Personal Growth
Three Life Lessons I Learned From Losing Nearly 60 Pounds In Eight Months
Use it as a guide for your next big goal
Sometime in March 2019, after eight months of hard work, I hopped onto my weighing scale and claimed one of the most significant victories of my life.
I lost 58 pounds, dropping from 196 pounds to 138.
I took no magic pills, had no gym memberships, and didn’t buy into some fancy diet.
My method was simple:
- I exercised for a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes per week (which is an average of 30 minutes per day)
- I scheduled my active exercise sessions (running, playing basketball, lifting dumbbells) three times a week for an hour each day. As for the remaining 30 minutes, I considered housework and work part of my weekly regimen.
- I stayed within my ideal daily calorie count, which I calculated using this simple tool.
As you can see, there’s nothing groundbreaking about my weight loss journey.
And as I reflect on what I’ve accomplished, I realize that my success has nothing to do with weight loss. My story is about overcoming a significant obstacle, no matter how impossible it seemed.
There are three lessons I gleaned from my experience that I think anyone can apply in any situation in life:
Make a plan and stick to it.
I exercised week after week after week without missing a beat. I jogged through hot summer days. I jogged through rainy days. If I scheduled myself to exercise that day, then I exercised. It didn’t matter what the weather was.
In life, many things keep us from achieving our goals. Don’t let them get in your way. Leap past your hurdle. Walk around it.
Whatever happens, don’t let the constraints of reality doom you into inaction.
Don’t pressure yourself to achieve your goals.
My goal was to lose weight in two years, not eight months. But I accomplished my goal in record time because I didn’t push myself too hard.
I didn’t sign up for a gym membership because I had a bad experience with a trainer several years ago. The trainer employed a boot camp approach that killed my motivation.
I’m sure he’s helped people that way, but not me. I burned out. I never went back to the gym, and it took me several years before I restarted my weight loss journey.
When I committed to losing weight, my mantra was never to overdo things. I didn’t believe in intensity. Instead, I believed in consistency. And the only way I could be consistent is if my diet and exercise regimen were doable.
Even though I was working and was in nursing school, exercising three times a week for an hour at a time was super doable.
As for my diet, I ate everything. Yep, everything. Chocolate, pork rinds, you name it. I treated my daily calorie count like money. I had a daily allowance of how much I could eat. Once I “spent” my calories, I was done eating for the day.
So what’s the takeaway?
Goals are achievable when you make them achievable. Pressuring yourself to succeed leads to burnout. And burnout leads to failure.
Allow yourself to falter.
My weight loss journey wasn’t a perfectly executed plan. Although I never failed in my exercise routine, I did fail at times in my diet. There were days when I overate. Times like those could have easily led to a rabbit hole of failure, but I didn’t let it happen.
I forgave myself each time I failed and tried much harder to stay on track next time.
Success isn’t the Holy Grail at the end of our journey. Success is the sum of the many fragments of our lives, whether they’re victories or failures. Beating ourselves up can only discourage our progress.
Final Word
This article isn’t just about weight loss. There’s no secret or magic to it. Everything I know about losing weight I already wrote here.
Do the work, and you’ll see results. Period.
I’m writing this article to show you that having the right mindset is critical. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting a business, writing a book, trying to advance in your career, or doing something else. How you approach hurdles in life is the most significant factor in your success.