This post may contain affiliate links, or we may earn money from the companies mentioned in this post. For more information on this, please visit our legal page.
If you have seen any of my other Health & Fitness posts you’ll know that I enjoy creating and implementing exercises and finding new routines to help with weight loss, maintenance or toning.
What I wanted to address in this weeks’ post is the mental aspect of weight loss and all of the realizations and struggles you have to overcome mentally when you go through any journey of change (This also applies to those of you going through the opposite journey of putting weight on). Sometimes the hardest part is in your head, regardless of which way round your struggle is. I have also found some cool quotes that capture everything I was trying to say! But if you are on a weight journey you are bound to encounter these…
Problem Solver
Believing that changing how you look will solve all of your problems. Yes, losing weight (or gaining it) will help you reach the appropriate BMI on the chart and will make you healthy from a medical perspective. Yes you will feel better and be more healthy but you need to address the underlying problems; why do you eat (or not) to begin with, is it a self-esteem issue? is it boredom? By dealing with these problems you stop them re-occurring later and “fighting” against yourself mentally in the future.
The “Quick Fix”
You need to realize you are making a lifelong change to be healthy, not skinny etc. If you aim to make it stick, you need to know they don’t happen overnight. Anything that has “quick” or “easy” attached to it should be avoided because even if it does make you lose “2 stone in 2 weeks”, it’s not healthy and it won’t last. I tried diet pills too and it’s not an effective means of weight loss or maintenance! My pet peeve is “quick” diets/weight loss.
Me Against The World
Competition is a great way to motivate yourself if you are looking to lose weight with someone else but don’t let the competition overshadow the support you need to give (and receive) from each other. Understand that people can support and help you but if you keep everything to yourself , the days you struggle are going to be overwhelming!
Praise Me!
Yes, it is very motivating to hear how well you are doing or how good you look but there will come a time when you’ve reached your goals and it will become your new normal! don’t just work hard to get the attention of others because you will be more inclined to “bounce” straight back again. Praise yourself and be proud of yourself, learn to be happy with your own progress and don’t rely on other people’s opinions of you.
Unrealistic Expectations
The more you work, the more you get out, it’s that simple. Don’t expect to start walking once a week and get upset when things take a bit longer. It is great to get up and out but make sure you understand what will change you and in what way so that you don’t get disappointed. Aim for greatness but know what is going to get you there and what isn’t!
Accept the things you cannot change
Finally (and in my opinion most importantly) accept that no one is perfect! For example throughout my pregnancy I got a lot of stretchmarks and when I lost weight I thought they would be less noticeable/disappear, when they didn’t it overshadowed (mentally) the positive aspects of my weight loss, (if anything I notice them more because the ratio of me to stretchmarks is higher now I’m smaller). So it is something I am working on too! Accept that you can’t change everything about yourself that you don’t like! You wouldn’t be you without them!
Have you been on a weight journey? what have you learned? Let me know in the comment section below!
For more Health & Fitness Information you will be interested in following my Pinterest Boards:
