Weight loss has been made out to be this super complex event that requires you to lose all your friends and everything you love to do in order to achieve it. FALSE! So false. Weight loss doesn’t mean any of this or that you have to lose a whole bunch of weight to begin with. Or that you hate yourself and your body to want to make a change. In this 6 part series on weight loss, I’m going to breakdown what I believe are the crucial steps to healthy weight loss.
#1 Mindset
Mindset gets overlooked when it comes to losing weight or transforming your body. We think it’s just eat right and exercise, or as some believe, starve and exercise excessively. And then gain all the weight back once you’ve reached your goal and continue the cycle of strict eating and exercising. I’m sure you know someone who’s stuck in this cycle. It’s time to break them free from it. And a major way to do this is through some mindset work around weight loss and body transformation. Here’s a few things to consider before even starting your first or another weight loss/body transformation journey.
Do it for yourself and no other reason. If this isn’t the reason, you need to reconsider why you’re doing it or even if you truly need to. You won’t be in the right mindset for weight loss, and proper mindset is key. The diet industry has done a really great job making us feel bad about ourselves and our bodies. So does #fitspo and photoshop, and so on. I’ve fallen prey myself, and it takes time and a shift in thinking to overcome it (I had to unfollow all the fitspo on Instagram so that I wasn’t constantly seeing it). I still struggle with it some days, but I’m have made big steps in my own mindset about my body.
Really get down to the real reason you want to lose weight. If it doesn’t feel right to you, then it’s not a good idea. And if you think losing weight is going to solve all your problems, it’s not.
There’s more to it than the number on the scale. The obsession with the scale is straight up crazy. Imagine what that does to your mental game when you’re weighing yourself every day. Not to mention that the scale doesn’t tell the whole story of the progress you’ve made. Think about the amount of energy you have or your ability to hike for longer without getting tired right away or even your mood and how you treat others.
You don’t have to be a specific weight. Focusing on a weight range is a much better game plan than a specific number. You may find there’s a range in which you feel great and you can maintain. Not to mention that fact that our weight fluctuates so much even in a given day. If you get to a weight that you feel amazing at, but it isn’t the weight you had in mind, then let it go and be happy with where you are. There’s no point in being at such a low weight that you feel miserable and pissy all the time (probably because you’re hangry).
Be realistic with your goal. Set a realistic amount of time for you to achieve your goal. And be realistic about the type of change you want to see in your body. Losing 30 pounds in 30 days is neither of these. Remember, it took time to put the weight on, it’ll take time to lose it. And you may realize along the way that you don’t need to lose as much as you thought because you found a new weight range that you feel amazing in.
In part 2 of this series, we’ll be discussing developing health habits that fit your goals and lifestyle so you can get results without the stress, overwhelm, and disappointment.
While you’re waiting for part 2, answer me this.
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