Someone recently asked me how I managed to lose so much weight. Over the last 15 months, I’ve lost about 95lbs, and I’ve picked up a few tips along the way.
The first thing I tell most people when I get asked, is that unfortunately it is just a case of calories in/calories out/it will take time. In the most general terms, I ate less food, moved my body more, and it took 15 months of doing those two things consistently. I think most people know that, so I believe what they’re really asking is, if it’s that easy, why haven’t I done it yet?
You need a reason. If the world were perfect, thoughts like “I am unhappy with my body” and/or “I want to be healthier” would be sufficient, but a lot of the time they’re not because human beings are both adaptable and crave comfort. I have been obese since I was an early teenager and there were lots of things my lack of self-esteem held me back from doing, and lots of experiences I missed out on simply because I was too anxious due to my size. But those things were still not enough, because as uncomfortable as those feelings were, I was neck deep in those feelings already, and there is something comfortable about familiar discomfort. I hated myself, but it was a familiar hate that I didn’t have to examine too closely. If I started to pick apart why, I would have to address the feelings and shortcomings that got me there, so I, like many people, swept it under the rug and continued to exist comfortably uncomfortable.
About a year before I had decided to overhaul my life, a series of events occurred that lead me to pick up a pair of roller skates and head to my local roller rink with a friend. One skate session turned into another, which turned into skating whenever I could, until a year had passed. I had fallen in love with roller skating and I decided I wanted to take it more seriously and my plan had two distinct parts. Stronger legs and a lighter body (because by that point I had had a couple of spills, and in my head, 150lbs was safer than 250lbs when I fell).
And that was it. After years of wishing I was invisible, years of hating myself, avoiding cameras, avoiding public spaces, all it took to change my life completely was “Man, I want to be better at this hobby”. I don’t think you can manufacture a ‘why’. I’m not saying that if you pick up a pair of roller skates you will lose 100 lbs. But I do think most people already have a ‘why’ if they really think about it. The hard part is accepting that you will need to spend some time outside your comfort zone before you see any results. But if you’re consistent, if every day you show up for yourself in some way and keep your ‘why’ in mind, you’ll see results, and I can attest that there is nothing in the world more motivating than seeing your own progress.
Written by Lindsay Smith
