Weight Loss = Lifestyle Change?

One of the biggest things anyone trying to lose weight reads or hears is that in order to really lose the weight and keep it off, you need to look at it as a lifestyle change and not a diet or just a bunch of exercise. This has always made weight loss more difficult for me. You see, I’m not the kind of guy who generally likes difficult things, at least not when it comes to my life. I’ll challenge myself at work and in certain activities, but in my normal life, I usually go the easy route. This has always made the weight loss difficult. So when I read that I have to change my lifestyle, my way of living and thinking, it’s a bit daunting. In the past, I tried to make lifestyle changes, but really, I was just dieting.

During my current weight loss journey, which will be my last, I have learned that a lifestyle change does not need to be difficult. It doesn’t even need to be a major change. In fact, it’s been pretty easy for me. If you’ve been following my more recent posts about weight loss, you know that I have made some minor, but important, changes to what I eat and drink on a daily basis. I’ve been thinking about it as being on a diet, but, in reality, it’s a lifestyle change – a change to the way I would normally do something. Because the changes I have made are changes I will need to keep up with for likely the rest of my life, it’s a change in my lifestyle. I have gone from someone who ate and drank whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to someone who is more carefully watching what he eats and when he eats it. I think of it as a minor change, but it’s really a major change when you think about it. It’s probably one of the most important changes I will ever make to the way I live.

I still look at the changes in my eating and drinking habits as minor. If I think more drastically, I’ll most likely fail again. The small changes have amounted to a lot towards my healthier lifestyle. While I never drank a lot of soda, I didn’t drink a lot of water either. I have brought a 32 oz bottle of water to work with me for a long time, but sometimes I wouldn’t finish it, and that would be all I drank for the 8 hours I was at work. I have since added a second bottle of water to work, and I make sure to drink them both in full throughout the day. It serves three purposes for me. The first two might be obvious to most people – keeping well hydrated and making me feel fuller, preventing me from wanting to eat or snack more. The third purpose is related to the first. Drinking a lot of water makes me have to pee. The bathroom in this building is up a fairly tall flight of stairs. I make at least three trips to the bathroom each day. That’s three trips up and down the stairs each day.

So with a different way of thinking about the changes I’ve made, along with the changes themselves, I’ve managed to steadily lose weight since just after the first of the year. I’m also not worried about falling off the track this time. The changes I’ve made, while really helping me lose weight simply by cutting back some calories that I really didn’t need, are small enough that I just don’t mind. In addition, because I put together the plan, I’ve allowed myself to “cheat” every now and then. I still eat and drink all the stuff I have in the past, just less of it all.

While weight loss is a lifestyle change, it doesn’t have to completely change how you go about your life. If it freaks you out thinking that you’re making a major change in your life, don’t think of it that way. I haven’t thought of it that way. It’s been working for me, and I have no reason to think it will stop working. I will eventually hit a plateau. When I do, I will make some more small changes to my life, such as the addition of regular exercise. Until then, the small changes I’ve made work, and I’m in no rush to lose the weight. When you start to rush it, you increase your chance of falling off track and gaining it back, often times with something extra. With weight loss, slow and steady wins the race. And nothing helps stay slow and steady, especially the steady, like small stages.