Losing Weight in 2010: What Worked

My goal at the beginning of 2010 was to lose 35 pounds. I have slowly gained weight over the years, and have always had trouble losing or gaining weight very quickly. I wanted to try to find a way to lose all the weight I had gained in a single year, which seemed nearly impossible.

One of the reasons it is so hard for me to lose weight is that I already eat fairly well. I try to eat mostly organic, I eat very little sugar, I never drink soda, I eat a lot of fresh food, and I make up for eating too much cooked food by taking enzymes. When I try to eat less food, I get really irritable and start feeling sick, so that is out of the question for me. When I try to eat smaller, more frequent meals, I start to get stressed out.

I came to the conclusion that changing my eating habits was pretty much out of the question. That left me with exercise. I knew all along that this was my problem, and was going to be difficult for me. I sit all day at a computer, and I like to procrastinate. Not to mention the fact that I truly hate exercising.

The first thing I tried was to work in a 20 minute walk in the morning, before work. That actually worked fairly well for a few weeks, and I was even able to work in some jogging and running. Unfortunately, I big work project came up, and I started my procrastinating. I was too tired, or I didn't get enough sleep, or I had too many ideas in my head and had to write them down. Then I started thinking up other reasons I couldn't walk, like having to do laundry.

After trying several variations on the "run/walk/jog for 20 minutes" theme, I decided that I needed something more interesting. I started to look up rock climbing. I felt that if I had some sort of goal, such as learning to rock climb, it would be easier to become more active because I would be having a lot of fun.

I found a place fairly close to where I work that had rock climbing walls, and also had karate, judo, self-defense, boxing, and all sorts of other fun-sounding classes. It sounded perfect! I always wanted to learn karate! I started by convincing my friends to go rock climbing with me.

We were all first-timers, and had a great time. It was actually easier than I expected, and I began to get really excited about this new direction. I even signed up for a full month of boxing and kick-boxing classes with my friends.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be prohibitively expensive, and my friends bailed the following month. I was actually considering signing up for at least another month, but it was just too difficult to get my head around the idea of going there myself after work. I would still like to go back to that place if I ever find some rich friends and become a millionaire, but I had to figure out something else in the meantime.

One of the things we did at the rock climbing place was jump rope. It's difficult to keep up, but I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it, and I already owned a jump rope. I thought it may be fun to work out by teaching myself some new jumping rope tricks. It was still more interesting than regular exercising, and gave me a goal. I even looked up jump rope tricks online, and tried to master each one.

This idea actually worked really well ... until winter came. It became way too cold outside, so I tried to do it inside. The problem then became trying to avoid breaking things. I just didn't have the room, and the carpet didn't work well with the jump rope. I needed to find yet another exercise option.

One thing I had figured out in all my exercise routine variations was that I tended to feel better if I worked out strenuously for short periods of time. At the rock climbing place, for example, we worked in three minute intervals, with a minute of break time in between. I decided to Google this type of exercise.

I was lucky enough to come across a site by Dr. Mercola, where they talked about a type of exercise called "Peak 8." The idea is that you warm up for three minutes, then exercise very strenuously for 30 seconds, take a break for 90 seconds, then repeat seven more times, for a total of eight times.

The total time for the exercise comes to about 20 minutes, which is coincidentally exactly the amount of exercise time I was trying to work into my day when I was walking. The difference here is that you are only supposed to do it three days a week. For some reason, I have found this exercise to be so much easier than the walking. I think the reason it seems so much easier is that the actual exercise time is only four minutes, and it feels like the time goes by so much faster. I can also do it inside when it's cold, since I can just run in place really fast.

Unfortunately, I only found out about the Peak 8 exercise just over a month ago, and will not have time to lose all my weight before the end of the year. So far, it is working for me. I have already lost five pounds, so I will definitely be adding it to my next New Years resolution. Hopefully, losing 30 more pounds over the next year will be as easy as losing the first five.