I Lost 40 Pounds Doing These 8 Things. If Nothing Has Ever Worked For You, Just … Try This.
It’s simple. Not easy.
by Audie Metcalf
I’m 48 years old and after being diagnosed with an ulcer, I changed my diet dramatically. And I will admit that was the catalyst for all of this.
You don’t have such a catalyst. I know.
But you have me. And I’m sharing with you all my hard-won tricks I developed after using my initial 10 pound weight loss from an illness into the near 50 pound weight loss I’ve worked hard on for the last 9 months.
Since before-and-after photos can tiptoe into the murky waters of diet culture, I’ve never shared one on this site before. But since this is a weight loss specific article and I’m desperate to show you that I’m just a real person who did this through trial and error—no GLP1, I never spoke to an expert, I never took a class—I think a couple photos are warranted for your trust:
I thought it was going to be complicated. But it wasn’t. It’s simple. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. But it does mean it’s possible.
And for context, I didn’t really ever eat garbage food. I ate really healthy food, just too much of it. I am (was!!) also a night owl, which meant I was always tired, exercise was something I dreaded, and late-night mindless snacking was my vice.
Now that you know I’m a real person with real challenges, I give to you the 7 things that if you also do, you will be able to change your life.
1. Get your calories on point
Use THIS to calculate a deficit. Use THIS to track your calories every. single. day. Don’t do anything else differently for one month. If you just do this, you will see the scale change, and it will give you massive motivation to add something else to your daily health regimen. Massive. But for now, this is it.
2. The only only only way to stay in a deficit is to figure out how to not feel starving all the time
People don’t talk about this enough. The real reason weight loss is hard is because being in a calorie deficit means we feel hungry alllllll the time. The ONLY ONLY ONLY way to fight this feeling is with protein. That’s it. That is the only way. HERE is how to get it. But if you hate clicking into other things from articles, here’s a simple system to get at least 100 grams of protein a day:
• Build every meal and snack around a protein source. Every. One.
• 0% yogurt and low-fat cottage cheese will change your life.
• Bring low-fat mozzarella cheese sticks and THESE jerky sticks when you’re out in case you become ravenous and your car wants to veer into Wendy’s.
• Add egg whites to your scrambled eggs and to your oatmeal. Become someone who can’t function unless a carton of egg whites is in your fridge.
• Peanut butter is not a protein.
• Buy a food scale. Clinical? Yes. Eye opening? Yes.
• Carbs are absolutely crucial to eat for fullness. Stop not eating carbs. But not dumb ones like white bread. Ezekiel, Japanese sweet potatoes, and sourdough bread are all great next to a protein.
3. Get an Apple Watch immediately after that month
This is not sponsored. God, I wish. If you can buy one outright, do it. If you don’t think you can afford one, there are many, many used ones or deals.
Here’s why it’s crucial: movement is utterly utterly imperative to changing your body, your life, your health, your future. There simply is no workaround. And the only way I have become motivated to move my body every day is by using an Apple Watch. Why? Because it makes moving into a game. And since I know you’re reading this article on your phone I know you are influenced by technology. The geniuses (devils?) in Silicon Valley know how to make us addicted to technology, and it’s through dopamine and gamification. Most of us know this all too well when we look at our screen time usage or realize we’ve been scrolling TikTok for 2 hours in bed when we should have been asleep 3 hours ago. But the Apple Watch gamifies your own life. You can track every metric of movement you ever thought possible. And you hit goals. And get rewards.
And it means you want to get that feeling every day. And compete against yourself. It’s astonishing and life-changing, and I can’t believe I’m someone who wears this thing now, but I do.
