Summer is almost over: kids are back to school and life has returned to its normal rhythm. And this year my summer was quite exciting: after a 2-year break due to Covid, we returned to France for summer.
My husband, my 4 kids and I usually spend part of summer every year in France since we have relocated in Virginia 5 years ago. That way we reconnect with family and friends and take some quality time as a family in a “French setting”. In fact my husband and I want our kids to stay close both to their American culture and to their roots through their French culture. So going back to France is a must do for us!
And I didn’t only come back from France with some new clothes I bought there and a lot of memories with family and friend. I also came back with 5 additional pounds.
This one wasn’t planned. I mean I’m usually quite mindful of what I eat. I love good food and I think food is one of life’s small pleasures. But I also know how to savor it and not to stuff myself. But the excitement of having all those French pastries and French restaurants at the fingertip somehow made me lose my mind! And I ate way too much. I knew the result on my weight would be disappointing but I must admit, I didn’t care a lot.
And of course, once back home here in Virginia the result was logically there: I had gained 5 pounds in 5 weeks. But even without looking at the number on the scale I could feel it on my hips and my belly and my arms, with my clothes feeling tight.
Of course I naturally went back to my normal eating habits. There was no way I could continue to eat the same way I did in France because I don’t have any real French bakery close by and when you have to prepare those pastries yourself, it quickly becomes a lot more annoying than buying those goodies at a bakery right the corner 😊
But it didn’t really work. I stopped gaining weight but as I refuse to starve myself, I didn’t lose any weight either. It could become upsetting but I had my secret weapon: walking.
You see, I have started walking daily 4 years ago. When I started my daily walks I had no idea I was doing: I didn’t know if it could help me to lose weight and how much and how often I needed to walk to reach my weightloss goal. All I knew was that my schedule was jam packed and I didn’t want to commit to anyone else’s schedule, not even a fitness center. I couldn’t interrupt what I was doing to take my car and go to whatever fitness class at a given time, doing those boring movements over and over, then come back home, shower and finally go back to my usual tasks.
Slowly, through a trial-and-error method, I built a method to walk 13,000 and more steps daily without it feeling hard or time consuming, and I was also able to predict how many calories I was going to burn and therefore how many steps I needed to take daily in order to reach my weightloss goal.
So I came back to my simple but efficient method. Of course simple doesn’t mean easy, especially if you are starting out. But it works! And through 3 weeks I was able to lose those 5 pounds.
I know no other method giving you the freedom to exercise anywhere and anytime, without it feeling hard or time consuming.
So the next time you try to lose weight without dieting or even just to level up your weightloss efforts, think about walking. And bonus point: you will get tons of physical and mental health benefits as well 😊