What lesson did you learn from your journey?

Mark_Joseph

We all have goals we want to accomplish or are in the process of accomplishing. For some those goals have already been accomplished. What is something you have personally learned from your experience inside (or outside) fitness? How did you come to this realization and how did it effect you (+/-)? for those that were effected, what have you done differently.

When I first began my journey of fitness and health I told myself Ill lose weight quickly if i just ate under the amount of calories necessary I will be good to go... but I realized that i was really starving myself throughout the week and hurting. I was often inconsistent with that plan and ended up dropping it. so it eventually led me to have this mentality of what method would give me the fastest results? and the answer was simple. There is no fast way or golden ticket that will give you the power to lose a lot of weight in a certain amount of time. This lifestyle is a journey and I have to work for it. It will not happen over night like I hope, but I know it is a process I am willing to commit myself to.

So the things that i am doing differently is for one... being honest with myself and having actual small accomplishable goals that i know i can do. Secondly, I have recently decided to do a IF. 15 hour fast. 9hour eating period. I have been more successful with this method personally because I feel like I am becoming more disciplined with my eating habits. It also fits my schedule. Lastly, is to not be so hard on myself and to have fun.

VeronicaA76

The biggest thing I've learned is how to ignore other people's negativity. Some people are just negative people, no matter what.

When I was obese: I'm lazy
Losing weight: I must be on pills or starving myself
Lost a ton of weight: I'm lying because I say it's through diet and exercise, I had to have had surgery.
Gaining muscle: I'm going to look like a man
Have muscles: I must be on steroids

It never ends, so I just ignore the negatives and remind myself, I'm not doing this for them. This is for me, and my opinion is the only one that truly matters.

middlehaitch

If I want to be the weight I was from the ages of 15-45 I have to move as much as I did then.

At 54 I wasn't eating more; I was moving less- that had led to a gradual ~30lbs weight gain.
Once I had lost that 30 I could carry on eating the amount of food I had always eaten so long as I moved more.

The moving more was a big thing.

We generally slow down with age, this causes a decrease in BMR and muscle, and thought I always thought I was a bookish sloth all my life, I actually moved a lot.
Dancing 3-4 nights a week, walking or biking most places, raising a child, all were movements I never gave credit to; they were just life.

Oops, mid to late 40's happened.

Child left home, I got a car, and I was no longer out dancing as often- got myself a fella- more romantic meals and horizontal dancing. All that taken for granted movement by Mrs Sloth had stopped and the weight rolled on.

Now, at 64, I make myself move. Gardening takes the pace of walking and biking everywhere, an hour of purposeful exercise makes up for the dancing, and lifting heavy keeps my muscles active.

The lesson I learnt: keep moving if I want to eat more than a sparrow, be healthy, and fit.

Cheers, h.

highlightshadow

That many of us are totally naive in terms of the mental/psychological struggle with weight management.
We spend a long time learning many skills in life (swimming, driving, etc etc) but once we're in a high-weight situation we're given lots of advice (and companies like SW/WW thrive on this) of HOW to eat, WHAT to eat..... but we're never given the knowledge / support / guidance that losing weight, changing lifestyle and doing that is mostly a mental battle and changing thoughts / assumptions / preconceptions are all needed and not straight forward. Its taken me years to realise that the ONLY way to beat this yo-yo cycle is to change my head ... the food / eating better is more the result of that.

Bit rambly i know ... hope it makes sense