It’s almost bikini season!

• You can lose weight for free and look good again. You can lose that belly fat!
• No buying any “special” diet books or exercise videos
• Keep eating all your favorite foods
• No buying expensive gym memberships

It’s free and relatively easy. I’m no doctor or nutritionist but I was able to lose 35 pounds in about 9 months and it wasn’t even that difficult. Just follow these steps and you can lose just as much weight as I did. You’ll probably lose even more weight than I did if you’re not as lazy as me and you have a bit more willpower than I do, which is close to none, so the bar is set low…

Weight loss is a basically a math problem. You just need to burn more calories than you eat. You may have heard of calorie deficit. That’s it. All you need is a calorie deficit.

You can Google a calorie burning website if you’d like to see some numbers but you don’t need a fancy calculator to do this math. Here is a calorie calculator you can use if you like to check yourself. There are tons of these websites available. Just follow a few simple rules and the math will work out, I promise!

Fitness looks good Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Easy First Step to Lose Weight for Free

Every time you eat, just leave some food on the plate. Don’t just scoff down every single morsel of meat loaf in front of you, just because it’s there and you don’t want to “waste food”. That’s what I always did! Sound familier? I said to myself, “Danny, you don’t want to waste food. There are starving people in India”.  Listen, those people in India will NEVER see that last piece of turkey or stuffing left on your plate. Eat until you’re not starving and leave some food on the plate. You still get to eat that delicious filet mignon (yummy!). But instead of eating that entire softball size stuffed baked potato, eat half of it. Or more than half. Remember to leave some on the plate. Go ahead and eat all the asparagus though. It’s good for you and not that many calories. Maybe take a pass on the hollandaise sauce.

Less Easy Second Step

Eat less bread and pasta. This does suck, there’s no getting around it but again, you’re not giving up bread and pasta entirely! You’re just a eating little less of it. I used to eat a sandwich everyday.  EVERYDAY.  Instead, on some days, I ate chicken with roasted peppers and mozzarella…in a small container….not on a roll. No roll, no carbs!  I’m still eating delicious mozzarella mixed in with some other stuff, but I’m not eating the bread.

I do love sandwiches so I ate a lot of turkey sandwiches on rye bread. I don’t know why eating turkey sandwiches helped me lose weight, but it did. When you do order a sandwich for lunch at your favorite deli, skip the potato salad and macaroni salad, even if you love it and it looks delicious. I often ate coleslaw instead. Again, I’m not sure why that worked for me but maybe there was less mayo in the coleslaw than there was in the potato salad.

Salad is good!

Salad is good!

Eat a salad once in awhile for lunch. It won’t kill you, I promise. Maybe don’t load up on the blue cheese dressing and instead, pour on some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Throw a hard boiled egg on there or some grilled chicken and as many vegetables as you can stomach.

Eat pasta less often. You’re still allowed to eat spaghetti bolognese, just not every day or every week. If you get a craving for pizza, like I do everyday of my life, eat one big slice and not two big slices. Go ahead and shake on as much garlic powder as you like. Garlic is very good for you.

You get the picture. You need to eat less carbs. However, and this is very important, do not give up carbs completely! This was very crucial for me. I tried to stop eating carbs completely and my cravings for anything carb related, like bread, chips and pasta were insatiable. I had to eat a large Italian hero after 5 days of no carbs. Sometimes I ate a box of pasta after I stopped eating all carbs. I think that was enough for 4 people. Yikes!  Don’t make my mistake.  JUST EAT LESS CARBS.

Crucial 3rd Step to Lose Weight for Free

This really is a crucial step if you are going to lose weight for free. Sugar is your enemy. Say it with me, “Sugar is your enemy”. Good. Please know you can still eat sugar, just less of it. I put sugar in my coffee every morning. A lot of sugar. I piled in 2 or 3 teaspoons. Instead add just one teaspoon or better yet, learn to like coffee with no sugar.

Try skipping dessert sometimes. Actually, try skipping dessert most times, especially desserts with lots of sugar like cheesecake or apple pie. Sugar will make you fat and ugly. It’s only safe in small amounts. Sugar is poison and it’s evil. Actually, it’s demonic. Eat less sugar. “Sugar is your enemy”. Trust me on this. Sugar will not only lead to weight gain but too much sugar can give you diabetes. You don’t want diabetes, do you?

Fourth Step…

Here is a tough rule. Just take a deep breath before reading on. Ready? Alcohol has a lot of calories. Too many to talk about. I’m not going to tell you how much to drink except to say, drink less than you’re currently consuming. If you drink a six pack of your favorite lager everyday, you are not going to lose any weight. If you drink that much now, you have a big belly and it is not attractive. I know what that looks like. I have mirrors. It’s not a good look and that’s why you’re reading this. I’m here for you.

Drink Beer, it’s ok

Try drinking lower carb beer. Michelob Ultra is not too bad. Stop at 2 beers. I know you can. Try drinking one glass of wine and not a bottle of wine. Go ahead and make it a big glass of wine, and don’t go for seconds…or thirds. Go crazy and drink alcohol less than every single day.

Spring water is really delicious. I know drinking from the kitchen tap tastes like swimming pool water so get yourself a good water purification device and make your own water. We use Zero Water and we love it.  It’s cheaper than bottled water so now I am saving you money. You are now making money by losing weight.  Win win.  Woohoo!

Exercise

Mandatory Step, Step, Step

You need to exercise. There’s no getting around this. I know what you were thinking.  “Wow, Danny has not mentioned exercise once in this whole stupid article. I wonder why? Can I really lose weight with diet alone?  Awesome!”  No. You cannot really lose weight with diet alone. No one can. You have to do some sort of exercise.

Here’s what I did and it worked for me. I worked out for 20-30 minutes 2 or 3 times per week with weights. That’s it. That’s all I did. I did 3 sets of 3 different types of exercises. Always push ups and 2 other exercises like pull ups, triceps, curls and some type of ab exercise. I promise you, if you do this, you will lose weight. If you are just a bit more motivated than I am, you’ll lose more weight than I did and you will lose it faster. Add in some kind of cardio workout. I play golf and take the stairs instead of riding in the elevator. I hate running so I don’t do it. But feel free to throw on a pair of sneakers and get some fresh air.

The Finish Line

I still have a long way to go but these were the steps that helped me and I hope they’ll help you as well. You can’t get stuck in an elevator if you take the stairs. Who wants to be stuck in an elevator anyway. Someone will probably sneeze and give you the flu. You can’t exercise when you have the flu.

Once you lose the first 3 to 5 pounds, I assure you, you will know these steps work and you will be motivated. You will feel better, sleep better, look better and you will be more confident.  A Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity + Sleep Wristband or similar device will help you track your results.

FYI I get small commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

What have you got to lose?  Nothing.  Except maybe a few pounds of fat. Good Luck!