Awareness is the Key to Losing Weight
I would say that a major key to losing weight is awareness. It’s easy to assume how many calories you eat in a day or how many steps you take, but that number may be nowhere near reality. Sponsored post and free product received from Omron, all opinions are my own.
When I was at my best fitness level ever in my life, I was counting calories in and calories out like a spaz. This can be a major pain in the butt, but it also pays off. For me, fitness is a mind game as much as it is simple math. We know that weight loss occurs when calories in are less than calories out. But, the tricky part is being honest with yourself as to what those numbers truly are.
So easy to set up!
Big Key to Losing Weight – Awareness
Here’s an example of how easy it is to make wrong assumptions about your day:
- I ate a cookie and assumed it was 50 calories. In reality, it was 132 calories. Difference = 82 calories.
- Walked for 30 minutes and mentally calculated 300 calories burned. The truth would be closer to 122 calories. Difference = 178 calories.
- Drank some orange juice and didn’t count anything since it’s liquid. Oopsie should have marked down 110. Difference = 110 calories.
Just in those three scenarios there’s a 370 calorie difference. Multiply this by several times per day when we are lying to ourselves, and you’ll be wondering why you are not losing weight.
In reality, unless you hang out in a super high-tech lab, you will never know the exact amount of calories that you are working with, but you get my drift. Of course, there are also many other factors that come into play, but lying to yourself can be a major culprit to hindering your success.
One great key to losing weight is to increase your awareness by wearing an activity tracker. Not only does this give you an idea of how much you are moving per day, but it can also be extremely motivating.
Gone are the days of big, bulky, obvious activity trackers. Today no one even needs to know you are wearing one. The Omron Alvita Wireless Activity Tracker is petite and powerful.
The device uses Bluetooth® Smart technology to transfer your stats to the free Omron Fitness App. It records regular steps, aerobic steps, distance, and calories burned so you can set realistic goals and check your progress along the way.
The best part? It’s only $45, making it an extremely affordable fitness gadget!
Between the weather warming up and wearing the Omron Activity Tracker, I have been a lot more active. I knew I had been pretty lazy during the winter, but the tracker letting me know my lack of steps was a real smack in the face. It’s time for me to come out of the legit hibernation phase I was in.
Let’s all participate in “Walk Out Wednesdays.” Walk out on your family and get active outdoors. The treadmill is a snoozefest and can get old really quick.
Go walk outside and get some fresh air. (You can bring your family. But, if they have a lame excuse, walk out on them!) 😉
What’s your main key to losing weight?
This is so true. When I write down everything I put down in my mouth, I lose weight without even trying. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve seen a lot about these activity trackers lately. I suppose if you get to the point where you think you need one, you probably should be doing more activities. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone want to get an activity tracker because they think they’re too active. Perhaps for other reasons though..
Vactioning with my brother who had an activity tracker showed my the value of it. I think that anything that keeps a record of intake and activity will be a motivator in attemps to lose weight. Still a little pricey for me though.
I definitely agree that you need to have awareness. The more educated you are on your calorie intake and activeness, the better chance you have to get fit.
Omron sounds like a great way to loose weight! I’ll have to check into getting one!
Yes that is true. Being aware makes you more accountable of what you are doing.
This looks like beautiful place to walk. The scenery is gorgeous! This activity tracker sounds nice!
I need to count calories in and out more, I was just starting to get ready to lose some serious weight and joined the gym and all, but unfortunately have to have surgery in April. But in the meantime if I had one of these it would help me out until I am cleared to go to the gym again.
I am always looking at the calories and the carbs. For me to lose weight, I have to really watch my carb intake.
Keeping a food diary is a useful tool. Seeing just how much you eat in a day can be eye opening.
What I noticed about myself, I can only loose weight if I completely stop eating all junk food and switch to raw vegetables and fruits.
I need to watch how much carbohydrates I ate esp. on rice. More vegetable & fruits. Thanks for sharing it keeps me motivated to exercise again
I am not heavily overweight, but I have never been able to lose any either. I agree that awareness is key – but once you have given up sweets, sodas, snacking, etc it becomes increasingly difficult to see any difference. Exercise makes me hungry.
Writing down everything would keep things in perspective. Great ideas
So true! Most of the time, I just eat whatever I see in the fridge without doing some calorie counting. It’s good to count calories. It keeps me aware of what I eat and how healthy each bite I take.