Transform Your Life: How I Lost 10Kgs in a Sustainable, Joyful Way
Losing 10Kgs for good is tough job. Having done it in a sustainable way without sacrificing my mental peace in the process or using tremendous willpower. Here are my 2 cents.
I started this journey in January’22. Note that I’m calling it a journey since its not a goal. Losing weight is always a journey, you start somewhere and reach somewhere different.
This takes long and you will come out as a different person at the other end.
One of the biggest mistake I see people doing is making weight loss a goal. You can achieve any goal if you have enough resolve but what after that?
The answer is you revert back to what you begun with. In this case you gain back all the weight you lost.
Sustainable Weight Loss asks for a lifestyle change.
Ask yourself these
- If you are skipping your dinner for weight loss, can you skip dinner for the rest of your life?
- If you stopped eating sugar, can you quit sugar forever?
- If you are spending 3 hours in a gym, can you spend 3 hours daily?
These are the questions to asks before starting weight loss. If you cannot do those things then set a lifestyle you can follow for the rest of your life. This will make sure once you lose all that weight you won’t gain it back.
Let me ask this.
Can you reduce your diet a little bit and walk 10 minutes and workout for 30 minutes daily?
For most of us this is a small ask and easy to adopt.
- Instead of eating four chapati, we can settle with three.
- Instead of talking to our best friend on bed/chair, we can talk while walking.
- Instead of scrolling for 2 hours, we can scroll for 1 hour, 30 minutes and workout for 30 minutes.
And this you can do for the rest of your life.
You will have to change these proportions as your journey progresses but this is a good start.
A bad start would be to :
- Eating 1 chapati.
- Walking 10–15k steps daily
- Working out 3 hours in gym. go push-pull-legs.
This you can continue for sometime but it’ll fail eventually. Since you are pushing yourself way out of your comfort zone with sheer willpower.
A terrible breakup, some traumatic experience might fuel your willpower and motivation. But to what end?
One day you’ll feel better again recovering from your trauma. That will be the end of your unlimited willpower and motivation reserve. After that you’ll stop putting 3 hours in gym and start eating more. In no time all that weight comes back.
Sustainable Weight loss is pleasant and enriching experience. It requires very minimal willpower. All you need is the drive to change your life one step at a time.
Now this all was logic. Let me share what exactly I changed.
- I changed from eating Gobi Manchurian Noodles every night to
I don’t even remember when was the last time I had Gobi Manchurian or noodles. - I changed from eating 5–6 chapatis and some curry to
2 chapatis, 2 white boiled eggs, and a lot of curry. - I changed from the guy eating heavy post 12 everyday to
I had a one night meal 4 months back. - I changed my hate for walking to always walking a bit after lunch/dinner.
- I changed from never going to the gym to
I cannot even think of skipping my workout one day. - I changed from eating junk every other day to
maybe with friends on a weekend.
These are a few things that changed in my life. I can never think of going back to who I was earlier.
It even confuses me how was I like that earlier. This is why I can say with confidence that the weight I lost is never coming back. I will write some more articles on this, mentioning my diet and other specific changes but that’s it for now.
“Real change is slow and steady. It requires hard work, a lot of patience, and a willingness to take small steps forward, even if they don’t always feel like they’re getting you where you want to go as quickly as you’d like.” — Michelle Obama
I write on self-improvement and weight loss. If you liked this one check out my other articles. Thanks for reading.
Cheers :)
