Losing weight can be a serious physical, mental and financial challenge, especially when a gym membership can cost $50-$300 a month, workout gear can be ridiculously expensive, and various dieting pills and supplements can end up costing you a small fortune. Rather than spending money to get healthy and shed some extra pounds, try to make adjustments to your workout routine, your everyday diet, and your lifestyle habits to shrink your waistline without emptying your wallet.

Being overweight makes people close themselves off and ignore the issue in the hope that it will either go away or it won’t be noticed.

I was one of those people with serious weight problems who always seemed to ignore them.

When I was finally trying to do something about my issues, it was only for a few days; then I would always come back to my old, unhealthy habits like fast food, smoking, and lack of physical exercise. Thankfully, I overcame all of these and lost weight without spending too much money. Here is how I did it.

Exercise without spending anything!

The mere thought that I had to lose weight overwhelmed me, and while we should all begin this journey by changing our attitude, for me, just going outside and enjoying the nature helped a lot.

Before starting this weight loss journey, I thought that exercising required a lot of money for gym memberships, trainers, and equipment. I was surprised to discover that, in reality, you could regularly exercise without spending any money at all.

Going to the park for a run was the first step that convinced me that I had to keep fighting and get in shape. I had no excuse. I wasn’t spending any money, I was living near a beautiful park, and I already had a pair of running shoes. I began by setting goals and covering a certain distance in a certain amount of time. As I was visibly making progress, the distance got longer and the time shorter. It worked. When I was prepared, I took it to the next level.

I started climbing a massive set of stairs that were surrounding the park’s iconic monument. Going up and down those stairs helped me burn a lot of calories and made me work incredibly hard and push myself beyond my limits. Still, it’s important to stop when you feel like you cannot do it anymore. Especially if you’re even slightly overweight, pushing yourself too hard right from the start might not be the smartest thing to do. Also, people who live on the upper floors are in luck! You should stop waiting for the elevator and take the stairs instead! It is a cheap and very efficient way of losing weight and improving your cardiovascular health. I promise you!

Another thing that helped me overcome my weight problems was cycling. I advise everyone who already owns a bicycle, because you may not want to invest in a new one, to start doing this regularly. It is a low impact activity that can help you lose some weight, while it also relaxes you. Cycling has been proven to be beneficial for the health as it can reduce the risk of diabetes, stroke, heart attack, some types of cancer, arthritis and, of course, obesity. However, the same rules apply here too: when you feel tired, don’t push yourself! Exhaustion is never good, and cycling shouldn’t become a burden. For me, it was the most beautiful and relaxing part of the day.

Finally, I regularly found myself exercising in the comfort of my own home when I didn’t feel like going out. Do easy exercises that you would regularly do at the gym, lift water bottles instead of weights, and do pushups using your bed.

It is important to get creative and have fun while doing the exercises. Losing weight is difficult, but if you find pleasure even in the little things and motivate yourself, it will get a lot easier. It worked for me.

Intermittent fasting!

The science of intermittent fasting is fascinating as it goes back to ancient times when people were fasting to heal and speed up the recovery of their bodies. Also, since they were not always able to find food back then, humans adapted to long periods of time without food to survive. Intermittent fasting is based on this concept. I was never the type of person who would follow strict diets, which is probably why intermittent fasting helped me lose weight. This is not a diet but more of a controlled eating pattern.

There are several ways to fast, but I followed the Leangains protocol. It says to restrict your eating period to only eight hours per day. So, I was just eating from 1 pm to 9 pm and then fast for the remaining 16 hours. I could also eat anything I wanted as long as I did it regularly instead of trying to compensate for the hours when I was not allowed to eat.

If you try this method, you will undoubtedly lose weight and may get so accustomed with it that you might start seeing it as being more natural than having three or four meals per day. The best part is that you don’t have to spend a fortune on fancy, low-calorie foods to lose weight and that you can eat normally, but only when you are allowed to. For me, it worked incredibly well.

Motivation and commitment

For me, my motivation consisted of the people dear to me who, if I hadn’t done something about my weight problems, would have lost me. Just imagining their faces and their sadness when I would not be anymore offered the most significant motivational boost possible. I suddenly realized that I wanted to live a full and happy life, have a family, and not worry about my size anymore.

Next, the extra motivation came from the realization that I was spending a lot of money on unhealthy habits and I needed to stop because it was getting serious. Also, for me, the people I love offered the motivation I needed to make this significant change. You can follow my example, or you can think of yourself and do it. Do you want to live a healthy, happy, long life? Then muster your courage and start your journey!

You should also be committed once you start your weight loss journey. I started looking through magazines and watching various TV shows and videos of people who were also overweight and overcame their problems. It was a good idea to draw inspiration from them. Also, I told my friends and family that I was going to make this significant change and made them promise always to pick me up whenever I was down. You will not stop your progress if you feel like you’re letting down the people who inspired you to start in the first place.

Conclusion

Overcoming weight problems is for many people the biggest struggle of their existence. However, it doesn’t have to be like this, especially when you can do it without spending money and on your terms. Take my story as inspiration and let it motivate you! Change is possible if you believe that you can do it and put in the necessary effort. There will be progress, and there will be plateaus, but never despair! With a little bit of ambition, courage, and inspiration, you will make it!