"The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success."
--David Sarnoff
--David Sarnoff
I've learned so many new things about myself during the first month of my weight loss plan. And here's where I’m going to start being honest to the point of being raw again.
Never in my life have I felt like I was strong enough to complete anything. Honestly, I'm one of those people who gets really excited about things. I plan them, I anticipate them, I begin to live, breathe, and obsess over them. And then, once they happen, I lose interest. Whether it be a fandom, a video game, a new electronic, a weight loss plan, a life change…eventually, the flame has burned out. And I'm left without changing for the better.
If you would have asked me a couple of months ago whether or not I could lose weight in a healthy way and change my lifestyle completely, I would have laughed and said, "Yeah, right."
I tend to settle into a comfort zone and not really leave it. At one point this past summer, my days consisted of waking up, hating what I saw in the mirror, going to work, hating how I was treated as a lesser being, getting home, napping for two hours, and laying on the couch watching TV or sitting on my computer until my boyfriend got home, and going to bed.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Every. Single. Day.
I thought in order to change myself and lose weight, I would have to do a complete 180 and be someone different. I thought I'd be getting up every morning an hour earlier (HA!), running for thirty minutes (HA!), eating breakfast/lunch/dinners consisting of only fruits and veggies (HA!), and spending all my free time strength training or hitting the gym (HAHAHA!).
As my grandmother says, "BOLOGNA!"
That may be how other people do it, but you know what? I'm NOT other people. I'm my own, unique individual. I have my own likes and dislikes. If I don't take those into account, there's no way I can possibly expect myself to lose weight. I have to accept that I don't like running, and I never want to train for a 5k. It's not me. I get bored with it so easily, and I give up. I don't like playing sports. That's never really been my thing. What am I, then?
A dancer.I've loved to dance since I could walk. And how can I integrate that? Well, there are so many dance moves in aerobics or other cardio videos I can find right off the Internet. I also love Dance, Dance Revolution, as everyone knows. Workout mode gets me jumping, and if I get my arms swinging with it, I have a GREAT cardio workout.
And I'm not all about the fruits and veggies exclusive diet. That's not healthy in the right ways. Yes, I need to focus on getting lots of fruits and veggies. But I cannot deny myself the things I love. That would not be part of being me. So I do portion control. As long as I get my recommended amount of fruits/veggies per day as well as stay in my calorie range, I consider that a good day!
The reason I was not persevering on other diets I tried was because I considered them diets. This is not a diet to me. This is a lifestyle change. I would get frustrated, because I couldn't find the drive in me to stick it through. And I'd give up.
I'd also put myself on a time constraint. "I'm going to lose 30 pounds in two months!"
PSH. Whatever. That's unrealistic, and that's going to be part of the roller coaster cycle. Weight going up and down and all around. It's not going to contribute truly to a lifestyle change. And changing how you live is what you want to aim for, or you'll end up possibly getting right back to where you started. My mom has always told me, "Slow and steady wins the race." She's right, you know. I'm realizing this more and more. I come to a stand-still on the scale a lot of the time. But that doesn't mean nothing is working. It means my body is taking its own time to make this adjustment. And that's OKAY! You never know. If the scale goes up a little or won't budge, it might just mean you're gaining muscle! Muscle weighs more than fat, but it also helps you to lose weight faster as well.
Now that I've found a way to combine my likes/dislikes into my lifestyle change, it's SO much easier. So you know what? There's no book that can give you the exact way to do things. Everybody is a little different. What works for one person is going to frustrate another. In order to change your lifestyle for good, you need to sit down and think about it.
What do you love? Work it in.
What do you hate? Keep it out!
And if you make a plan that works for you, it'll be that much easier to persevere. You will succeed, because there are so many fewer barriers in your way, and you'll be doing the things you like! I hope you, too, can feel as good about yourself as I do. Because as Mr. David Sarnoff suggests, I have finally learned how to persevere.
Never in my life have I felt like I was strong enough to complete anything. Honestly, I'm one of those people who gets really excited about things. I plan them, I anticipate them, I begin to live, breathe, and obsess over them. And then, once they happen, I lose interest. Whether it be a fandom, a video game, a new electronic, a weight loss plan, a life change…eventually, the flame has burned out. And I'm left without changing for the better.
If you would have asked me a couple of months ago whether or not I could lose weight in a healthy way and change my lifestyle completely, I would have laughed and said, "Yeah, right."
I tend to settle into a comfort zone and not really leave it. At one point this past summer, my days consisted of waking up, hating what I saw in the mirror, going to work, hating how I was treated as a lesser being, getting home, napping for two hours, and laying on the couch watching TV or sitting on my computer until my boyfriend got home, and going to bed.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Every. Single. Day.
I thought in order to change myself and lose weight, I would have to do a complete 180 and be someone different. I thought I'd be getting up every morning an hour earlier (HA!), running for thirty minutes (HA!), eating breakfast/lunch/dinners consisting of only fruits and veggies (HA!), and spending all my free time strength training or hitting the gym (HAHAHA!).
As my grandmother says, "BOLOGNA!"
That may be how other people do it, but you know what? I'm NOT other people. I'm my own, unique individual. I have my own likes and dislikes. If I don't take those into account, there's no way I can possibly expect myself to lose weight. I have to accept that I don't like running, and I never want to train for a 5k. It's not me. I get bored with it so easily, and I give up. I don't like playing sports. That's never really been my thing. What am I, then?
A dancer.I've loved to dance since I could walk. And how can I integrate that? Well, there are so many dance moves in aerobics or other cardio videos I can find right off the Internet. I also love Dance, Dance Revolution, as everyone knows. Workout mode gets me jumping, and if I get my arms swinging with it, I have a GREAT cardio workout.
And I'm not all about the fruits and veggies exclusive diet. That's not healthy in the right ways. Yes, I need to focus on getting lots of fruits and veggies. But I cannot deny myself the things I love. That would not be part of being me. So I do portion control. As long as I get my recommended amount of fruits/veggies per day as well as stay in my calorie range, I consider that a good day!
The reason I was not persevering on other diets I tried was because I considered them diets. This is not a diet to me. This is a lifestyle change. I would get frustrated, because I couldn't find the drive in me to stick it through. And I'd give up.
I'd also put myself on a time constraint. "I'm going to lose 30 pounds in two months!"
PSH. Whatever. That's unrealistic, and that's going to be part of the roller coaster cycle. Weight going up and down and all around. It's not going to contribute truly to a lifestyle change. And changing how you live is what you want to aim for, or you'll end up possibly getting right back to where you started. My mom has always told me, "Slow and steady wins the race." She's right, you know. I'm realizing this more and more. I come to a stand-still on the scale a lot of the time. But that doesn't mean nothing is working. It means my body is taking its own time to make this adjustment. And that's OKAY! You never know. If the scale goes up a little or won't budge, it might just mean you're gaining muscle! Muscle weighs more than fat, but it also helps you to lose weight faster as well.
Now that I've found a way to combine my likes/dislikes into my lifestyle change, it's SO much easier. So you know what? There's no book that can give you the exact way to do things. Everybody is a little different. What works for one person is going to frustrate another. In order to change your lifestyle for good, you need to sit down and think about it.
What do you love? Work it in.
What do you hate? Keep it out!
And if you make a plan that works for you, it'll be that much easier to persevere. You will succeed, because there are so many fewer barriers in your way, and you'll be doing the things you like! I hope you, too, can feel as good about yourself as I do. Because as Mr. David Sarnoff suggests, I have finally learned how to persevere.
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