How I Lost 20 Pounds By Walking

In this post, I will be discussing how I lost 20 pounds just by walking. I didn't do anything else such as changing my diet. All I did was add walking to my life. So let's get started.

Do You Need Special Equipment?

I didn't use any special equipment at all. Some people like to spruce up their walking by adding small dumbbells, a waist trainer, or doing lunges during their walk.

I didn't do any of that stuff. All I did was walk. I didn't even buy new shoes or exercise clothes, although it may benefit you to buy some new running shoes if your current ones are worn out.

I really invested no money in it at all. I wore clothing that I already had, shoes I already owned, and no extra equipment.

How Often Did You Walk?

Every single day of the week.

The only times I would skip a day is if it rained non-stop to the point where there was no way that I could walk, because I always walked outside. I didn't have a way to walk indoors.

For those who have a treadmill, rain shouldn't be an issue. You could easily walk every day.

I made time for walking, even on the busiest days. I made sure that even if I was tired, I still walked. You gotta commit to it if you want to get anything out of it.

Did You Change Your Diet?

My diet stayed the same as it was before. All I did was start walking. At one point, I began actually eating an extra snack during the day, but that didn't cause me to gain weight at all. I continued losing.

I didn't do any other exercises for the most part. There were a few times that I tried something different, but I didn't like it so I just went back to walking.

How Long Did You Walk?

I walked for 30 minutes every time, but 30 minutes is not a magic number. I just picked it because it felt right. You could walk for 45 minutes or an hour if you feel like you need a little more.

You can also start out with 20 minutes and work your way up if you want to. For some people, 30 minutes may be too hard especially if you are not used to any extra activity. Some people may only be able to do 10 minutes at first.

Go at your own pace and increase the time as you are able to.

How Long Did It Take To Lose The Weight?

The first 15 pounds came off pretty quickly, within 3 months. The other 5 pounds was a lot slower. It took about a year to lose that.

I believe the last 5 pounds took so long because I was already skinny as it was. As everyone says the last 5-10 pounds is hard to get off and that's very true.

The reason is because as you lose weight, your metabolism decreases because you weigh less. Smaller people need less food. So since your metabolism decreased, it takes longer to get the weight off unless you do something drastic.

In my case, I wasn't doing anything drastic at all. I was just walking for weight loss. It was simple, easy, and fit into my schedule.

I believe that anyone can lose weight with walking as long as they are doing it every day and staying consistent. I hope this article inspires you to get out there and start walking.

Bringing a friend can help you not be as bored. Walking can get boring without someone to talk to. You can also bring a dog, but bear in mind that some dogs can't handle all of that activity and it wears them down. High energy dogs are the best ones to take walking with you.

4 Weight Loss Mistakes To Avoid

It's easy to make mistakes when trying to lose weight. I've been there, done that, actually a few times. I'm going to be talking about common weight loss mistakes and how you can avoid them.

Condiments Have Calories

If you are counting calories, but you don't check the calories in condiments, you are making a huge mistake. Ranch dressing could easily put you over your daily limit. Ketchup has calories too, as well as mayonnaise. Start looking.

You should measure out your condiments and make sure that they fit into your daily calorie limit. You will start to notice that some condiments have a lot less calories than others. Checking the calories will teach you which ones have higher calories, so in the future you will know to limit those.

Hard Exercise

A pretty big mistake that many people make is starting an exercise routine that they absolutely hate. Why is this a mistake?

Well statistics show that when you hate your workout, you are more likely to quit doing it sooner rather than later. Why would you want to spend your free time doing something you hate?

Those that enjoy their exercise routine actually end up losing more weight. That is because they keep it up in the long term.

So try out salsa dancing, tennis, swimming, and walking the dog. Do something fun that you like doing at least 4 times per week. It's as simple as that.

Diet Coke

Look, there are arguments about diet coke on both sides. I'm not here to argue with anyone, but I just don't believe in diet coke for weight loss. Studies are mixed on the possible negative effects. My advice is to just stay away from it.

You don't need it. It perpetuates an addiction to caffeine, which you could knock out by eliminating it. Drink water instead, and dress up your water so that it tastes better. Then, maybe, you won't want that diet coke anymore.

Cutting diet coke could possibly get rid of some of your food cravings. How about that?

Cutting Out Fat

So, we see this a lot in the diet community. They want to go on these low fat diets. I don't believe fat is the biggest problem to look at when it comes to the food we eat. The real problem is sugar.

Sugar is in everything. If you really want to cut some weight, then cut out sugar from your diet completely.

There are certain kinds of fats that you should avoid, but there are also many good fats. When you go on a low fat diet, you cut out both the good and bad fats. We need certain fats in order to have a good functioning body. That's why they are called "essential fatty acids".

These are healthy fats like omega 3, which can reduce inflammation in the body.

So these are the weight loss mistakes that I encourage you to avoid. I hope this article has helped someone out there.

I Tried 20/4 Intermittent Fasting For A Week

As the title suggests, I tried 20/4 intermittent fasting for a week. I'm going to be talking about my experience, how much weight I lost and how it went. So if you are interested in all that, stay tuned.

What Is 20/4 Intermittent Fasting?

First off, I want to explain what 20/4 intermittent fasting is for those that don't know. You eat all of your daily calories within a span of 4 hours. You can't have calories outside of that window. So basically, you have no calories for a total of 20 hours, and then have all of your calories.

