How I successfully lost weight, with as little effort as possible.

Welcome to the Smart, Lazy Exerciser Series! Last time, we discussed how to take advantage of having little willpower. Today I want to share with you the method that I used to lose weight with little effort.

And by that I mean – lose weight with as little effort as possible, yet receive lasting results, and do it without feeling restricted. The good news? I made it happen. But before I get into the details, let me explain where I was when I started.

My husband – then boyfriend – had just described me as plump to one of his friends. Was I really plump? Well, being 12-15 pounds more than what I used to, and two sizes bigger, then I guess you could call me plump. A little. Still average but on the plump side.

That was it. I decided I had to do something about it.

But what?

I didn’t want to have to pressure myself. Weight loss alone was hardly my goal.

I mean, yes I wanted to lose the weight, but not at the expense of my sanity!

Plus, what I wanted more than weight loss was to live a long, healthy, and vital life! I didn’t want to have weight problems – that’s NOT a concern I wanted to carry with me. Instead, I wanted to be carefree, and in good shape. I wanted to be one of those people who live healthy, just because this is who they are.

You know who I’m talking about.

• The woman who wakes up, does her exercise, and then drinks a green smoothie before she leaves for work.
• The guy who hits the gym every day after work, and goes home to prepare a good, nutritious meal.
• The grandmother who spends half the day in stretchy pants, always on the move, never getting tired by her grandkids.

I stongly believed that if I lived healthy, the weight would take care of itself.

But how could I live healthy like them, how could I become like them without pressuring myself?

Was I aiming too high by wanting to lose weight with little effort? Was it impossible?

I mean, most of the stuff we read about weight loss involve restriction. Blaaah at restriction.

If I wanted to make my dreams come true, I had to find another way – even though I wan’t really sure there was actually another one.

But lo and behold – one year later I had already lost the weight, and dropped one size, without ever pressuring myself.

I was already exercising 5 days a week, and had dramatically cut out on eating out.

I had no more weight to lose. Yay! So what came next? Living even better!

• Two years later, I was cooking at home instead of eating out, and eating more of the green stuff.
• Three years later, I was a better cook, and I developed a walking habit – along with going to the gym of course.
• Four years later, I started eating what I call my daily antioxidant bomb: A mix of berries that nourish both my body and soul.

Now those are just a handful of the changes I’ve made to my lifestyle in the past few years. Yet, you can see the progression.

Have I gained weight since I first lost it? Yes, I do fluctuate with a range of about 4 pounds. Kids parties, Christmas holidays, and awesome vacations in foreign countries, tend to leave their mark. But my body usually adjust on its own. I rarely need to give it a little nudge, and even when I do, it never feels like restriction.

Heck, I don’t respond well to restriction, so I don’t even dare to try this method!

So how did I make it happen?

Introducing the Smart, Lazy Way to drop the pounds: Lose weight with little effort. Actually, as little “effort” as possible.

Last week, we talked about how relying on willpower to make your weight loss succeed is doomed to fail. Willpower is not built to last and is highly dependent on what happens to you every day. That’s why sometimes you have more or less of it. And that’s why if you rely on it, then your weight loss results will be totally random.

Plus, having to use willpower is no fun! Does anyone like pressuring themselves to try harder?

So I didn’t do it with willpower. I had to find another way. I call this way the smart, lazy way:

• It’s lazy because you lose weight with little effort.
• It’s smart because you make this little effort count.

Watch the video to learn exactly how I went about changing my diet and exercise, without ever feeling like I had to put in “effort” and try hard.

Focusing on building habits will pay dividends for the rest of your life. When a behavior becomes a habit you do it automatically, without even thinking about it.

Take driving a car. When you first learn to drive, you need to think about everything. Turning the wheel, pushing on the breaks, changing gears – it consumes your whole mind.

But once driving becomes a habit – you get to drive while thinking about your work, your family, the nice weather. You no longer think about the actual task of driving the car. Driving a car is so well ingrained in your brain it just happens while your mind is focusing on other stuff.

Now take wearing a seatbelt. At first, you need to remind yourself to put it on. But after a few times, you no longer need to. As soon as you get in the car, you just do it. Wearing a seat-belt is now a habit.

And that’s exactly how powerful habits are. Once you put them into gear, they take over. You do the right thing automatically. You become one of those people who exercise and eat healthy every day, because that’s just who they are.

• And that’s how you wake up, do your exercise, drink your smoothie, and then get to work.
• That’s how you exercise daily after work, and then go home and cook a delicious dinner.
• And that’s how years later, you evolve into the most vital grandma ever!

But isn’t building habits hard? No! If it feels hard, then you’re doing the wrong way. We’re not into this to pressure ourselves. We’re in it because we want our lives to be better. Sacrificing our sanity does NOT make our lives better.

And our brain knows that. That’s exactly why it doesn’t respond, and refuses to build habits, when we use restriction or punishment as a method.

But it does respond to steps that feel easy or fun! It loves doing those things. And it gets busy wiring those healthy habits in your brain. With every repetition, every healthy meal, every workout, your habit becomes a little stronger, until at some point, it completely takes over.

And that’s exactly how you lose weight with little effort. You put all the effort on strategically building the habit, and then the habit does all the work for you.

No more losing weight, gaining it back, losing some more, gaining it back, etc. Instead, you lose the weight, and that’s it! You no longer need to think about it. Your habits do the rest.

Now, if you haven’t yet watched the video, do watch it to get the full scope about the exact steps I took to lose weight with little effort.

And here’s everything I mentioned in the video:

– The recipe I used to stop eating out and start eating at home

– The principles I used to create healthy habits that stick

– The method I created to help others make exercise a daily ritual in 9 weeks

But I’ve seen people who “try hard” and get results! Why can’t I be like them?

There are a few people who see weight loss as a challenge they want to overcome. For them, challenges are FUN. Notice the magic word: fun. They may complain about it, but they secretly enjoy feeling like heroes who pass through one obstacle after the other.

Again, the magic word is fun. Their brain thrives in this “fun” situation, and it gets into habit-building mode. Before they know it, they might even become health nuts!

But if this BIG weight loss challenge is no fun at all for you, but instead it sounds more like overwhelming and intimidating, then guess what type of results you’ll get? Exactly.

So now I want to turn this over to you. What habit do you want to build, to lose weight with little effort?