Tag Archives: losing weight cheaply

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 Update 1

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It’s been 1 week and 2 days since I started my frugal weight loss diet, but since half the battle of such programs is the start, it’s time for a quick update!  I’ve been able to keep my meal expenses under $10 easily enough, so this part of my weight loss plan is working quite well.  I’ve also started cooking dinner for my family once a week, but I’m only partially successful with this new plan.

Diet Start

I’ve decided to go with a low-carb diet and since protein is more expensive that other food sources, having a $10 daily limit for the total cost for food has worked out well.  I still spend less than previously because I take advantage of my employer’s company resources such as their free coffee and filtered water.  While the diet isn’t a paradise for your taste buds, it’s a highly effective diet for the first 2 weeks to 1 month.  After 1 month, I plan on shifting to more of a south beach kind of diet.  I will be on the more healthy south beach diet for 6 months or longer.  After the south beach diet I plan on starting to adopt a new life style kind of diet mixed in with exercise and healthy eating.  For now though I’m just going to focus on the weight and putting one proverbial foot in front of the other.

So how much weight have I lost?

Eight pounds so far!  Low carb diets are highly effective, and that’s why I decided to use this diet for the initial start.  I do plan on shifting the diet from well know diets to more of a personal lifestyle diet that fits me better, but for now this is good.

 

Cooking Start

In a previous article, I mentions that I plan on cooking dinner for my family once a week.  Instead of jumping in and start by cooking something too complex, I decided to start just by grilling some hamburger patties.  I’ve cooked similar patties and this would be a good refresher for cooking on the grill since this will be my first time this year.  My downfall in this process was that I didn’t prepare any side dishes such as beans or another vegetable, so I grabbed some potato chips, and some “chips and salsa” for my family.  While the side dishes weren’t horrible, I should have microwaved some broccoli, corn or beans.

I’m going to cook steak (rib eye) for my next cooking experiment.  I’ve never cooked steak before so it will be interesting.  For the side dishes, I’m going to use the tried and true broccoli veggie!

 

Assessment of My Start

While I had a few issues with the cooking start, overall I’ve very please with the results.  The eight pounds that I lost so far on the diet is great, I feel smaller and lighter all ready.

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

Getting Paid To Lose Weight

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Working Out

Many companies are starting to encourage their employees to improve their health.  First they restricted smoking in the office and now many are focusing on the overweight crowd.  Where I work, I’m excited to say that I’m going to get paid to lose weight!  Bonus!

While it’s only a few hundred dollars, it’s perfect for me because I wanted to lose weight anyway.  The thought process by employers is that a healthy employee is a more productive employee!  They are more productive because they are sick less and think better when they are in shape!  I know that this is true in my particular case!

So since I’m now getting paid to lose weight, I decided to create a diet and exercise journal that I will post every Friday.  After a shopping run for the needed foods for my diet and a quick design of the journal spreadsheet, next Friday, I’ll post my results.

Okay, One Problem!

When people go on a diet or start to workout, they usually spend more than if they weren’t on a diet.  For example, both Weight Watchers and a gym memberships add to the cost of getting healthy.  My goal during this process is not only to lose weight, but also to spend less money than I would if I weren’t trying to lose weight!

An alternative goal of mine is to make money off of this diet/exercise process by spending less on food.  This is another way that I will indirectly get paid to lose weight.  I expect that I’ll save more money by spending less on food than what my company will pay me if I meet my weight loss goal.

My Process

Basically it’s a simple routine!  I’m going to eat food like eggs, brocolli, beans, oatmeal and other cheap but healthy foods.  As for working out, I’m going to start out with just situps, pushups, and a leg exercise.

My Current Weight

As of today, I’m 5′ 10″ and I weight 247 lbs.

I think it should be pretty interesting seeing my progress on the amount I save in food expenses vs my regular spending.

-MR