Yesterday, Brenda Sue wrote an article entitled “How Long Will It Take?”.

We have had a few of our clients ask us this question. It is understandable that one who is seeking weight loss and a healthier life would want to know the answer to this common question. However, I believe the question that truly needs addressed is:

How long do you have?

How long have you been over weight? Are you willing to commit this amount of time and then some in achieving a healthy body fat percentage?

• Remember, a healthy rate of weight loss is only 1 to 2 pounds per week. Anything more rapid than this can be bad for your well being and should only be done through your doctor’s supervision.
• Odds are, if you have been over weight for a significant time and lose your weight too fast, there will be the issue of excess and unsightly skin left over. This excess skin can cause other issues for you such as infections within the folds, and psychological simply because excessive loose skin is not pleasant to see in the mirror.
• If you have suffered a weight problem most, if not all of your life; how long will it take for you to wrap your mind around the concept of actually being slim if you have dropped weight rapidly? Know that there is a strong likelihood you may still see yourself as being over weight for quite some time after your weight loss. It may take time for your mental image of yourself to change along with your newfound physical appearance.
• It can take a significant amount of time to get accustomed to the amount of calories you need to consume each and every day. For example, if you are a sedentary 5′ 2″ tall female with a starting weight of 300 pounds, it is highly likely that you have the appetite of two 150 pound women. If your goal is to lose 1 pound per week until you reach a goal weight of 140 pounds, you will need 1881 calories per day to do so. However, once you have reached 200 pounds, your weight loss will have slowed; 1837 calories per day would be what it takes for you to maintain a 200 pound body. At this point, your caloric intake is going to need to be lowered to about 1350 per day in order to continue your 1 pound per week weight loss. As you can see from this basic explanation, these caloric figures require continuous adjusting during your weight loss journey. Now bear in mind that once you have achieved your goal of 140 pounds, your body is going to require 1510 calories a day to maintain this weight. You are going to have to be accountable to yourself by measuring and weighing your food.
• Weight management should take you the rest of your life. Once you quit holding yourself accountable and begin eating anything and everything that tastes good again, plan to regain all that you have taken off in significantly less time than it took you to lose it.

Oh, you do not have time to weigh and measure your food, nor the inclination to track how much you eat?

• How are you going to be accountable to yourself if you do not track? The easy answer is you cannot be accountable if you have no method of tracking your caloric intake.
• Some will go on about not having the time to weigh and measure their food as they cook it. How much extra time do you think it takes to do this? Seriously, if you cannot find the time to weigh and measure your food, just what in the world are going to do with that extra 3 to 5 minutes per day? Inquiring minds would like to know…
• There are a few good nutritional tracking apps available to you online. But, this is not even necessary in western countries as food items have all the nutritional information on their labels. For example, from the time it takes for me to pull a can of pinto beans from my pantry and then walk over to my can opener, I can see there are 3.5 half cup servings per can at 110 calories per serving, 0 grams fat, 21 grams carbohydrates and 7 grams of protein. Surely, if you have read a label such as this only a few times, you will remember this information in order to write it down in a notepad or log of some type. You can look nutritional information up on any food source, and soon we will have an extensive nutritional chart on this blog for you to use as reference.

Many people today will consume unhealthy meals from a fast food drive through while claiming they do not have the time to cook a healthy meal at home.

• Seriously? Can you honestly say it takes less time to get in your car and go through a local drive through? How long will it take to get there, wait in line, place your order, retrieve it and then return home? While hoping the order did not get botched. Lord knows you might have to return Timmy’s burger because it had onions on it that were supposed to be left off.
• With a little pre-planning, you can prepare a healthy meal at home for your family in less time than you would burn going out to get fast food. It only takes a few minutes to pan sear any type of meat in a little olive oil, and heating up vegetables and cutting up a salad can be done in just a couple minutes.
• Can you honestly say you do not have time to prepare a healthy meal at home when you can and will burn more time going to a fast food restaurant?

How long do you have to enjoy your children and or grandchildren while they are young?

• Are you able to walk around an amusement park or community zoo with the kids and actually enjoy your time with them? Or, does the walk around the park make your feet and knees hurt? Can you walk very far without getting out of breath and over heated? How much fun is it to sit out rides solely because you no longer fit in the seats?
• Riding bicycles with children is a great opportunity to enjoy being outside and get in some exercise for yourself. If you are out of shape, how long can you enjoy this endeavor, or anything else that might require being even a little bit physically fit? You and I both know, if an activity makes you uncomfortable and unable to breath easy, you will not stick to it long.
• The time you have to enjoy with the little ones in your life is limited, do not limit yourself further. Before you know it, those little ones will be chasing after little ones of their own.

If you feel you do not have the time to eat healthy or exercise because of what ever of any excuses you might be able to muster up. How much time do you have for:

• Time off from work in order to visit your doctor because your sedentary lifestyle and dietary habits are causing you health issues.
• Your health can benefit greatly from as little as 30 minutes of exercise 3 days per week. If you cannot make the time to dedicate 1 1/2 hours to bettering yourself, just how in the world can you make even more time for doctors visits when you do not feel well? Have you ever felt the frustration that comes from sitting in a waiting room for a couple hours to see a doctor, only to go sit in your pharmacy waiting on a prescription for another hour or so?
  1. How much time do you have for checking your blood sugar multiple times per day once you have become diabetic?
  2. How much time do you have for healing when diabetes has caused you to begin having appendages amputated? Even the loss of your pinkie toe is going to take time to get over.
  3. How much time do you have left on earth once you have ailments that all can be traced back and connected to a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating? Metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, cancers can all be related to how you live your life.

Brenda Sue and I have written extensively on this blog about health issues relating to diet and exercise, or the lack thereof. We provide you with easy to understand and the highest quality of information to help you in weight loss/management in order to live a healthy life. The information is there for you and the blog will always be free to you. In open discussions with family, friends and private discussions with our clients, we get the question of how long will it take quite often. Well,I want to know how long do you have if you do nothing about living healthy? How long do you want to have?

At David’s Way, we promote a healthy lifestyle, not a diet plan with an end point. If you believe that you can simply go on a diet and then resume your current lifestyle once you have lost your weight, then you have already failed yourself. If you think you can achieve a weight loss goal and then not spend the rest of your life managing it, you are doomed to an unhealthy life. You may get away with this kind of living for a while, but as you age, it is going to begin catching up with you. The travesty is a great many ailments are entirely preventable simply by investing a little time for yourself with exercise and healthy eating habits.

How long does it take to maintain a healthy body? The rest of your life.

How much time do you have? This is largely up to you, how much do you want…