No weight loss, but here's why I'm celebrating.

I love reading success stories. I love seeing before and after pictures. I didn't particularly like taking my befores (who does really?), but it's easier thinking that in just a few months' time, you'll look gorgeous. People you haven't seen in a while will compliment you on your looks, something that has never happened before. Or has not happened since you were a sweet 18-year-old or whatever. Just stick to all the good tips you've accumulated on the internet (drink water, eat clean, work out, sleep, repeat), and wait for the inevitable to happen.
(Okay, "gorgeous" may be a bit exaggerated, but it is MY fantasy after all, right?)

I think it's clear from the above that there's a little shallow person inside me. Yes, yes, I'll admit it. I am all for inner beauty and cherishing everything you have right this moment, but every once in a while I will stop and think, "Huh, I wonder what it would be like to look really hot."
There, I said it.

But I will also say that from the start I had a second motivation, which is being a workout beast. Just killing it every time I compete with my last workout's self. Making myself proud for this tiny moment when you push yourself just that little bit farther.
That's the good thing about having a tendency to be hard on yourself, which usually is a bad trait because it keeps you from fully enjoying things in life: You can turn it around and use it in your advantage when you stop kicking yourself for not doing the work, but actually kicking it up a notch when doing the work.

Summing up my motivation for changing my lifestyle: wanting to look and feel good, becoming a workout beast (I actually like the term, yeah).

Usually I am the all-or-nothing type, which I knooooow is not always too helpful. If you're trying hard to change all at once, there's a good chance you'll break it off from exhausting yourself at some point.
So this time I was going to be smarter about it. Be easy on myself. Try to eat well, but mainly focus on building a workout routine. Start with one thing and let the rest sort of follow …

I am proud to say that I have been consistently working out for the past four months. And I don't want to pat myself too early on the back, but I have a good feeling about keeping this up. I will tell you the reasons in just a minute, but first let me tell you what the title already revealed: I have lost no weight whatsoever.
I HAVE noticed changes in my body because my workout consists of strength training, bodyweight training to be exact, so I can definitely see definition in muscles I sort of forgot I had. I've also pretty much become the workout beast I've envisioned.
Now what about that clean eating? The losing weight part? The looking gorgeous goal?

Well.

I have been trying to eat better, and I think I am. The thing is though that cutting calories just seemed really hard. I had done that before (and lost and kept off a bunch of weight), but my workouts were a bit easier on myself back then. I think? Either way, I felt hungry a lot this time, so I was like, "Okay, let's be real: If it's this hard, there's a chance you will give up at some point."
And I really didn't want to let that happen. I love my changing body! I love the extra energy I have! The positive outlook that I've always had but that is now translating to other people, which feels exceptionally awesome. I love taking two steps at a time when climbing the stairs to my fourth-floor office. I love that riding my bike to work is not considered a workout for me anymore, just like when I was a teenager and it was second nature, simply a means of transportation, not a way to justify eating a piece of cake in the afternoon because I had burned off those calories. I want to be an active person who doesn't even think about it anymore because it's "just who I am".

I am in a very good place right now, and I want to now focus more on eating clean, listening to what my body needs, eating less calories overall. I still have that goal mentioned above. That hasn't changed.

The reason I'm writing this thing right here is that if you'd told me four months ago that I would not lose any weight in the months to follow, I possibly would have given up right then and there. And I want to tell all you lovely people just starting out or restarting or taking a look at your progress or envisioning your future progress … that working out is sooooo much more than a way to lose those pounds more quickly. It has benefits that will make you forget your primary vain goal of turning heads and have someone whistle as you walk by a construction site. (Does that really happen or is it just a myth? I do wonder.)

I am not the most successful story on here. The one you'll remember in a week or maybe even tomorrow. I am not the one to ask for advice. I am just about average as far as what I've accomplished so far. I'd say?
Not a sexy story to tell or listen to. But maybe, just maybe there's one person here who reads this and is grateful for feeling like there's room for success to the ones who can't do it all at once. Change their attitude magically over night. That there's beauty in not losing weight in four months (I have lost fat and gained muscle, I can tell, but that's on a side note.)

Now everyone, keep up the good work! Or the medium work. Whatever level you are on on your journey right now.

Thanks for reading.