Just like many people, I’ve spent a good part of my life wishing I was thinner. However, unlike many people, I’ve managed to shed 50 pounds. All I had to do was learn these five lessons.
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I’ve spent most of my life trying to lose weight. I’ve been excited over dozens of new products, methods or workouts that promise quick results. I’ve also been disappointed to find that none of them worked. I’ve felt scared at the thought of going shopping because I didn’t want to look at myself in the mirror.
The worst came after I had children. My belly got bigger after every baby! After three pregnancies and two C-sections, I found myself 50 pounds overweight and with seriously limited time and budget.
It took me 18 months, and lots of hard work, to lose those 50 pounds. But I did it.
To be honest, I still have some more weight to lose, but I don’t lose sleep over it. I no longer try every crazy diet or product that comes along. Now, I love going shopping and I’m no longer afraid to look at myself in the mirror. My body, my health, and my attitude changed in the course of those 18 months.
These are the lessons I learned in a year and a half of my weight loss journey, and I would like to share them with you. I’m sure they will help you too!
Helpful Lessons You Need to Learn to Lose Weight
1. You need to stop thinking about losing weight
Everyone makes this their resolution every New Year, but it’s not a good goal at all. If your goal is simply to lose weight, then every crazy diet or strange product will seem like a valid solution.
However, if your goal is to be healthier, losing weight will be the result of your new healthy habits.
Your goal should be to change your unhealthy habits for healthy ones. Change your lifestyle and you’ll be happier, healthier, and fitter. And you’ll also lose weight.
Imagine if you started drinking water instead of soda. After that, you could replace junk food with fruit and veggies. You could also start going to bed an hour earlier. And do 30 minutes of exercise instead of spending 30 minutes looking at your Facebook newsfeed.
If you’re consistent, you’ll end up making healthy habits that will improve every aspect of your life. You’ll also lose weight in the process. And perhaps even become more successful. Who knows?
2. You need to feel uncomfortable
In order to change your body and your lifestyle, you’ll have to do things that make you uncomfortable. You’ll have to do scary things, unpleasant things.
You’ll have to forget about your daily dessert, and you’ll have to eat broccoli and spinach. You’ll have to get up early to do exercise or perhaps drag your ass to the gym after work. You’ll have to huff and puff and sweat to get through your workout. You’ll have to learn how to cook instead of ordering takeout every night.
You’ll have to do strange new things because change takes place outside your comfort zone. You’ll never accomplish anything if you always stay in your nice and cozy routine.
You’ll never lose weight if you’re not willing to be uncomfortable.
3. You need to set goals
Many people are scared to death of setting goals, but it’s something you need to do. Perhaps your health and fitness plan isn’t working because you don’t have a goal. Think about this!
Doing things with no pressure will get you nowhere. You’ll never get in shape simply by showing up at the gym to hit the treadmill for an hour. You need to set a goal, like walking a longer distance in less time or doing more reps of an exercise.
Another goal could be to drink more glasses of water until you’re able to drink 8 of them. Or perhaps to eat one more serving of produce until you can have one with every meal. These short-term goals will help you get long-term results.
4. You need to plan and prep
We all know it’s not easy to change bad habits. You know the feeling, right? On the first day, you’re all excited about going to the gym. By the third day, you’re ready to give up on the idea of exercising on a regular basis.
The problem is a lack of planning. Getting organized is the key to success.
If you want to eat healthier, do some food prepping on Sunday and you’ll have veggies ready to eat all week long. If you want to drink more water, get a bottle you can carry around and set a reminder on your phone. If you want to do more exercise, take the time to plan your schedule so you can go to the gym.
You can take it one small change at a time to keep your daily routine under control, but don’t wing it. Planning is always best.
5. You need to love yourself before you start
You need to love yourself before you even begin a health and fitness program. If you start working out or dieting because you hate your belly, you’ll be easy prey for quick fixes and crash diets.
You need to love your body as it is right now. It’s wonderful! Your body keeps you on your feet when your tired, it heals when you get sick, and it takes the blow of your stressful days. It’s the only one you’ve got, right?
You’re going to make all those healthy changes just to make your body feel and look its best.
My momma once told me to take care of myself, because no one else is going to do that for me. Mom is so right about this.
Stop hurting your body. Don’t starve yourself, don’t binge, don’t drink too much, don’t smoke, don’t stress yourself, don’t sit all day. Give your body the TLC it deserves and you’ll soon feel and look much better.
Take these weight loss lessons to heart
You can’t lose the weight overnight. Quick fixes don’t work. The only way to get fit and healthy is through consistency and determination.
Don’t worry if takes you months or years to get to a healthy weight. Remember your goal should be to set healthy habits for life. That’s the true definition of weight loss success.
You don’t fail until you quit trying!
Indeed you have captured very useful points, but I also want to read how to gain weight and look pretty!! The problem with me is I lose weight and my face looks like a starving person… so sad 😦
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The same principles apply- set goals, plan, prep, love yourself first. If you want to gain healthy weight, you must eat healthy food and do exercise. But you need to do exercise to increase muscle mass, not exercise to lose fat.
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you need to be comfortable I agree. As long as you are in a miserable place and don’t do it for the right reasons it’s not going to work out. Great tips thanks for sharing!
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I also lost 20 pounds which I am really proud of and I ended up accepting that the more I thought about losing weight, the worse it got and never had any progress, and once I loved myself it all became easier and weight started falling great tips and congratulations on your weight loss.
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Congrats on your weight loss too! I’m glad to know how self-love got you so far.
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Well-written article and very useful tips!
