4 Things I Really Wish I Knew Before Starting My Weight Loss Journey
I wish someone told me that weight loss wouldn’t be easy. Not just in the “eat healthy and exercise” kind of way, but in the deeply emotional, frustrating, self-doubt kind of way. That there would be moments where I would feel stuck, where progress would be exceptionally slow, and where I would question if I would actually be able to lose the weight.
Through trial and error, I have learned some hard lessons. These are things that I wish I had known before I ever started my weight loss journey. If I had, my journey may have felt a little less overwhelming. Here are four of the biggest lessons that I have learned so far.
No One Told Me That Weight Loss Would Take More Than Just Effort
I thought that if I made healthier choices, stayed consistent, and stuck with it, the weight would come off. I knew it wouldn’t be fast, but I believed that as long as I put in the effort, I would continue to make progress.
For a while, the effort that I was putting in was entirely focused on nutrition. It was working, but progress was slow. Even though my progress was not as fast as I had hoped, I stayed consistent and kept focusing on nutrition. After a while I felt ready to start exercising, not only to get in better shape, but in hopes that it would help my weight loss move along a little more too.
As soon as I started exercising, I was hit with something that I didn’t see coming- an injury! I was injured within the same month. What I thought would be a small setback turned into a year (so far) of injuries that have kept me from being able to exercise at all. First, I injured my ankle very badly, and to this day it is still hurt. Then I injured my back and I am almost six months into that injury. I never expected that instead of becoming more active that I would end up being even more sedentary than I was before. At times that felt discouraging (and still does sometimes).
I had to learn that weight loss is not just about effort. Sometimes your body has limitations that you cannot push through, no matter how much you want to. I had to shift my focus to what I could control, which was my nutrition. Exercise was no longer an option, but I could still be intentional about the foods that I ate.
I never expected resilience to be such a big part of this journey, but learning to focus on what I could control instead of what I couldn’t is what has kept me going.
If you have setbacks that feel are out of your control, just know that you are not alone. Keep controlling the controllable and moving forward, no matter how hard it feels at the time.
No One Told Me That Social Media Would Mess With My Mind
I spent so much time watching other people lose a significant amount of weight doing things I knew that I would never do. Seeing dramatic before and after photos and people losing weight really fast made me question my own process from time to time. Don’t get me wrong, I believed in my approach to losing the weight. I believed that I didn’t need to diet, just do the right things long enough and the weight would come off. Social media did cause me to doubt myself at times, though.
The questioning got so much worse after I injured myself. Everywhere I looked, people were talking about walking 10,000 steps a day, going to the gym, and how exercise played a major role in their weight loss. Meanwhile, I couldn’t do any of that. This is when I really started to feel like maybe I wasn’t doing enough- like no matter how much effort I put into my nutrition, it wouldn’t be enough without exercise or without dramatically cutting down the amount of food that I ate each day.
Every time I saw someone lose a lot of weight by drastically cutting their calories, I started to wonder if I would need to do the same- even though I knew it was a bad idea, and to me completely unsustainable in the long-term.
I knew that while I might lose weight quickly, the odds of me keeping it off would have been pretty slim. To me it has always been important that whatever I do, it is something I can maintain long-term. The thing is, seeing so many people lose weight so fast made me second guess myself.
Eventually, I started to feel immense anxiety every time I got on social media. I noticed that on days when I wasn’t on as much, I felt more at peace, like I wasn’t constantly second guessing myself. Even after realizing this, I didn’t stop getting on social media right away. It took months before I finally stepped away completely, and I won’t pretend it was easy. It was not. It was actually REALLY hard.
The crazy thing is, once I got off of social media, that sense of peace stayed as it related to my weight loss journey. I wasn’t as anxious, and the constant questioning stopped. I was able to trust my process and move forward without being influenced by the things that were online.
I had to learn that there was a fine line between inspiration and comparison and if I was not careful, social media would mentally sabotage me. Eventually, I realized that constantly seeing other people’s journeys was pulling me away from trusting my own. Letting go of social media allowed me to fully commit to what I knew was best for me.
No One Told Me That Unlearning Diet Culture Would Be A Battle
Just when I thought that I had unlearned all the diet culture nonsense, something else would come up. For years, I picked up food rules without even realizing it. Things like: Eat this, not that. Stop eating after a certain time… I even believed that if I was hungry between meals, it meant that I was doing something wrong.
At first, unlearning these rules was a big challenge for me. There were times when I would hesitate before eating, not because I wasn’t hungry, but because of old food rules that lingered in my head. I had spent so long following food rules that I had to actively remind myself that it was okay to eat when I was hungry.
Honestly, unlearning the food rules that I learned over the years is something that I still work through, but I’m so much better at recognizing them now. Even recently, I caught myself thinking that if I was hungry after dinner, then I should just have a small snack, instead of just eating more of what I made for dinner. The difference now is, instead of just unconsciously following the old beliefs, I stop and notice what is actually happening, and make the choice that is right for me.
Unlearning diet culture is not just about avoiding fad diets. It’s about letting go of the food rules that I’ve learned over the years and starting to trust myself and my body. The more I do, the more I realize that this is exactly why my weight loss feels sustainable this time.
If you have ever felt overwhelmed by food rules, just know that it does take time, but it does get easier to let them go.
No One Told Me That Weight Loss Would Take Longer Than Expected
When I started my journey, I didn’t believe that weight loss would be fast, but that it would be consistent- that once I started losing weight the scale would continue to go down.
What I had to learn was that for me weight loss did not work that way at all. Some weeks it felt like I was making great progress, and other weeks it felt like nothing was happening at all. I have gone months without losing a single pound, and truthfully sometimes the scale even went up despite me staying consistent with what I knew to do.
Overtime, I realized that just because I wasn’t seeing changes did not mean that the things that I was doing were not helping. Even when the scale did not move and my body looked the same, I was still building the habits that would allow me to lose the weight over time. I had to trust that what I was doing would pay off in the long run. Now, I focus on the building habits that I can do consistently, that will ultimately help me reach my end goal of losing over 100 pounds naturally, not simply what the scale says at any given time. Looking back, I am reminded of my true belief that I live by — if I do the right things long enough, the change that I want to see will happen and the weight will come off.
If you are at a point (or get to a point) where you feel that your weight loss is taking longer than you thought it would, I feel you. Just remember that progress takes time, and consistently doing the right things over time will add up and make a difference.
What I Know Now
These are the four things that I wish I knew before starting my weight loss journey. I know that they wouldn’t have made the process easy, but they may have helped me avoid a lot of the frustration and feelings of discouragement.
I’m still figuring things out as I go, but what I have learned is that weight loss isn’t just about the food that I eat and the exercises that I do. It’s about navigating setbacks, pushing through self-doubt, and staying consistent when progress is painfully slow.
I’ve also shared more about what this has actually looked like for me so far.
If you are on your own personal weight loss journey, or just starting, I hope this post was helpful. If this post was helpful, I would love to know which point you think will help you the most as you navigate your journey?