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Losing Weight the Unpopular Way – Changed my life
It’s something we all know we all know we should do but in practice, being able to live a healthy lifestyle can be challenging, especially if you’ve spent years doing the exact opposite.
I was certainly in the latter bracket, and it had a disastrous affect not just on my physical appearance, but my mental wellbeing.
The human body is a sophisticated and fragile system. It’s important to service it accordingly, to achieve optimal output. If you’re a homeowner, tenant or driver, you know the importance of maintenance. The human body is no exception.
In my blog ‘PMDD for beginners’, I mentioned the condition can be particularly challenging, mentally. For many years it was worsened by my unhealthy lifestyle.
I transitioned from a lifestyle of self-neglect to self-love, primarily because I was tired of losing against myself. If you’ve been contemplating developing a healthier lifestyle, losing weight or improving your mental wellbeing, I strongly encourage you to step out your comfort zone, and go after the change you want.
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Where it Began
Before I started this journey, I use to watch hours of footage via social media platforms, of people who were where I wanted to be. I’d be provoked to get myself in shape however, my biggest hindrance was, I wanted results immediately.
I think it’s fair to say most of us have this desire and it’s not unnatural to want to see results quickly. If you want long lasting results however, then quick results, are unreliable.
Your goals are definitely achievable and this is where your focus should be. As long as you commit and persist, change will eventually happen.
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Nothing changes overnight. That saying “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is” couldn’t be more accurate when it comes to a lifestyle change.
Extreme weight loss tactics will certainly get you quick results however, they’re not sustainable. Let’s face it, it’s damn near impossible to maintain those types of changes forever.
You have to remember, you’ve likely spent significant time living a certain lifestyle. If you want permanent change, the actions you take, need to be sustainable on a long-term basis. Positive change will equally take time and the majority of the work is in how dedicated you remain.
Creating or breaking habits takes consistency over time. Anything you want to implement in your life is achievable, as long as you stay consistent and maintain the new disciplines.
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Starting Wrong – Ending Right
1st January returns and I’d be ready to turn my life around. The new gym membership is in place, the ‘fast weight-loss diet’ has been selected, backed by my sheer determination to blitz off the excess fat ASAP.
I’d be obsessed with weighing myself almost every day, desperate to see a minus change in the scales. I’d keep this up for some few weeks.
One morning, I’d jump on the scales and it’s gone up by 2lbs. My world would come crashing down. The disappointment ravages my mind and I’d simply give up trying.
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The hit to my enthusiasm would cause me to revert back to my old ways, whilst trying to convince myself my lifestyle wasn’t all that bad in the first place – I was only fooling myself.
The worst part about it, I’d rinse and repeat this process sporadically for years, whilst consistently getting nowhere overall. It was disheartening. I’d think of myself as a failure.
No one could criticise me more than I would criticise myself, that’s for certain. This constant cycle of getting it wrong then doing it again and again was pulverising my ego. I’d beat myself up non-stop and eventually, it took its toll on my confidence overall.
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Challenging Myself
I eventually had to have an intervention. I looked closely at what I was doing, and why it wasn’t working. What were my reasons for losing weight in the first place? Did I just want to look good aesthetically or did I want to have a healthier life for the long-term?
I needed to break out the mindset that fast results meant success, and slow results failure. I grew to realise, the best way to succeed at anything in life, is steadily. I’ve shared these exact thoughts in one of my weight loss YouTube videos here.
My vision evolved. I wanted to make life-lasting changes. I had my future ahead of me in which time I could achieve my desired results. There were no time constraints except those I’d placed on myself because of societies expectations.
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I got deep for a moment, reminding myself that time goes on regardless of what I’m doing. If I could steadily implement gradual changes along with moving time, eventually at some stage in my future, I would reach my goals. I just had to be less impatient and more realistic.
I wanted to be in this for the long haul. The future me needed to be a very different version of the present me. I knew I had to commit to changes and these changes did not need to be voluminous from the start.
The year was already part way into 2019 and for the first time in my life, I knew in my heart, I was ready to embark on a lasting journey, starting right where I was.
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Food – My Love
They teach us that weight loss is 75% diet and 25% physical activity. I use to scorn this saying, not able to understand how this could be true.
After years of eating a nutritious diet, it couldn’t be more accurate. Although I wasn’t fully convinced at the time, I was happy to test the thesis. I needed to make a change to my relationship with food. Realistic, achievable goals that catered to my lifestyle and finances.
I learnt from the get-slim-quick diets that I did not like, nor could I keep up with drastic measures. Instead of giving up everything in one go, I would make smaller changes bit by bit.
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Meal prepping featured as a major catapult in the process. The temptation to eat fast, processed foods was because I didn’t have quality homecooked meals readily available.
I could order food on an app, and have it within 30 minutes which encouraged unnecessary spending in the process. It was time to get creative and fall in love with good quality, home cooked food.
