In my experience mental strength is essential and maybe even the most important thing to be able to live a healthier lifestyle and possibly shed some weight. It is the thing that gets you started with your journey, keeps you strong and helps prevent you going back to old habits. I would like to share with you how I was able to, and still am, maintain a healthy mind throughout the whole process. Losing weight doesn’t come easy and I love chocolate and sweets just as much as anyone.
First I’d like to start with actually getting yourself to even start losing weight and becoming healthy. I am sure many people get these moments where they think “I’m going to lose weight and be healthy”. It is an ambitious thing and often a new year’s resolution as well. Here is the thing; though it is something many people tend to do, including myself many times, we tell ourselves we start tomorrow or next week or maybe next month. Before you know it’s a year later and you haven’t gotten anywhere. So what is it that actually keeps us from starting? A question that only the person themselves can give an answer to. For me a big part was my self-confidence, which kept me from going on. Years of mean comments had left their marks and I couldn’t bring myself to love even the tiniest bit of me. I’d feel bad whenever I’d look in the mirror and think “why would I even try, I’ll look horrible anyway and I’ll be stuck to my blood pressure medicine no matter what”. I would often try and convince myself that I was happy with the way I was and there was no point in trying to be different. Truth be told I wasn’t happy. A part of me wanted to embrace my feminine side, stop wearing male clothes and just wanted to look pretty. However I had reached the point where I told myself that I wasn’t worthy of being feminine. I’d always wear plain clothes and hope people wouldn’t look at me. After my attempt at losing weight 2 years earlier in which I lost 20 kilo’s and gained it all back, plus some more, I simply thought there was no way I could ever be healthy or wear anything else but XL male shirts. It wasn’t until I had a really in-depth talk with my beloved that I became fully aware of these things. Being honest with myself that I wasn’t happy at all caused me to be able to find the motivation to start the progress. I wanted to be happy, healthy and pretty, and I was determined to do so.
“Your determination to be healthy has to be stronger than your desire to cling to bad habits. Otherwise you’re bound to fail.” – Kal
I’ve always felt like the hardest part of losing weight and being healthy is keeping your motivation up throughout the process no matter what happens. A part I admittedly failed at multiple times. This time it was different. I learned what, for me personally, was the best method for me to keep at it. We all know what kind of food is bad for us and what kind of food is good for us. But do we actually know exactly why? I didn’t. Kal taught me about the different nutrients in food and eventually I started to educate myself more as well. I learned about insulin spikes, why stuff was good or bad and what kind of effects certain nutrients have on the body. To me knowing these things made a massive difference, the cravings I’d get were answered with “No, I don’t want to have that for this and this reason” instead of “No, I can’t have that”. This made me able to resist cravings and not give in. eventually cravings became nearly non-existent. On the opposite side knowing the good things about the food I ate made me enjoy it so much more. However my love for chocolate and custard hasn’t gone, but instead of answering to cravings I’m answering to a mind that tells me I deserve a treat once in a while for doing so well. Custard and cake never tasted better.
“I still don’t like broccoli though” – Sera
The last stage of the process, which is reaching and maintaining your goal weight, is one I’m not yet at myself. However, I feel like I am very close to my goal. The hardest part of the journey is behind me and I do not have much further to go. My lifestyle is totally different than a year back and it doesn’t feel like I’m just doing it to lose weight. It feels like just a regular lifestyle. I can’t imagine myself ever going back to my old one. I think this satisfied feeling about my lifestyle is of importance to prevent me getting back to old habits. So I’d advise you in your process of getting healthy and losing weight to find a lifestyle that you’re comfortable with and can maintain.
I plan on going into more detail about the lifestyle changes I made in a different post.
I wonder….
Sera
Ser and Stuff 