Your calories would typically be eaten in the form on a big meal and a couple snacks, but you can consume the calories however you want to. As long as you only eat within the 4 hour window.

While you are fasting for 20 hours, you don't drink diet coke, sparkling water, fruit juice, or any of that nonsense. You have water only. You can have some lemon or lime juice (fresh squeezed) in your water if you want it. You can have black coffee. But nothing else. I can't stress this enough.

Read: I Tried 22/2 Intermittent Fasting For 1 Week

How Did It Feel?

I was pretty hungry. I am someone who has been intermittent fasting for several years on and off, so it wasn't a huge shock to my system. I can take it, and I know what to expect. It would probably be very different for someone who has never fasted before.

But intermittent fasting is one of those things that if you fall off the wagon or stray a bit and then try to come back, it's just as hard to get back into it. So it is still a challenge for someone like me, since I have been off the wagon a little bit.

I would get hungry usually around the 17 hour mark, or lunch time. Whichever one just so happened to come first. This is just a habit though because my body is used to eating around lunch so all these hunger hormones get released, making me feel hungry. The hunger does go away and it gets easier after some days.

Non-Scale Victories

I did have some non-scale victories. A NSV is when you notice a change that doesn't have anything to do with the scale or your weight.

My non-scale victories are as follows: My lower belly is definitely inches smaller. It's visibly reduced in size, and clothes are more loose there. Also, my face has less bloating and is more defined. My belly in general (upper and lower) are both smaller. I just noticed it a lot more in my lower belly. My thighs feel smaller when I walk, like they don't rub against each other as much. Also, my teeth feel cleaner since I'm only eating in a small window.

Weight Loss

During my week of 20/4 intermittent fasting, I lost a total of 2 lbs, which is pretty average weight loss. So in one month, I could lose about 8 lbs if I were to continue. I do want to say that I didn't count any calories. Most people who are doing IF count calories as well just to make sure they aren't going over. I honestly don't like to count calories, so I didn't.

During my 4 hour window, I ate what I wanted without regards to how many calories was in the food. I probably could have lost more than 2 lbs if I had actually counted calories, but I'm not upset with these results at all. I am visibly less bloated. It just feels good to lose that bloat.

So that's what I got for you today. If you have been on the fence about trying intermittent fasting, I encourage you to at least try. Start off with a 16/8 schedule if you are new just to see what it's like.

Lavender Lemonade And Weight Loss

There is a new trend going around called lavender lemonade, but what are the actual benefits of lavender lemonade and can it help with weight loss? I'm here to answer those questions.

What Is Lavender Lemonade?

Lavender lemonade is just like regular lemonade, except you add lavender flower to it. Lavender flowers are these pretty little light purple flowers, and they give the lemonade a purple coloring as well which makes it look nice. But other than looking nice, what are the benefits to this drink?

Lavender Lemonade Benefits

Some of the reported benefits of lavender lemonade are:

• Pain relief (especially headaches)
• Stress relief
• Immune system booster
• Improved mood
• Detox

You can get the benefits of lavender simply by using essential oils and smelling the scent. But lavender lemonade is just too cute to not try, plus you get the extra benefits of the lemon when you drink it.

I wrote an article a while back about how drinking lemonade first thing in the morning on an empty stomach can give you amazing benefits if you do it daily. Adding lavender to your lemonade just increases those benefits further.

Does It Help With Weight Loss?

If taken on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, I believe lavender lemonade can help with weight loss due to the detoxifying effects. I have written about how toxins can contribute to weight gain.

Also, if you were to give up sugary drinks and soft drinks for lavender lemonade, it would definitely cause weight loss, especially if you used stevia to sweeten it.

Would you be able to lose a ton of weight with this? Probably not, unless you drink a lot of sugary, calorie-filled drinks and then replace all those with lemonade. You would lose weight due to the fact that stevia has no calories, so you would be cutting out a lot of calories that you normally drink.

I did a similar thing where I replaced sugary drinks with plain water and lost 20 lbs from doing that. So the potential is there, but you would have to give up your sodas, sweet teas, alcoholic drinks, and any other beverage that has calories in it. That can be pretty hard at first if you are addicted to those things.

So How Do You Make Lavender Lemonade?

If you want a good recipe for weight loss, using stevia as a sweetener is your best bet. I found a great recipe that utilizes liquid stevia extract here. I prefer to use stevia because it is zero calories and non-addictive, unlike sugar.

If you still want to use sugar, that's fine. Just remember that you may not see as much of the weight loss benefits of this drink.

Other Ways To Get Benefits

As I said earlier, you don't have to drink it to get the benefits of it. You can simply place a couple drops in a warm bath and soak. I like to take epsom salt baths here and there for relaxation and placing lavender essential oil in your bath is very soothing.

You can also get an essential oil diffuser. Diffusers will fill the air of any room with the scent you place in it. So if you place lavender oil in your diffuser, you can enjoy the scent while you work on your computer or watch tv, etc.

Sometimes instead of doing a full bath, I will do a warm foot soak. I place epsom salt into a basin of warm water and add a drop or two of essential oil to it. These oils are so strong that you can get the benefits from just one drop.

You won't be able to lose a ton of weight just from smelling lavender, but it does help you relax more in a warm bath so there are other benefits. If you really want to lose all your weight, check out my top 5 weight loss tips.

So that's all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed learning about lavender lemonade.