I had reached a stage of total
despair. I had tried almost every diet out there, & often succeeded, only
to pile it all back on again.
I had a pretty good understanding of
what worked for me diet-wise, and what didn’t.
I had learned a lot about fitness and
knew exactly what I should be doing to avoid injury in the process.
With all this knowledge, I would go on
diet after diet – in the early years, in my 20’s and 30’s, the diets were more successful
than they were by the time I reached my 40’s, but even so, before I turned 40,
my weight fluctuated massively. In my 40’s weight-loss became harder and harder
to achieve and it seemed that gaining weight became easier and easier!
As I write this – I am 47 years old.
The last 2 years have been miraculous! I lost 35 kg; which came off in a period
of about 8 to 9 months (I wasn’t watching that closely to be honest, I was
already happy!) Even now at my age, this weight loss journey has been the easiest,
most enjoyable & by far the most successful, that I have been on since I first
started dieting at the tender age of 17!
Eating healthily has become as easy as
I used to believe over-eating was. My fitness regime has been sporadic and less
of a “calorie-burning” campaign than it has ever been in 30 years! Not to say
that I recommend a haphazard fitness campaign – but that’s just the truth about
what my year has been like.
Do
you believe that you are too old to lose
weight easily?
Do you believe that you are
genetically destined to be overweight?
Do you believe that your metabolism is
now too slow for you to ever reach your ideal weight again?
I call B**lSH*T………. Yes – you know
what I mean!
I had those same lines, and several
other stories ‘down-pat’ in my head too, and I believed them with
all my heart & soul!
I have been on a brutal and
treacherous campaign against my own body for many years. For a short time when
I was very young – I became borderline anorexic in weight and fully anorexic in
behaviour and mentality. (Note the use of the word borderline, it’s hard for
Fifo to get too thin)
I have been gorgeous, healthy, fit and
trim – many times- for a short while each time.
I have been varying degrees of
overweight to downright morbidly obese – many times – for longer periods and
higher weights each time.
During my stages of being healthy, fit
& trim; even with all the knowledge that I had gained over the years – I always
made the same mistakes!
I repeated the patterns time &
again –
STEP 1: Get trim & fit by
under-eating & over exercising
STEP 2: Maintain that for varying time
periods each time
STEP 3: Start playing out a whole new
set of stories in my head…
·
I can’t maintain my goal-weight if I don’t exercise!
·
I missed 2 days of running because of shin-splints –
I am going to put on weight!
·
I am exhausted & feeling burned out but if I
stop this regime, I will just get fat again!
·
I would rather avoid social occasions because I cant
even eat one “cheat” meal without getting fat
And so, the list of worries & fears went on, it
was a minefield.
STEP 4: Start “cheating” by eating the wrong foods,
just a little bit here & there
STEP 5: Feel devastated and disappointed in myself and
naturally…. Eat more to make me feel better
STEP 6: Feel Even Worse & Eat More & More,
by now the fitness plan is completely abandoned & I am gaining weight
rapidly…….
I think you get the picture!
Now, my life is very different! I am relaxed, I have
loved this weight-loss journey – when winter came and I put on just a little
bit of weight, I wasn’t worried, and as the warm weather arrived, I just shed
that weight again, in less than 2 weeks, easy! I know that I will maintain my ideal weight for the
rest of my life.
The excruciating back-pain that used to torture me
24/7 is gone and I have an abundance of energy and wellness. My peri-menopausal
symptoms have all but disappeared, my libido is in top form and I am feeling
great!
What changed?
My mind changed!
By learning how to change those stories that I
was so attached to, I quite literally transformed my body and my life.
I stopped telling myself that weight
loss was hard.
I stopped telling myself that my
metabolism was slow… and that I was getting old, that I was ugly and fat and
that I wasn’t losing weight.
Even on the days when I was pretty sure
I was not losing weight – I reminded myself that the weight was literally
falling off me.
Even more importantly – I began to be
kind to myself. I replaced hurtful self-criticism with words of kindness.
Yes, even weighing in at over 100kg
(224 pounds) I told myself every day that I am Youthful and beautiful among'st a
long list of other kind & encouraging words. I became my own loving parent
to a tender toddler.
Obviously, a physical strategy was
necessary too, but I had tried them all before. I needed to create change from
within in order to achieve successful & lasting change on a physical level!
I had proved this to myself enough times that I knew I had to dig deep into my
own mind, heart and soul.
To learn more, I humbly ask you to
keep following me, more and more posts on this blog will be my own and I will
continue to post you on my social media platforms, as much value as I can
produce as well as curate for your benefit.
Thanks for sticking with me!
Fifo
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