Sprinkle your hard work with the secret sauce equals weight loss success. Believe it or not, the hard work is behind you: you are driven, able to portion control, your brain circuitry/neural connections adjusted.

START WITH CARDIO the secret sauce

Since the beginning of time, I avoided running. High school sports, adulthood, closer to 50 years old than 40, I made excuses. If you want to lose weight, you must burn more than you ingest. Burning calories, shedding fat, begins with cardiovascular exercise. I told myself that I would lose 20-30 pounds on various cardio machines (treadmill, elliptical trainer, Jacob’s ladder) before I felt comfortable (less weight on knees and physically conditioned) to run.
Starting with less than ten minutes, I walked on the treadmill. After one month of various settings (rate, incline) and pre-set programs, my cardio routine was 30-45 minutes, 5.0 incline, 3.2 speed.
Eating less, eating right, eliminating all poor habits (eg no soda) combined with my cardio routine caused the pounds to melt away. In two months, now February 2014, I was down near 235 pounds from 260.
Ready to run?
Not yet.
After one month of cardio, three to five days per week, I introduced iron. Drawing on past experience, reading portions of the weight lifting bible (The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, Arnold Schwarzenegger), working with a trainer briefly after moving to Rochester in 2010 from Chicago, and observing others at the gym, I began to lift.
Eventually, the treadmill variations wouldn’t raise my heart rate to the fat burning zone. Remember, I was still not running. So, I graduated to the elliptical trainer, eventually mixing in Jacob’s Ladder.
After three months, weights went to five days per week and cardio decreased to a maximum three days per week (six days in the first two to three months).
Three months passed, nearly forty pounds shed, and June was upon us.
The next step changed the game!