There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of focus, but sometimes it can get in the way. Is it possible to have too much emphasis on a weight loss journey? I may be living proof of the point. The initial weight loss journey was strict. I stayed on plan all the time because I wanted to lose weight so bad. I lost the weight, but there were moments when I felt like I wasn’t living life. In retrospect, I see I was a living a rigorous regiment and maybe that it was I needed to get over the hump of being a 340-pound woman.
If you’re starting on a weight loss journey, there will be things that will need to change, so the mission is successful. Food cannot be your celebration or reward. Alcohol is not something you can indulge in every night. Learning portion control and meal prep techniques will be essential. There will be change and new learning experiences, but that doesn’t mean you need to stop at life.
I remember starting the weight loss journey and being optimistic that this was going to be my time. I didn’t want to do anything that would mess it up. I created a plan that would work for me. I stayed within my calories and worked out multiple times a day. I drank my water and nothing else. I ate my grilled chicken, rice, and broccoli like a champ. I didn’t venture off the course.
The most offensive thing I ate was frozen yogurt, and I would sometimes feel wrong about that. Cheating wasn’t an option. There weren’t any off the cuff meals. Going out to eat made me nervous because how could I accurately count something I didn’t make myself. I stayed away from alcohol and even smoothies because I refused to drink my calories. I would sometimes feel guilty because I wanted other things, but I knew I shouldn’t eat them. Sometimes, there was guilt in my life. I wasn’t living life because I was too focused on losing weight.
Weight loss was the only thing that mattered. It was the subject of most of my conversations. It was the first thing I thought about in the morning and the last thing I thought about at night. It was all-consuming. In retrospect, focusing too much on weight loss is why when I reached my weight loss goals, and I had a hard time dealing with life. I needed to reintroduce myself to the real world. I fell into a black hole of only being able to talk about weight loss or working out.
It’s great to have goals, but I hit a deep depression when I hit my goal. What was next? I just devoted my whole life, every move and conversation to losing weight. The fear of gaining weight always crept in my head. I didn’t know which direction to take after weight loss wasn’t the main focus anymore. My whole life revolved around weight loss.
Don’t do this to yourself. Eventually, you will reach your end goal. Finally, you will have to realize that your end goal was enough. Eventually, you will have to understand that you’ve lost weight, but you have to keep living life in a world where you can put weight back on if you’re not careful. I couldn’t live that restrictive life forever. That wouldn’t be any fun, and it definitely wouldn’t be fulfilling.
Yes, you can be too focused on losing weight. Don’t be that person. Take your weight loss journey seriously, but don’t let it become you. I know it’s hard when you are living that life, but eventually, things will need to level off to be normal. You will need to find that healthy balance to accomplish your goals.
Lucky for you, I have two weight loss journeys I can share with you. I lost the initial weight and then I have been on a year journey to lose my post-pregnancy weight. The second time around the idea of living that restrictive life was sickening. I couldn’t do it and I wouldn’t do it. I knew I had to find a different way to lose my weight that wouldn’t send me into a depression like before.
I am proud to be typing this right now saying I lost that pregnancy weight and I did it in a living life type of way. I drank beer. I ate my air fryer tater tots. There wasn’t a regime but just a commitment to living a healthy life. I found my balance and it really worked. There was no exercise guilt and there definitely wasn’t any food guilt. If I was hungry, I ate. I did my workouts and I lived my healthy life. My progress may not have come at the pace I wanted it to, but who is to say that it would have come with sticking to a strict diet?
Practicing portion control, finding my workout balance, and living got me to this point. I know I can’t stop everyone from making my mistakes because sometimes you just have to learn the hard way. But this is my story and hopefully, you can take something away from it. You can become obsessed with an idea and it can ruin you. I missed out on things due to focusing too much on weight loss and didn’t give myself more freedom during the weight loss journey. Maybe I needed this experience to make it through; it is a world of what ifs and never knows.
It’s always a learning process and I couldn’t share this story with you if I didn’t go through these experiences.
