that I eat about an hour before exercising. The difference in my hunger, particularly between meals is really noticeable. My favorite high-protein snack is chocolate protein shakes (made with one cup skim milk and chocolate soy protein powder). This snack is easy, tasty and can be brought to work or wherever I may be.

Dieting Tip #6: Remove temptation and get rid of your junk food. I would love to say that I have will-power of steel, but really I don’t. Although I don’t struggle too much with the temptation of donuts in the office like I used to (the problem with office donuts described here “Insulin Response to Sight and Smell of Sweet Foods“) I find that when I am at home almost anything goes. For this reason I have had to ban all processed junk foods from my sight in our house. My husband still eats it occasionally, but he has a hidden stash somewhere that I’ve yet to find. The point here is that dieting is hard enough just getting through day-to-day and it is important to make your house, or at least your kitchen, a safe place to be. Get rid of the chips, cookies and crackers and replace them with healthy, low-calorie snacks (don’t forget protein snacks like cheese sticks or beef jerky). Then, when you do reach for something at least you won’t be taking two steps backwards in your diet.

Dieting Tip #7: Mix up your exercise routine. Our bodies are much smarter than we give them credit for. Really, all our bodies want to do is the most amount of work for the least amount of energy. The body is always striving to become more efficient – it’s a survival skill. So when it comes to exercise you need to mix up your routine so that your body doesn’t become accustom to what’s required of it. This makes your body work harder and burn more calories during activity. In the past six months I have really been focusing on this when exercising. A couple of days a week I’ll go to the gym for cardio and weights, then a long bike ride at least one day, then jogging another day and interval training another. I also go swimming, play sports (soccer, tennis) and take long walks. Not only has mixing up my exercise routine kept my body on its toes, but it has also kept my brain stimulated and exercising is not as boring as it used to be so I’m more inclined to do it.

Dieting Tip #8: Set small weight loss goals to work towards. Setting weight loss goals for myself is one of the best things I have done. Before the goals were set I was trying to lose weight, but the task often felt daunting because I had so much weight to lose. However, when I started setting smaller goals for myself I started to have much more success. It’s also really fun because instead of celebrating one big weight loss, you can celebrate a whole lot of little ones. When you first start dieting make your goal really small, like 5 or 10 pounds. Then, once you’ve reached that you can make bigger goals like 15 to 20 pounds or just keep to the small ones. Find what works best for you and stick to it.

Dieting Tip #9: Start your diet the second you decide you want to lose weight. Postponing the beginning of your diet for a week, or a month or even a day can be a big mistake. Many people say they will start “tomorrow”, but never actually do and the whole cycle repeats over and over. Instead, as soon as you say to yourself, “I want to go on a diet and lose weight” you should consider yourself dieting. There will always be occasions in life that make dieting “inconvenient”, but the sooner you learn to get through those occasions without totally blowing your diet the better off you’ll be.

Dieting Tip #10: Take responsibility for your health. Although the majority of my blog posts over the past year have had to do with dieting and weight loss, one of the things I feel I have benefited most from is learning about my own health in general. Healthy eating and exercise are not just a part of dieting, but they are an essential part of living a long life. Treat your body like it is a temple. Stop polluting yourself with fats and chemicals and preservatives and start rejuvenating your body with natural foods, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Another important part of taking responsibility for your health is to get a checkup by your doctor. Your health lies in your own hands, so take control and make the changes that are needed.

Well, I feel like I could go on and on about all the amazing dieting tips I’ve learned over the past year of weight loss blogging. It has been an amazing journey and I can’t wait to look back in a years time and see how much more I have accomplished and learned. Thank you everyone for visiting and reading and learning with me. I appreciate all the comments from our visitors too and look forward to many, many more conversations. Finally, today I would like to leave you with a short list of some of my favorite posts from the past year. Not only were these posts inspiring to write, but in some way they have all changed how I live my own life. Enjoy :).

Guinea Piggy’s Top 5 Life-Changing Blog Posts (so far):
“Charities that Fight Hunger”
“Talking to Your Children about Weight Loss”
“Healthy Weight Loss”
“Weight Loss Tips for a Party Night”
“Tips to Avoid Overeating“