How many days to lose it all?

When I started of my weight loss journey I always had unrealistic goals and a lot of magazines, articles encouraged me, I’m not talking about taking diet pills or undergoing liposuction but reading all those celebrity weight loss stories and a lot of magazine usually have articles with a heading like ‘Get a toned arms in a week’ or ‘drop a jean size diet’ or’ 90 days to a new you’

I’m not saying you should not read these articles because most of them do have a good list of exercises and good healthy eating tips but I'm not sure about how these always work...

Why?? Because there are so many things that need to be considered, these are generic statements, how can they apply to everybody? How can everybody no matter how overweight or how unhealthy or fit get toned at the same rate?

I personally noticed this when I bought a fitness DVD which promised 3 months to a toned body, as usual I did my research before buying this, I read a lot of reviews and most of them where positive so I went ahead and picked up the DVD. This was when I was 30 pounds into my weight loss (nearly half way through) I was not very fit but I was used to a bit of exercising. When I started working out using the DVD I realised I could not keep up with the workout all the time, so even if I was giving my 100%  a lot more was expected..and a lot these exercises were new for me, learning the form and doing it without injury took time, all this time got added to the 3 months. So in 3 months I did lose more (I think it was around 8-10 pounds) but I was still 25 pounds away from my normal weight.

My Conclusion for all this:

• Different bodies react differently to exercise. There can never be an exact number of days or set rules that will apply to everybody.  Instead of focusing on the number or the time why not set different goals like being able to do a set of new exercises or increasing the time you jog/walk for.
• A lot depends on your initial fitness level and health. If the program expects you to do squats with weights but you have never done squats in your life I think the first few days will go in just learning the new form otherwise you would injure yourself and sometimes it can be the other way around, the exercises might be easier for you; for example at this point if I go back to only walking it is not going to help me much because my body is already used to jogging. So an article that talks about losing weight by walking will not be as effective for me now as it would have been when I first started my weight loss.
• When you read about workout and different plans nobody considers the slip ups. A lot of times sticking to a program requires a change of mindset and attitude (How can I suddenly become disciplined and stick to a program there will be slip ups). So there has to be some breathing space.
• I still read all possible articles but I read them to learn new exercises, techniques and see if I have missed anything. Most of my exercise routines are based on what I have read or on exercise DVDs but I do this to push my limits, try new things and change my routine. I don’t expect to see any miracle happening, otherwise I could just be disappointed.

What about you? what do you do?Do you find these points useful?

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Tanvee