Lose your Weight, Not your Mind!
Admit it, we all
have been there! We all have pretended to be satisfied with ourselves, despite
feeling a little heavy on the outside! If anyone else disagrees and gives you
that phrase- “Feel good about yourself”- you should know that they are lying!
Yes, this phrase is empowering and true to
some extent, until it starts to appear as a taunting message after you’ve taken
a long look at your pictures!
Such a depressing way to start a blog, you
must be thinking. But it is the truth that is depressing in actuality. Enough
with that! Stop living in a delusion and take a stand. Losing that extra kilo
will not only make you look good but also make your heart and mind feel good.
It is commendable if you have come to terms with your truth and decided on
making positive changes to your body. But if you are making a wrong start, read
on for some valid reasoning to only lose your
weight, not your mind!
Let’s start with how weight
loss works
I will be skipping all the technical details
here for the sake of simple understanding. You lose weight when your body burns
more calories than calorie intake. It not all about the food but mostly it is.
The rest is the route of calorie-burning which should be achieved through
physical activities. So, eat less, burn more should be the motto for you.
Where does the problem
arise?
Yes, “eat less, burn more” is the holy grail
of the fitness goals. But the problem arises when some people start seeing only
half of it. To be more specific- the “eat” part.
As a result, they opt for eating lesser and
lesser amount than is actually required. There have been mentions of some
people who get addicted to losing weight and in the process fall victim to
serious medical disorders such as Anorexia, Bulimia and so on. I pray for you
not to reach that unfortunate extent.
Eating less is not required if your daily
activities are up to the mark. A balanced diet or a good diet plan is essential
for leading a proper life. I will talk about it later, but let me carry on with
the “problem with weight loss” part for now.
Don’t make naive decisions
We live in an impressionable society. We act
on what we see and ultimately set out beliefs in. If you tune into any tv
channel, you will find advertisements and beauty slogans running on 24/7. If
the lead model is attractive or popular, you decide to pay your attention to
it. In the same context, social media is dominated by beauty and fitness gurus
who ultimately become social media royalties. The reason is you and other users
who like what they see on their channels.
It’s all about the visual engagement that
sometimes works more than the content. You choose what you see and like! That’s
the ultimate truth that never changes. Hence, it is natural that you start
following your ideal star’s supposed routines religiously.
Speaking of fitness, you will never rely on a
fitness Vlogger with double body mass than you! Media influencers have such a
great impact that it is common for some people to get misinformed and go
overboard. As a result, they don’t meet their desire goals and in worse case
scenarios, cause more harm than good.
Bottom line is to not completely rely on
every social media tip you find out there. Instead, you can take inspiration
from them and fuel your motivation for fitness, not just for fitting into
society’s standards of body goals.
Diet or
exercise?
I say both! I did not make a revelation there
as it has already been proven that your diet and physical activities work
together for achieving fitness. Diet is the main concern for this blog so let
me emphasize on that for now.
Although my major emphasis is on a balanced
diet, since I have already talked about diet plans meant for losing weight,
let’s continue with that first.
Should you
consult a dietician before dieting?
In most cases, it is not necessary.
Especially if you don’t have any underlying health problems. I do not support
extreme dieting or crash dieting for anyone though. As I said before, we are
very susceptible to media influence and yearn for the physical features
possessed by our favourites. Some of you will follow their diet plans blindly
on this conception that if it worked for them, so it will for you. Which is
definitely NOT the case, by the way!
You might have heard the phrase that
“everybody is different”. Each syllable of it speaks the truth. Your body is
indeed different than your favourite actor who might share similar height and
facial-features with you. This obviously also takes other factors under
consideration, such as their lifestyle and social status. As in they don’t live
in the same conditions as you do (duh!).
First things first, it is important for you
to understand that celebrities have got people to monitor their health and
appearance. They might have shared their diet plan with the public but not the
modifications or the process of selecting a diet suitable for only them.
So, you need to wake up and listen to your
own body!
Here’s what you
should do before going on a diet (if you must!)
Let’s say you looked up on the internet for
the most effective diet plan that is highly trending. I would say go ahead and
buy all the listed items and start by tomorrow. Try to stick to your plan for
not more than 9 to 12 weeks. Why do you ask? Because after that your
body will go into starvation mode which is whole another level of
trouble!
Starvation mode: It simply
means that when you deprive your body of nutrients over some time, your body
goes into a maintenance form where it tries to preserve your body fat for your
survival. In simpler terms- you won’t lose any weight during the
starvation mode, but your health will definitely start declining
thereafter.
Getting back to the point, if you start
noticing even the slightest changes in your body after a certain diet-period,
that means that particular meal plan is suitable for your body. It goes without
saying that there is no other way to know for sure what diet will suit you
until you try it yourself!
Points to be noted before starting a diet:
Consult
your physician if you have cardio-vascular, neural, hormonal, diabetes, high
blood-pressure issues.
Take
a note of your food allergies. Read carefully the food labels and discard the
items which contain even traces of your allergens.
Follow
a balanced diet plan. Which means 1/2 portion of veggies, 1/4 portions each of
Carbs and proteins.
Put
down those diet pills! Unless they are vitamin supplements, don’t include them
in your diet plan. Don’t be fooled by the claims they make. Even though they
have been proven to show significant effects, those effects comes with
dangerous side-effects. Take it from someone with personal experience, diet
pills are a big NO-NO!
Set
realistic goals. You can not lose weight only based on diets. If you think a
diet comprising of 50% water will make you lose 10 kilos in one month, you are
thinking wrong. Aim for losing 1 kilo in 1 month.
Look out for road blocks!
No matter how much determined you are, you
can not win over hunger. It is very natural to feel miserable in the very first
days of your diet. That is why it is important to select a diet that you can
stick with. I am talking about striking-out those fancy exotic-food only diets.
A simple 3 Chapati, 2 bowl Dal and 3 bowl veggies-a day diet will be satiating
and sufficient for you. But if you still want to try out that fancy diet you
saw on Pinterest, I ain’t stopping you. Just make sure the ingredients are not
completely tasteless!
Let’s talk about cheat days! On the holy
journey of your weight-loss, don’t deprive yourself of little indulgences. At
the end of your week if you crave for something sweet, go ahead. There is no
point in curbing them if they keep on affecting your regime. Do mind the
quantity though! Have a thin slice or not more than 3 spoon fulls of your
favourite cake. Limit the cheat days to one per week. Say, fix it on Saturday.
Talk about looking ahead for that “special” weekend!
Work it out!
No matter how much you eat or don’t eat, if
you don’t move around much it will be like overloading your system. Diet is the
fuel and physical activity is the engine. Both are equally important.
Human body is a magnificent machine. It has a
superb mechanism to control all functions along with tracking if anything goes
wrong with it. Which means, your body will start giving you signals if your
health is getting affected. Listen to your body and implement a healthy routine.
Start off with brisk walking for 20 minutes
and gradually take up Cardio and weight-lifting exercises. Watch YouTube
fitness videos and exercise daily not more than 1 1/2 hours, as apparently
there are disadvantages of over-exercising as well.
It is one thing to watch your weight and
avoid bad foods for the sake of your health, but turning this habit into
obsession is far away from being healthy. Obsession of any kind is not healthy.
Obsession about weight can take dangerous turns if taken too far. The key is to
make appropriate goals and stick to them no matter what. It is okay to slip off
now and then, just don’t keep breaking your rules too much. It won’t be pretty
to once again look at your pictures and find out that you’ve gone back to
square one.
Eat with your mind, not eat your mind!
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