I consider myself an omnivore however, I knew I loved any good, flavoured food whether it contained meat or not. I started to research vegan recipes.
This may sound odd for someone who enjoys eating meat. My reason for this however, was because vegan meals tend to be healthy and at the same time, particularly flavourful due to the absence of meat.
They show you ways to get creative with food types that most people would typically write-off. The meals I found were based on vegetables, pulses, fruit, fibre. Foods I knew I needed in my life to improve my overall health.
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I would cook them as per the recipe guidance, then add a little of my favourite meat creating a well-balanced meal. They’d incorporate great levels of vitamins, protein, fibre, the nutrients my body needed.
I’d shop in advance, season my meats and veg then bag them up in portions, freezing them after. They’d then be ready to go day by day taking just 15-20 minutes to cook which beat the delivery apps.
I managed to keep this up for months to come. Within the first 6 months, I’d lost approximately just over 1 stone. The greatest weight loss result I’d personally had in years. The best part, it didn’t feel like a time restrictive change – this was now my life.
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The weight loss I achieved, to many people may not sound like much but to me it was. I was starting at 16 stone so for me, I had made great strides.
More importantly, I was losing the weight steadily. I avoided excess skin that can sometimes occur when you drastically lose a large amount of weight, in a short space of time. For once, I was doing things the right way.
I felt better physically and mentally. My confidence levels were improving, and the changes were starting to radiate. Soon enough, the compliments started coming in.
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Exercise – Bain of My Life
I now had my eating in a healthy consistent pattern for just over a year. I was just under 2 stone lighter than my starting point. Like most, I was then faced with the dreaded weight loss plateau.
I wasn’t discouraged, rather, I felt this would be a great time to implement what I’d been avoiding for much of my adult life, physical activity.
For the most part, I was an office worker from home by day. I honestly can’t think of a less inactive employment type. Years of working like this and driving everywhere in all other scenarios, had caused me to become particularly lazy, and unfit. It was time to push myself.
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I’m in my 30’s and although I’m aware I’m slowly aging, I wanted to reverse my ageing process – in a sense. I could be a future 65 year old who doesn’t look or feel a day over 45.
If I could just start now I thought to myself, I could invest 30 plus years and truly become that person. Just as with my food, the idea was to avoid trying to sprint so to speak. I started slowly, and built on my progress gradually.
In present day, years later, I’m in awe of what I’ve been able to accomplish looking back. You can truly surprise yourself, if you put in the work.
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There were a few things I first established when I started out. I wasn’t a ‘gym person’ by any means (clearly), and I didn’t want to travel there or pay for it at the time as finances were tight.
I also wasn’t a fan of the outdoors because of how hit and miss the weather could be. I wasn’t trying to make excuses; I just knew I needed to do something realistic to begin with. Something I’d actually stick to. This was key in the early stages.
I started small as planned, at home. I still remember day one like it was yesterday. All I had was a skipping rope and resistance bands. I managed about 70 skips and 3 reps of 20 with the resistance bands and was horribly out of breath. I had a lot of work to do.
Image by gustavo-fring/pexels
I built on my stamina as the weeks went by. The months went on and eventually, I was doing 1800 skips in reps of 50-100 with 20 second breaks.
I knew variety would keep me going, so I switched over to doing 2-3 HITT home workouts per week, utilising the rope and bands on occasion. My gratitude for YouTube excelled. The home HITT workouts gave me structure and variety.
Like many women, I have that difficult week where my period interrupts my workout flow. I still workout, just more so from day 4 or 5 of my cycle when the relative pain has subsided. I also ensure I take a full week off every two months, allowing my body a period of rest and repair.
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Final Thoughts
If you’re doing what works for you specifically, you’re more than likely to stick to it.
Improving your wellbeing has many moving parts of which the most important, is your health. I’m no longer trying to keep up with the Jones’. I’ve focused on elongating my life and sustaining my level of productivity and I only compete against myself.
I have people who depend on me and in order to look after them effectively, I must be dedicated to looking out for myself. I am the biggest asset I will ever have.
You have to realise your true value and the importance of investing in yourself – mind, soul and body.
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Getting healthier and in shape, is all about the disciplines you’re able to endure. Consistency allows us to perfect an activity, but also builds our determination whilst increasing our self-confidence.
If you stay committed, you’ll see change. See below my before and after photos. It’s been years of gradual changes as I explained above and committing to these changes, for life.
Years later, I look like a better version of myself. Don’t let the world sell you a dream. It takes work and most importantly, it takes time. You just need to truly want change.
For further encouragement, don’t forget to follow me on my Instagram and YouTube platforms. Reach out and drop me a direct message and let’s continue this path of excelling together.
Hopefully, my online support will be a reminder that you’re not in this by yourself. There are others out there who understand the sacrifice involved in being better. When you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s only one direction in which you can move and that’s Upwards.
