You may think I’m absolutely crazy, and that’s ok, but I’m going to share a simple weight loss solution with you today, that I truly feel will revolutionize your life, and you may hate me. Because you’ll have to run up to the dollar general, or wally world to buy a new belt, or maybe some new clothes because of me.
I don’t think the wellness industry is giving us what we actually need, since over 93 million people, in America alone, are still obese. Check out the statistics here. And the numbers keep growing.
Something is broken.
We have been taught that calories in (eating) should be less than calories out (burned = exercise), or omitting carbs, or following a new fad diet will solve all of our weight problems.
I get it. I’ve been in the obese and overweight categories for the last 16 years, and tried every. single. diet. that someone told me about.
That’s a lot of diets, y’all.
I feel like I could sing the Ariel song about diets…heck, let me do that now.
I’ve done Atkins and Keto a plenty, I’ve done Raw Food and Green Juice galore, you think diet pills really work? I’ve done twenty! But who cares? No big deal. I’m still faaaaaaat.
– Jamie Sossamon
I seriously laugh about this! You remember ephedra? Yep, done it. Before it was blacklisted.
Here’s the thing, I would “commit” and rock them for a few days, some lasted weeks, lose some weight, start eating what my family ate, gain it back, and usually, a few more pounds than before.
It was frustrating, to say the least. And I’m kinda hoping you can relate by this point. HA!
You may be wondering now if I’m some skinny girl sitting behind a desk writing this article. Nope. Not at goal weight. YET. But I’m not where I used to be at over 230 lbs. I’m sitting comfortably at 172 lbs. for the past 6ish months, on my 5’4″ frame. So I still have some weight to lose, but I’m super proud of myself for maintaining it thus far, and I swear it’s because of these steps I’ve been doing without even knowing I was even doing them!
As you can see above, I got down to 150 lbs, technically I dropped down to 142, and in my mind I was still fat. I worked so hard on multiple diets to do that, only to go back up again when I got off of them. I just wanted you to kinda meet me by a picture that I had posted on Instagram from before. So you can see, I know it’s not easy. I can still remember walking down the airplane aisle and either my belly or my butt (or both) brushed up against the people already sitting in their chairs.
And to be brutally honest with you, I have been beating myself up mentally for gaining 20ish lbs back after moving to the east coast. But I’ve come to realize, through the little babysteps I’ve been doing and will be sharing with you soon, it’s working at least to maintain, and now if I continue this with full focus, and prove this can work, do you realize how many people can be helped?? No more ridiculous meal plans, no more killing ourselves in the gym, no more hating someone else for eating that birthday cake while we eat a dang carrot.
Anyways, let’s keep going. Kinda got a little emotional and heated there.
These 6 stupid simple steps to weight loss literally BLASTED me in the head at 7 am, while I was trying like crazy to sleep, after taking care of a sick child the night before. Even that weird, s-filled title came into my head as I was trying to rest a little longer. And you know what my response was? Ok, then prove it. Prove that these are the things to get me to goal weight. So, I’m going to do my own experiment with myself, and prove these work.
Oh yeah, and I’m also just a mom of five that is determined to flip this wellness industry on it’s noggin’ and help people learn to finally love themselves, no matter their weight, and help them learn how to release a few extra pounds by doing a few things each day, along with their already busy life.
Any chance you’re ready to hear what these 6 stupid simple steps are?
Let’s rock this. Grab a piece of paper and a pen real quick, I’ll wait. 😉
Ready? Ok!
Fix Your MINDSET.
Our mindset has immense power over anything and everything we do, or don’t do. I want you to wake up and think, Yes I CAN do this. Whatever “this” is. Ok?
So let’s say my first goal is 5 lbs. I can do this. Babysteps. Write a small goal down that you have right now, not the big hairy goal. Like my big hairy goal is to lose 50 pounds, to be at my wedding day weight (from 18 1/2 years ago! gasp!) I don’t want you to avoid that big hairy goal, but I want you to break it down in small, bite sized pieces, so you can kick it’s butt. Get it? Good.
Now, we’re not going to listen to the negative voices in our heads telling us our muffin top turned jelly-rolls are showing, or our arm jiggle is still waving long after we’ve stopped. Done. Goodbye ugly-mouthed hater in our heads. (These are just a few of what my mind has literally said to me!! What I don’t get is how I could allow this — I sure as heck wouldn’t allow my husband to talk to me like that, so why do I allow myself to talk to me like that?? So if you do this, kiss your ugly-mouthed hater goodbye too…right now!)