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It is a great blog with helpful tips. I can relate to most of the points you mentioned because I am on weight loss sphere. Setting goals really helps a lot.
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Really helpful..Thanks for sharing…I’m hopeful and putting in effort too
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How do you love yourself at the same time feel uncomfortable in your own body enough to loose weight? This part is confusing to me. I don’t like my body image at all. I want to lose weight. I am very slowly. Since I don’t have much mobility. I am on a 1800 calorie diet, no sugar, low fat.
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Look at yourself in the mirror, and instead of thinking that you need to lose all the weight, think about the wonderful person that you are. And how amazing your body is because it’s still holding up, and how it deserves the proper nutrition. Think that you’re eating healthy food because you want to give your body the nutrition it deserves, not because you need to get rid of all that belly fat. Stop the negative talk. Don’t think that you’re too fat or ugly and so on. Instead think that you’re an awesome person who deserves to be healthy. Remember your body will only do what your mind tells it to do.
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Congrats on your success after all of that hard work! Your first point really hit home for me. Oftentimes when we focus on being healthier (instead of just losing weight), fat loss becomes much easier to attain. For me this was true because I stopped thinking in terms of what a diet would allow (“I can’t have chocolate or cookies”), and instead what a healthy lifestyle meant to me (“I eat vegetables at every meal because they taste great and are nutrient dense”). Switching from that “I can’t” mentality was a huge game changer for me. Great post!
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Very true! A mentality change can really turn the world around.
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Good work! You look fabulous! X
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Excellent post! And congrats on your weight loss, Fabi!
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Thank you Terri!
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I think the biggest thing people who need to lose weight need to do is COMPLETELY change their mindset and accept the fact that altering their diet and getting more physically active is a lifestyle, NOT a fad. Thus they should be prepared to stick it out for life!
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Exactly. A diet has a deadline, a lifestyle is for life!
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I’ve lost 30 pounds in the last year. i agree that you need to do small things consistantly!
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Wow, congrats on your weight loss Michele!
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These are great encouraging tips. I struggle with it too and I haven’t even had kids. But I’ve had to be on medications which have really put weight on. Definantly I’ve learned that losing weight takes time and 1 lb a week or 1.5 lb every two, adds up over time and it’s easier and healthier just to do one week at a time, to do it this way, than suddenly drop a great deal of weight. Again great post!
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Weight loss can definitely be a journey full of ups and downs, but I agree slow weight loss is best because it allows you to build healthy habits. Thanks!
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Thanks Fabi! Enjoy your weekend.
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“You don’t fail until you quit trying,” is a very important quote. It requires time patience and persistence to ultimately discover a WAY OF LIFE that leads to LONG TERM SUCCESS. As people begin to VALUE themselves it makes the journey more attainable.
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That’s one of my favorite quotes!
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I can relate to this post, except I’ve never had children. But losing weight has been tough for me since I found comfort in binging for a long time, to supress my anxiety and depression. But now I can say I’m in a good place and have lost some weight and have started working out again 😀
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Binging has also been a problem for me because I’m prone to emotional eating, but I’m also getting back on track. Let’s do this!
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I lost 41 pounds just by switching to eating all organic. I still would like to lose more. Right now I’m at standstill.
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I hit a plateau too, and it can be so frustrating! But I found that you have to do something different. For example, I’m a do-it-yourself kind of person, but to start losing weight again I’ve been working with a health coach and that’s made all the difference!
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Congratulations. This post made the most-clicked list on the Blogger’s Pit Stop. Be looking for a feature on Friday, well done.
Kathleen
Blogger’s Pit Stop
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Wonderful!! Thanks so much, Kathleen! 🙂
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[…] Helpful Lessons You Need To Learn To Lose Weight by Fabi […]
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[…] Helpful Lessons You Need To Learn To Lose Weight by Fabi […]
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Fabi, I love your blog and I am a gym rat 🙂 maybe we can do something together soon! Thanks for the info.
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Sounds great! Let’s keep in touch 🙂
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This is a great blog post! Good fitness tips! I’m a newbie to fitness and hope to learn more of these!
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I hope you this helpful 🙂
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I love your lessons for losing weight! Lesson one reminded me of my blog post, New Year’s Subjugation … https://awonderfulhealthylife.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/new-years-subjugation/
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Very interesting advice ! It is very helpful to set goals and a plan to achieve them. It is very important to take account on the food portions and what type of exercise to use as well. We recommend ‘’Dancise’’, a program based on bodyweight exercises and dancing providing massive calorie burning even from a single class.
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Sounds great! I’ve never heard of Dancise before. Are there any links to workouts?
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Soon enough we will have our first video and then you can get an idea of what actually is! You will.be among the first people who will.see it definitely! Thank you for your interesting and keep up the amazing work you are currently doing by helping people reach their fitness goals!
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I’m following your blog now, and I’m definitely looking forward to your first video!
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Thank you very much Fabi! 🙂
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I love this article. Losing weight has been a struggle and it is so hard to #1, stop thinking about losing weight. Your post really combines a good list of things to give me a little extra push!
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Well done, great achievement!
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Thanks Aaron!
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Congratulations..for the achievement!.. and i’m doing Sydney Chiropractic and Massage visit us for best health info..at thereChiropractor Sydney
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This is a terrific read! It’s great to see that you committed to your goal and saw it through! Well done!
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Thanks, Alexi!
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[…] via Helpful Lessons You Need To Learn To Lose Weight — Wonder Fabi […]
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Reblogged this on College and Life After.
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Good tips
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Great tips- thank you so much for all your help!
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