I partner with Alex Nsiah-Kumi, owner of Paramount Personal Training, and during my awesome (no exaggeration here, he is the best of the best) workout with him yesterday, he opened up to me about his 2 month plan of dropping 15 pounds. To say the least he looks great, and below I have included his blog post on the experience. Thanks for letting me share your story Alex. I am sure many can relate to your experience.

Original blog post can be found here.

HOW A PERSONAL TRAINER LOSES WEIGHT

ALEX
FEBRUARY 6TH, 2014

 

I recently decided I wanted to lose some weight. 15 pounds to be exact.  I figured it would make me feel a bit better, not to mention refresh my memory and help me to better relate to my weight loss clients.

Well I lost my 15 pounds and I feel better. This experience definitely have a rekindled amount of empathy for those on their weight loss journey. It was definitely harder than I thought it would be and definitely harder than it was 10 years ago. The planning, the consistency. Realistic expectations! Im just like everyone else. I want results and I want them NOW!!!

So 8 weeks and 15 pounds later. I thought I would share the main things I did to help lose the weight.  Note, that 2 of the 3 are related to food & drink intake, not exercise.  They are pretty basic, but here they are:

1.  REDUCE ALCOHOL INTAKE

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Anyone that knows me knows I love to have a good time. I knew however, to lose weight I had to reduce my alcohol intake. I cut it out 100% for a few months, but what level you are willing to commit to will depend on you. You may want to say no drinks during the week. Or you may want to switch that beer or mixed drink for a glass of wine. Whatever it is make sure it is realistic and be sure you are commited to it. I have seen numerous cases where people work their butts off in the gym, eat clean and then derail their goals by drinking a bottle of wine every night with dinner. Don’t be “that guy” or girl.

  2. INCREASE VEGGIES

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As opposed to thinking about cutting things out of my diet I thought about adding things. I had a massive bowl of veggies or a salad before every meal. And when I say salad I am talking broccoli salad, kale salad, cabbage salad.  Something with some sustenance and nutrients, not just a bunch of iceberg lettuce.

Adding in all these veggies, helped me to get more nutrients and less calories. I also helped me to be able to slightly cut the portions of my already healthy meals. I’m a decent size guy, but do I really need a 16 ounces steak? I can honestly do fine with 8 ounces.

3. SCHEDULE WORKOUTS

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I’m a busy guy just like everyone else. Running my own business keeps me on the go and makes it hard at times to get my workouts in. Instead of just trying to workout when I got a chance, I put it in my schedule. Whether it was weights, playing basketball, or going to a yoga class. I made sure it was in my schedule. This helped my weight loss because now it was in my schedule, I didn’t just blow it off. I knew I had a noon yoga class. I didn’t get bogged down with paperwork, because I had a little alarm going off telling me it was time to workout.