4. Just walk every day for a month
You don’t have to “go to the gym.” In fact, you shouldn’t. Gyms are gross. They make you feel like someone you’re not. Walking, however, makes you feel like a person who walks. The stats around walking and weight loss are staggering. You will feel like it’s not doing anything for you because it’s not impossibly hard and you sort of enjoy it but that’s the whole trick. This stuff doesn’t have to feel like death. It can feel good. If you go on a walk the second you wake up, even better. If you walk twice a day, even better. If you can walk outside, your soul will be enriched because nature and air and wind and birds are thrilling to be around. But if you can’t, invest in a walking pad and watch 2 episodes of Friends and swing your arms. And then plop on the couch and watch another 2. You just changed your life with those first 2. I swear to you. And speaking of Friends…
Image from NBC
5. Make TV part of your walks
We all think this stuff has to feel awful and hard and impossible to stick to. It just doesn’t. And watching TV is a HUGE part of that. Think about the hours you spend watching a show after a long hard day at work. You love that show. You deserve that show. And you should have that show. And if you walk during 2 eps of a half hour show or one ep of an hour long show, you have just made a choice that will lengthen your life, help you lose weight, and make you feel like you’re someone who can make changes in your life—which is actually the whole shebang. That feeling, that knowledge about yourself, that’s it.
I walk first thing in the morning in the (now cold) mornings and I bring my dog in a stroller. This means I let her out sometimes to walk herself, but I get to throw her back in the stroller when she can’t keep up.
And because I’m pushing a stroller, I have a holder for my phone on the handle where I watch … Friends. Yes. As I push my dog in a dog stroller, I watch Friends. While wearing gloves with those little tech fingers so I can still scroll. Do I look like an idiot? Most likely! Have I lost 40 pounds by doing it? Yes, I sure have.
6. After walking for a month, start lifting weights 3 times a week.
I just have THESE in my living room and I use THIS TikTok and I do it for 30 minutes while watching ... TV. That’s it. Just do that. Don’t make it more than it is. Lifting weights post 40 is imperative. IMPERATIVE. Who cares if you look dumb? Wear your pajamas. It’s not a big deal. If you lift those weights during ONE episode of English Teacher (funny!) and ONE old ep of Schitt’s Creek and ONE of It’s Always Sunny each week, that’s it. There’s your weights done.
7. Put on sneakers the second you wake up.
I always told myself I wasn’t a morning person so I didn’t have to adhere to some diurnal “early bird gets the worm” crap for my exercise. It turns out, I did have to. Because the day just swallows you whole unless you commit to it first thing. So the minute I get up, I put on my walking gear and my sneakers. Having superbly comfortable sneakers is also key. THESE are weightless and heavenly and my feet never ever hurt.
I wear them with THESE socks. I didn’t know wearing a real sock would make such an enormous difference but they do. I threw away all of my Old Navy pieces of shit immediately after discovering these.
I also wear THESE joggers (I realized leggings always fall down when I walk and swapping them out to be joggers has altered my brain chemistry) and I put on THIS bra/shirt combo because most sports bras make me want to die. I use THESE gloves, THIS hat, THIS sweatshirt, and THIS scarf. Having a uniform you wear every day that you can rely on and feel comfortable in is key key key.
8. You will never ever ever be motivated. Never.
Stop waiting for that feeling. It will never come. Never. What you will become, is disciplined. These things will eventually become things you simply do without consternation. Habits. Parts of your day. The hardest part of all of it for me was recognizing that this isn’t something I’m “cramming” in in order to reach an end goal at a certain time after which I can celebrate with a Big Mac and 4 rolls of Starbursts. It’s not the same mentality as crash dieting to look skinny for your sister’s wedding. There is no end game. The end game is just … the actual end. And all of these habits will help the end come muuuch further down the road. And in the meantime, you will show yourself that you have power over the scale, power over food, power to obliterate your step goal, power to transform your body and life into the thing you want it to be.
And as you become that person, as your body becomes stronger with every passing day, your mind will, too. Sleep becomes deeper and more restorative because you’re so fucking tired after all that walking and waking up early and weight lifting. With better sleep comes less anxiety. With less anxiety comes more presence. With more presence comes more peace. With more peace comes, well, everything.
Audie Metcalf is the Editor-in-chief of The Candidly, and lives in LA with her family. You can find more of her articles here.
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