Hindsight - Why I Was Successful

Hindsight – Why I Was Successful

This, my most recent physical achievement, brings with it the biggest sense of accomplishment of any in the past. Though I have lost weight before, somehow the struggles surrounding my current success run deeper, in addition to the amount of weight lost being greater than any before it. For this reason, my thoughts keep coming back to it, pondering the implications. I may as well use what inspiration I have. Perhaps expressing it can help someone else, or help me to succeed again in the future, if ever I am confronted with that need again. And, if not, at least it’s cathartic.

In the Beginning

When I first got started with exercising, I wasn’t yet ready to change my diet. So I started with what I felt I was able to start with. My blood sugar was fluctuating so wildly that I was constantly ravenous. To deny myself what I wanted seemed like the worst kind of torture and left me useless to my family because of the crashes. So, starting with exercising was really the best thing for me to do. It helped balance my blood sugar, which decreased the intensity of the cravings. Herein lies the necessity of exercise combined with diet changes when trying to lose weight. Exercising, by itself, does not lead to weight loss; not really. Reducing caloric intake does. But caloric restriction is made easier by exercise.

Baby Steps

Next, I changed my diet bit by bit, not all at once. First, I reduced the indulgences, especially at night. It was easier to “deny” myself these things because the exercising replaced it as self-love and I also felt that what work I was accomplishing by exercising would be undone by overindulging. Next, I traded out simple sugars for whole grains/foods. This reduced cravings further, making it easier to incrementally reduce caloric intake. Exercising regularly also afforded me the freedom to eat more than I could have gotten away with eating if I wasn’t exercising since I was burning so many calories each week.

Bumps are OK

Each time I experienced a setback in my exercise routine, I actually found that I lost more weight on the scale than when I was exercising regularly. Don’t get me wrong, when I’m exercising regularly, my body looks much better than when I am not and there is certainly shrinking happening as I build muscle in place of fat. However, with my food intake now kind of naturally in check (I don’t even think about it anymore), when I have stopped exercising, the weight loss is all “loss.” So the scale readings are more exciting. My point? Don’t freak out on yourself if you have some minor setbacks. Just get back on track as soon as you can and enjoy what each step brings you. Also, I’m gonna have to research it a bit so I understand it better, but another experience I have had on this journey has been rather interesting. Occasionally, here or there on my return road to thinness (lol), I have had what feel like intense cravings. I have given in to them, sure that I would pay for it. After a couple days of what has felt like complete overindulgence, I found I had actually lost more weight. So, who knows what that’s all about. Just don’t beat yourself up! Keep positive, keep moving forward! Love life! You can do it! You are doing it! I love you!