If you're like me and hate water. I just hate it, it tastes disgusting, so bland. I drink Vitamin Water ZERO. I doesn't help lose weight or whatever but it's a better alternative to bland water. They have lots of good flavors and give you a lot of your daily nutrition in one serving. Each serving is 0 calories and each bottle contains 2 servings. Some people say it's not as good as drinking actual water because since it's sweetened (naturally by the way), it contains sugars and other such things. But it's better than soda, so. :3

I don't know, I don't drink it for weight loss or anything. I just hate the taste of water and soda is a lot worse than Vitamin Water ZERO so it's a neutral alternative.

Sometimes I wonder if the folks saying "don't join a gym" have ever lived in a place where trying to go jogging in the wintertime either means: trying to run through knee-deep snow because neither the city nor your neighbors can be bothered to keep sidewalks / bike trails clear, or jogging in a street which is made of solid ice from all the packed down snow.

:P Really. Outdoor exercise is great and all, but in the winter around here I'll take the gym any day.

A gym isn't necessarily a waste of money, either. The uber-expensive gym is the cliche, true, and there are gyms out there that want $50-$80 a month or whatever. But there are also decent gyms for much cheaper--just lacking in spas and pools or whatever makes those other gyms so expensive. I pay $15/month for my membership, month to month, and get access to lots of cardio and weightlifting equipment. (The gym I go to is a favorite of weightlifters in the area, so weights make up the majority of the place, but there's a good amount of treadmills/stationary bikes/ellipticals there, too.) I'd say that's worth it.



This is really good advice. :thumbsup: I've been trying to start something similar, but the trouble in the past couple weeks has been finding the time to go to the gym even 3 days a week.



Does your workout turn into a montage when you play that? Because that would be awesome.

Do you have any friends who are interested in working out/jogging/etc?

If so, pick a day or two a week and get together with those friends and burn calories.

Also, drinking sugar is usually the single largest calorie intake in modern diets. Cut all carbonated beverages from your diet and drink water, unsweetened tea, black coffee.

Doctor
Nutritionist
Physical trainer

Make sure you don't have underlying health problems, make sure you are consuming the proper foods and getting the proper nutrition, and make sure to do the correct exersices for the part of the body you want to improve.
What works for some may not work for others.

Not always true. :rolleyes:

I've been on Weight Watchers since last September, have dropped 75lbs and have never once felt hungry. Exercising and eating proper healthy filling foods will result in you not being hungry. You don't need to stop eating, you need to START eating fuel for your body rather than something you feel like eating. I agree with the fact that fad diets rarely work. You need to change your attitude to eating, not cut entire food groups out. My boyfriend recently started the Dukan diet which is no carbs, no fat and high protein. For the sure week, sure he lost 9lbs. But as soon as he introduced carbs and non sat fats back into his diet, there he went again. Gained 2lbs and has struggled to lose more.

You need to change your attitude to how you eat if you're not naturally slim or athletic. Chances are you've been brought up with bad habits (ie big portions, regular take out etc) and you've got to have a damned good reason to want to lose weight. No offense, but it sort of sounds like you're not there yet in your head. Particularly when you say you keep meaning to join the gym but never get around to it. If you truly wanted to lose weight - you'd make it happen. The deciding factor for me was realising that a) I'd struggle to get pregnant at the weight I was and B) I'd end up having fat kids because all my bad habits would be passed down onto them.

The reason many people join a gym rather than lifting tvs ( :rolleyes: ) is because you get goal, help from a fitness expert and the drive to actually go do something.

Initially make little changes if you haven't already. Don't eat take out as often, substitute soda with water etc.

Good luck.

Not really saying Gyms are a waste of money, but there's ALWAYS a 'poor mans alternative' when it comes to exercise. If you can go to a gym, knock yourself out, if not, it's not the end of all roads. And you may be right about the not knowing how it is complaint. I live in the Mississippi countryside, it doesnt get as cool as some places do.

Guilt's the best motivation for me. I beat my self up and my make myself feel terrible for not going to the gym. It's probably psychologically damaging but hey it works. That's not to say you can't have days off. I find if I can actually justify not going then it's fine. My birthday, so hungover I can barely stand. Things like that. Although I've not been in 2 weeks because I've sprained my shoulder but again, don't mind because I can't put any weight on it anyway.

My mom said that if I could lose 20 pounds in a month, she would give me $100. That was a good motivator for me, and I ended up doing it in 2 weeks.

Great job on the weight loss. ^_^

Thanks honey. x

That's when you do it inside, there's a number of cardio exercises you can do inside. My mom lost a lot of weight and all her exercising was done inside. The only reason I'd join a gym is like I said to build muscle, the personal trainer is also a good thing if it works for the OP. I'm just saying you don't need to join a gym to lose weight, and you don't need a personal trainer to keep you going, they help, but you don't need them.

I had surgery on my shoulder a while back, and gained weight while I was recovering. Though I am a girl, the weight gain put me at ~180lbs, and I too am 5'6". I am now about 155lbs, and have lost the weight by drastically decreasing the amount of soda I drink, and walking more often. I park further away from stores, and go to the mall just to walk around. I didn't completely eliminate soda, but I used to drink 3-4 20oz bottles a day, and now only drink one, if any at all. Once I lost a little of the weight I then started riding my bike, and playing indoor soccer for the team I played with a few years ago, to make working out fun. It's helped alot.

Motivation is the most important part, if you aren't motivated to do anything, then you will struggle with losing the weight.