Tag Archives: frugally losing weight

Accelerating Weight Loss Cheaply With Light Exercise

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So what exactly do I mean “Accelerating Weight Loss Cheaply With Light Exercise?  And why didn’t I start out with such an exercise program to begin with?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to loss more than 10 pounds!  Considering how out of shape I was, that’s the magical number than means I have some wiggle room to be more aggressive with my weight loss program.

My theory is that by losing some weight before I start working out means that I would be less prone to injury or feeling sick from working out.  I think too many people jump right into a rigorous exercise program at the start of a weight loss effort and get discourage because they make themselves sick because they lack that wiggle room that I mentioned.  The last thing I want to do is defeat my weight loss program practically before I start.

 

The advantage of losing some weight before exercising are as follows:

  • By weighting less your body is still used to the extra weight, so your body is stronger than it was when you were heavier.
  • You have more energy because your body doesn’t have to work as hard to accomplish the same things as before when you weight more.
  • Hopefully the harmful impact to your body will be reduced since you are slightly lighter.  This is the wiggle room that I mentioned above.
  • You can visually see and feel that you are smaller and feel more mobile and agile when you move.

My Cheap, Light Exercise Program!

So to start my “Light Exercise” program, I’m going to increase both my anaerobic and aerobic activities.  Now having a two targeted approach to weight loss might not sound cheap, but don’t be deceived, it’s not a complex nor as expensive as it sounds  since I don’t plan on working out more than two or three hours a week at home!

Anaerobic Portion:

For this portion of my workout routine, I plan on taking 15 minutes in the morning (or afternoon), every other day to do the following “Light” workout routine:

  • 2 sets of pushups, doing 10 repetitions each.
  • 2 sets of situps (or crunches) again, doing 10 repetitions each.
  • 2 set of leg bends, for 10 repetitions each.

Now I plan to do the three types of exercise above in a casual circuit like style.  so the combination of (pushups, situps, and leg bends) will be done as a continuous superset with a couple minutes break between the 2 supersets.

The supersets are primarily for time reasons, not necessarily some secret weight loss secret.

After I lose 10 more additional pounds for a total of 20 pounds of total loss from the beginning of my weight loss program, I’ll increase my sets to 3 each per exercise, and also increase the number of reps in each set above to 15 then 20.  The reasoning for this is that if I’m an additional 10 pounds lighter, I should have more energy and strength that I do now at my current level of fitness.

Aerobic Portion:

With this part of the “Light Exercise” routing, I’m just planning on mowing my lawn at a brisk pace once (or twice a week), and then walking the dog a few times a week for 10 to 15 minute walk intervals.  Nothing to strenuous on this portion of my exercise program, but still it’s a start!

Weight Loss Cheaply:

All aspects of my weight loss is that fact that I can do it cheaply.  I’m not going to join an expensive gym, nor am I buying a type of new exercise equipment.  Now I’m mentioned a similar approach in the past in the article called: Frugal Weight Loss and Body Shaping, and basically I’m following that principal because I know that it works for me.

The big difference between today and my prior article  is that I’m slowing the weight loss pace down more than I did last time.

I’m excited to add this new element to my informal weight loss program!

Cheers,

MR

 

 

 

Losing Weight the Frugal Way

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To lose weight the frugal way is to simple eat less and consume food that are cheaper but still hold nutritional value.

I’m tired of yo-yo diets, and intense workouts that I eventually get tired of and quit.  I knew this at the beginning of the year, but I haven’t found an acceptable substitute until now.

So what is my new magic bullet for losing weight?  Adopting a more frugal lifestyle.  I’m going to set a money limit for how much I can spend a day for food, and stick to that number!

For a month, I’m going to use 2 dollars for breakfast, 3 dollars for lunch, and 5 dollars for dinner, so I’m not going to spend more than $10 a day.  The idea is to come in below $10, not to meet that number everyday!  In fact, I’m really hoping that I can get away with only $6.00 a day.

I plan in creating a journal (as I have in the past), but this time instead of just recording what I ate, I’m going to record the cost of what I ate and do a tally at the end of the day (or the next day) to determine if I met my less than $10 goal or not.

You might be wondering why just a month?

There have been studies that concluded that if you do a task/job or whatever for 21 days in a row, it become habit-forming.  So after those 21 days, the task become part of your routine.

What will I do with the money saved from this new weight loss approach?

I’m going to channel the extra  money into my “Dividend Stocks, Free Lunch Experiment #10“.  The experiment has been repurposed to really provide a meal that I will cook for my family once a week on Thursdays.  Previously, I was saving $40 a week to fund the experiment, but now I think I’ll jump the number up to $50 or $60 a week (depending on how well I do with my calculations above).

What is different this time?

Previously, I had no really big motivator do lose weight, but now that I have a more concrete purpose to back the goal up, it become more rewarding!  It’s also nice to start losing weight at the beginning of the month instead of on an off day.  While not a huge reason, it does make the journal seem more legit.  Another nice aspect is this process is now a win-win.  I win because I will be losing weight and I win again because I will be saving money.

Bests,

MR