Falling Hurts

This blog post serves as a confessional. I fell hard last week. I doubt people follow this blog enough to notice that I didn’t post a blog last week. I told myself that it was because I moved so I had to pack, move, unpack, organize, clean and settle in. Maybe that’s partly the truth, but if I’m honest, it was more than that. I’m trying to climb out of it, and it’s harder than I anticipated.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday last week I ate SO MUCH. Sunday I binged which I hadn’t done in months. Exercising wasn’t a problem for me because we were moving houses. I tripled my exercise goal each day. However, as we’ve talked about before, nutrition is how weight loss happens. Very little weight loss comes from exercise. The worst part of this weekend is that consuming foods that lacked nutritional value made me feel worse. It didn’t help my energy, it didn’t keep me full for long, and I felt bloated and groggy all day. But I did it anyway. I didn’t write a blog post because for the first time in six months I wasn’t even remotely thinking about weight loss.

That’s all I’m going to say about that because there’s no point in dwelling on the past. This article is about climbing back up. If there’s a chance that this inspires you to not fall then I’ll be grateful.

The Hungry Hippo

I’m going to start off with the hardest one of it all. I am SO HUNGRY. It doesn’t take long for your body to get accustomed to a higher calorie intake. Unfortunately, it takes a much longer time for it to get used to a lower intake. This whole week I have been experiencing flashbacks to November 23, 2020, when I started my journey. The beginning is incredibly difficult.

The only tip that I have for this is one that you’ve heard a million times. Just keep going. Consistency is the only way that you’re going to get your body used to new habits. As I’m writing this article I’m literally on the first day of feeling totally fine sticking to my calorie deficit. The last week has been a grind.

My word of encouragement is this: It feels like you’re going to live in a state of perpetual hunger. YOU WILL NOT. It gets better and it becomes totally manageable. Just keep pressing on.

The Motivation Monster

Discipline over motivation every time is what I preach. Sticking to goals and habits will bring about motivation. That being said motivation is a very good feeling. Starting the day feeling confident and ready to conquer the world is always the right side of the bed to roll out of. When you’ve taken a fall, as I did last weekend, that feeling is a far of vision.

I know that I feel better when I commit to my habits. I know that what I am doing WILL result in weight loss. I know that the motivation feeling will come back when I start to see results again. But there’s this tiny piece of my brain that is telling me that the pizza I engorged myself on is a much more fun life to live.

If you know enneagram, I’m a type 7 and that makes sense to you. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then allow me to introduce you to enneagram sometime. A brief summary of my type is that I am a pleasure-seeking individual. I find joy in the next big adventure or the overall feeling of positive emotions – however, I run as far away as I can from fear and bad vibes. Knowing this about myself has helped me to react differently to times when motivation is lacking. I can recognize what I’m feeling and instead of hiding emotions in food, I can make better decisions (most of the time). All this to say, knowing yourself and your instinctual responses will help you in this pursuit of sticking to your goals. Maybe I’ll do an enneagram post, let me know if you’re interested in that.

My word of encouragement is this. It feels like the grind is endless and you’re never going to be happy pursuing this lifestyle change but when you accomplish goals and see results, the happy motivation feeling will come back.

It’s Going To Be Okay

There are surely other things that come with “falling off the wagon” that I’m not thinking of. There are day-to-day things that are difficult when trying to jump back on the moving train. I really do think that most of those challenges can be conquered by doing the things even when you don’t feel like it. Discipline isn’t something I know how to teach but I certainly would like to encourage you to stop waiting for a good feeling or “the right time”. You need to just start. You don’t need to wait for Monday or tomorrow or another season of life. You can choose to start immediately and your body will thank you for it.

Bye for now!

Starting Weight: 352
Current Weight: 295
Goal Weight: 150