For so long in my life, I have been reading piles of articles, blogs and watched one too many episodes of Extreme Makeover: Weightloss Edition in hopes that I’d finally lose the pounds I’ve been wanting to shed ever since I was eleven. On the way, I’ve been going on and off the bandwagon of exercise and diet. First, I would exercise for 30 minutes after reading one article that says 30 minutes is enough but then I would change my strategy and raise 30 to 45 because another article says otherwise. Another problem I’ve had was binging because I don’t know how to control myself sometimes. At one thought, I believed only eating 1200-1500 calories a day would help me lose weight but it turns out in some cases, our own body requires more.
This has dominated my life and brought me to the lowest confidence point in my life where I have become too afraid to go out with friends, too afraid to try on clothes when shopping with my family and too afraid of almost everything else. Counting calories and exercising meant a great big deal for me. I filled almost every notebook I’ve had with a series of new strategies and ways on how to lose weight. It’s almost scary –of the person I’ve become. I lost track of who I once was –someone who enjoyed writing, focused on getting good grades to get in a good college, talking with the people who would make me happy and not spending any time with anyone or anything that didn’t.
Losing weight was ideally a journey that was supposed to make a person stronger physically and mentally. But for me, it has only made my life a lot worse. Counting the number of calories I had and making sure that I stick to that did not make me happy. Exercise didn’t make much of a difference for me if I busted my butt of but didn’t reap any results after a few weeks. I felt weaker, I had low self-confidence and I was losing a sense of who I was. It changed me, yes, but not entirely for the better.
Suddenly, after reading a few articles that were more concentrated on life rather than fitness, I was able to grasp one simple concept that was essential to lose weight: do more of the things that give me pleasure and happiness in life. It is totally impossible to reach a goal if how I attain it made me no less happy. I realized if I focused too much in eating less and exercising more, I would be depriving myself of other things that would help me lose weight. One example, perhaps, is when I try to eat 1200 calories, focusing on that for the first hour and moping about how I didn’t follow it the next. My mind has been filled with these thoughts that I’ve failed to realize that I could practice playing my violin or read my favorite book instead. That way, I’ll be able to focus on making myself happy and avoid eating too much.
As much as possible, I am trying to choose the right words to say and the message I am trying to convey in the end. Anyone like me would chance upon reading this and get the wrong message like I’ve had with the other articles and blogs I’ve read. If you are looking for some new ways on how to lose weight then what I’ve said may or may not help you. I believe things work different with other people.
If you are trying to lose weight, it is best you stick to one workout or plan that challenges you and makes you happy at the same time. It might seem that no one can do that but I believe they do.
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