You look at your body or get on the scale and say to yourself: This weight loss journey starts today.
And so it begins, you quit sugar and fried food, while munching salad after salad with minimal carbs. You go on a run almost every other day.
A week later, you wake up and feel tired and unmotivated, thinking “Do I really have to do this again?” The bag of unfinished chips sitting on the countertop is calling for you. Just one chip wouldn’t hurt right? Yeah, maybe a second one, third one… and suddenly it’s all gone.
You sit on the couch feeling terrible, and you spiral back to your old habits – in about the time of a week.
Sounds familiar? Well, this cycle repeats itself countless times to countless people around the world – and even myself.
But I’m here to tell you how to get out of this and take control of your body transformation journey. By simply doing so, I was able to lose 50 pounds. The best thing is it sticks with you and you can apply it to many areas of your life as well.
People fail at weight loss even when they have the right exercise and nutrition
Even if you knew all the right concepts to lose weight: Being in a caloric deficit and doing the most optimal exercises for weight loss, many people still fail to reach their weight loss goal. The common culprit is of the story I shared above: Burn out.
Humans generally don’t like change, and when they decide to make drastic changes to their lifestyle in the blink of an eye, the body is shocked and fails to adapt. Then, they eventually resort to the original comfortable state.
The fundamental problem here is actually the mindset most people have for weight loss. They think of it as a training camp where they go on a strict exercise and nutrition regime. Once they’re done, they just go back to their regular life.
That is the wrong way to think about weight loss and it’s exactly the type of mindset that’ll lead you to burn out.
Think of weight loss as a gradual lifestyle change
The moment everything clicked for me was when I thought of weight loss as a gradual lifestyle change rather than an intense training camp.
While weight loss is the goal, you shouldn’t be doing ANYTHING to get there, that’s just going to shock your body massively. Instead, you want to gradually apply changes to your lifestyle. This works because it gives your body time to adapt to these new lifestyle changes. Once you have made small changes and your body is used to it, add on just a bit more, and repeat that until you get where you want to be.
For instance, you want to be running three miles 3 times a week – Don’t just start your first week with 3 three-mile runs! Go with just one 1-mile run in your first week, and add on another session in your second week. Work it up to running 3 runs a week, then only increase the distance.
Or say you want to be eating 50% less carbs in your meals – Don’t just take away the carbs completely! Start with just 10% less carbs for that week, then for the second week you take away a bit more. If you were to remove 50% carbs at one go, your body would be depleted of energy and binge eating happens. Doing it gradually gives your body a heads up and you’ll adapt much better.
Showing up matters, be consistent
We’re betting on small changes which are hard to see results early on, but if you are consistent for long enough, small changes compound into HUGE results.
That’s only if you’re consistent – so showing up for the right thing matters.
That’s how I managed to lose 50 pounds by having a consistent diet and running.
At first, I couldn’t even run for 5 minutes straight without being out of breath. Today, I have run a half marathon.
Before this, I hated eating healthy protein meals without heavy carbs. Today, my body craves for clean and healthy meals.
It works, but only if your mind is set for a lifestyle change. Does that mean the training camp regime method for weight loss doesn’t work? Definitely not! I just find this way much more sustainable and easier for a beginner.
Where to start
Start by asking yourself this question: What’s my end goal, and what’s the most minimal amount of change that I can put in to start changing my lifestyle?
If you need someone to bounce off some ideas, leave a comment and I’m more than happy to help you out!