Listen, I really want you to release the negative voices for good, whether that’s in a journal, or you wish to meditate, or even write something you’re grateful for every. single. day. Let’s start feeding our brains positive. Because listen, I know those dang voices hurt us so much sometimes that we just want to leave our pajamas on, or stay in our homes, or even beds to avoid people, if we can.
Ok, let’s move on. I really hope you get what I mean here. I may expand on this down the road, if someone asks me to. 😉
Plan what you are going to eat.
I’m not talking a strict diet here, either. I’m talking make a plan, ANY plan, for what you are going to eat this week.
You want Taco Bell? Plan it.
You want grilled chicken salad? Plan it.
Flip over your sheet of paper, write the next 7 days down the left side, then write breakfast, lunch, and dinner beside or under each day. Plan it. Make your plan of what you will eat for each meal, for the next 7 days.
THEN, you have to follow it.
Become THE ONE in control of what goes into your mouth. You made the choice to write those items down. Stick to it. Enjoy them, savor them, thank them for feeding your body, and celebrate that you created your own meal plan, and you stuck to it.
Repeat weekly.
Drink your dang water.
Oh my word, I hear from my kids all the time, “I don’t want water, momma!” tough, drink it anyways. Heck, even I pout and stomp like a child because I want something besides water. (and please never, ever, ask me to give up my coffee…we’ll be enemies forever!)
But seriously, we should drink water to replenish our cells, help us focus, flush out toxins, improve our skin tone, aid in the digestion process of the food we planned, prevent headaches, and even increase our moods. Oh, and it also helps to flush fat. Boom, baby.
So, drink up that dang water and wave bye-bye (mentally) to that extra fat. Of course, it won’t happen overnight, but when we increase our water intake, and become actually hydrated, we will see a difference in so many areas, as you can see, and probably have already heard before.
If you want to shoot for 8 glasses (64 oz) of water a day, rock that. Personally, I shoot to drink half my body weight in ounces per day.
Reduce snacking between meals.
That’s pretty self-explanatory, but remember the plan you created a few minutes ago? Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. ←snacks weren’t included!
If you’re a snacker at heart, cut down little by little. OR rock your plan above like the bad (insert explicit language here) you are, because YOU planned it, baby!!
If you want MY truth here, I eat Lunch and Dinner. I literally drink coffee for breakfast, but that’s because with my thyroid meds I take every morning, I can’t eat for an hour anyways, so I just lose track of time and eat lunch with my kiddos, and then dinner of course with my family.
Get 7–8 hours of sleep every night.
How did I just hear you groan? HA!
No joke, I’ve noticed I lose a few ounces MORE weight when I sleep for 7–8 hours the night before. If I sleep 3–4 hours, I lose none, even though I get more done, hence, moving more.
Apparently, our body does some pretty powerful things when we sleep. So make a commitment to yourself to get your rest!
So, get you a real alarm clock, don’t use your phone by your bed, or you’ll be tempted to look at it, scroll Facebook, or chat with someone. Charge your phone outside of your room, and actually lay down in your bed for 8 hours every night (or day if you work at night!). I hope you get what I mean there.
8 hours REST, which hopefully leads to about 7 hours of SLEEP.
Move a little more each day.
I have this private Facebook group where I do a 4 minute workout every evening at 8:30. I literally go live in there to motivate women to move a little more each day. That is all I can seem to squeeze into my day right now, and I’m maintaining. Now, once I add even more, like the 15 minute workout I did before to get under 200 lbs, I’ll see the scale give me some kudos for that, meaning, go down a little more.
Don’t like working out at the gym? Go for a leisurely walk and enjoy the scenery.
Like lifting weights to release stress? Rock it girl (or dude).
Me? Even when I’m committed to working out, I work out at home, because I’m one of those people who absolutely does NOT like sweating in front of others. I literally will do my very LEAST in front of a group, but kick butt at home.
Find your groove for movement, and if you have to start with a 4 minute exercise with me, that’s ok! Just have a goal to get some kind of movement in your day, each and every day.
That’s it! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Think you can? Yep, you’re right!
I’m cheering for YOUR success in reaching your weight goals!!
Oh, and one last thing before I go tonight.
That number on the scale DOES NOT EQUAL YOUR VALUE.
– Jamie Sossamon
If you don’t hear anything else from me in this article, I want you to hear this. YOU were created for a purpose. YOU are valuable to our world, and that scale is absolutely NO reflection of your awesomeness. I mean that.
