I have always been a very active person, and I never worried about my lifestyle or weight throughout high school. I was a competitive gymnast turned track runner, so I could eat whatever I wanted since I knew that I would burn it off at practice the following day. Once I stepped back from competitive sports, though, I started to notice the ways that different foods actually affected my body. I started getting a little bit curvier, but I felt that I looked healthy and good in my clothes. I still ran occasionally, but focused on letting my body recover from years of (practically constant) abuse.
Things changed, though, while I was in graduate school. I still worked out regularly, enjoyed good food, and was happy with the way that I looked until January of 2018. I had noticed that I started to feel very sick after eating, and I thought that I was just developing a new food allergy. I monitored it, but wasn’t terribly worried about it. As it turned out, my appendix was failing and ended needing to be removed via emergency surgery.
This was incredibly hard on me since I was an active person that enjoyed getting out and going for easy runs. I was on mandatory bed rest, and was not cleared to work out for a month following my surgery so that my scars would have time to heal. I was sad and bored, so I turned to sweets like brownies, ice cream, and cookie dough to make myself feel better. I was eating way more sweets than I ever really had before, and I couldn’t go out and work it off like I was able to prior to the surgery.
Due to this change in my eating habits, with the added stress associated with my final semester of graduate school, I ended up gaining around 25 pounds. I was heavier than I had ever been, and many of my clothes no longer fit me. I was not happy with the way that I looked, so I knew that I needed to make a change for myself. Over the course of the next 8 months, I changed my habits completely and ended up losing approximately 35 pounds.
Every body is beautiful and there is no standard for what constitutes the ideal body size. However, I know what it’s like to want to make a change when you aren't happy with how you look.. For those of you that are in the same boat, I have listed out my top five tips to change your habits and achieve great, maintainable results.
Set reasonable, incremental goals
The first thing that anyone should do when committing to a lifestyle change is to reflect on the desired outcomes. Setting goals is a great way to motivate yourself to maintain your commitment, but sometimes lofty goals can have the opposite effect. I have found that it is best to have an “ideal” goal - one that you would ultimately like to get to, and many more “stepping stones” to move you towards your ideal goal. When I started my weight loss journey, I knew that I wanted to lose the 25 pounds that I gained after the surgery. 25 pounds is a lot to lose, so I set smaller goals to move myself in that direction. First, I wanted to successfully cut sugar out of my diet, starting with having treats only a couple times a week. Then, I made goals to lose 10 pounds, 15 pounds, and et cetera. At the end of the day, I ended up surpassing my original goal because I was able to motivate myself through the achievement of smaller goals.
Cut out processed sugar and alcohol
This is incredibly hard to start, but ends up being so, so rewarding. I have never been a huge drinker, but I have quite the sweet tooth. Sugar is especially hard to cut because, similar to caffeine, sugar has addictive properties that make it incredibly hard to cut out. Alcohol consumption is similarly important to monitor because it metabolizes very similarly to sugar during the process of digestion. When I first cut processed sugar out of my diet, I had daily headaches and craved it constantly. After about a week, though, I noticed that the headaches started to go away and I wasn’t craving sweet food as much. Once you get over the initial hump it gets a lot easier, and it makes a huge difference for your body.
Build a maintainable workout regimen
As someone who was a competitive athlete for 80% of their lifetime, this was a really hard adjustment to make. I was used to working out until I was ready to collapse, because I had a great coach who trained us to excel in competitive settings. When the competition and coaching are taken out of it, though, it is incredibly hard to motivate yourself to work out. I would find myself going and doing a very tough workout, and then not being able to get myself to do it again for another two weeks because those intense workouts were just too hard to maintain by myself. So, after giving it some thought, I realized that it is better to do less every day than it is to kick my own butt once every two weeks. I committed to running at least a mile every day, at whatever pace felt good. I like running, but this can also be achieved by regular walks, swimming, spinning, etc. You should enjoy the experience of your daily workout, because it will motivate you to go out and do it every day.
Check in on your progress regularly, but not too often
One thing that I always found hard about big lifestyle changes like this is that results are rarely noticed right away. I am someone who likes instant gratification, so I find it incredibly discouraging to miss the mark on goals that I have worked hard for. With this in mind, I have found that it is best to weigh myself once or twice a week in order to truly track results. Weighing yourself daily can lead to disappointment because weight fluctuates throughout a given day, and your body goes through a process of burning fat that continues for hours after a workout. So, you will see much more dramatic results if you wait a bit to check in on your progress since you have given your body to process all of the work that you have been putting in.
Make sure to treat yourself every once in a while
This is incredibly important, but is the thing that I struggle the most with. I don’t want to get in the way of my own results by indulging too often, but the reality of the matter is that one treat here and there won’t actually affect your goals. You work hard for your results, so make sure to celebrate your achievements from time to time.
For those of you who are looking to make a change, I hope that this has provided you with inspiration and motivation. These things worked great for me, but it is important to note that each body is different. The key is to find a process that works for you personally. You have what it takes - always remember that!
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