I remember when I was coming to my late twenties and realising I couldn't just keep eating the same as I always did and expect to still feel happy about myself when I look in the mirror or even see the same me anymore , as much as it seemed a physical thing at the time, sure I was over weight by maybe a stone or two, but looking back on it now I would say it was as much mental as it was physical. I came across ketosis and before you start jumping to conclusions this article is not going to be all about the wonders of ketosis I can tell you now you don't have to worry about that lol , but it was the first real "diet" I had ever contemplated getting on in my life as I had always felt happy with the way I looked and felt , and I generally ate what I want when I wanted without any worries. Now I'd like to say I have never been in serious trouble with my weight not to a point where it has affected my health in any extreme way, but I'm most definitely not a "healthy" eater either , I'm not massive on fruit or veg but I don't not eat it, neither do I have an allergy or disposition to fruit or veg it's just not something that I have ever ate a lot of. Getting back to the ketosis lol , now I found my local "qualified" ketosis diet "practitioner" not naming any brands or company names here, and I started receiving my sachets of "food", and you know what ? It was very easy to stick with once you were on it and the weight most definitely came off and once ketosis kicks in roughly after about three days you feel very fresh and light on your feet as your body is detoxing probably due to the fat being burned by the very low carbohydrate diet essentially forcing your body to use fat stores as it's source of carbs. After only a few weeks I felt great , lost weight probably about a stone roughly after three weeks and looking and feeling good. The thing is it's a quick fix and was I fixing my weight with this diet or fixing my mental state and how I felt about myself with this diet ? That's the question I can safely answer now and the answer is my mental state of course , the main problem with this type of diet is its quite a speedy result without too much real commitment or effort it's good to kick start a new life style sure , but once you feel good and lost your target weight you go and buy a dominoes and watch some awesome Netflix to celebrate. Inevitably I put the weight back on and within easily six months I was back to where I was and as you might already know with these types of diets you usually end up heavier than you were before as it has an affect on your metabolism and causes you to store more fat in the long run.
It wouldn’t be until many years later when I was having a hard time with breaking up with a partner and I was dealing with emotions and a depressive few months that I decided to join a gym to try and snap myself out of the down feelings I was having and my main focus was to improve my mental health through exercise , so I started going everyday and gym became easier and easier the fitter I got, I could up my routine and push myself with more workout. I started to gradually lose weight but still enjoyed nice comfort foods at the weekend and I felt I had earned them also , and the more and more I trained and the healthier I felt the less I actually wanted the type of foods I always used to go for , my body is more hydrated and cleaner inside so my craving for sugars is less and so on… my mental health was doing great I had lost about maybe one stone after three months and I wasn’t even focusing on my weight loss as a motivating factor for my new gym life style or diet choices , I was addicted to the feeling that I had done my job every day and I felt satisfied in the knowledge that I had done my routine and it was a great feeling. I continued to lose weight and go to the gym and about six months later I was doing things in the gym to the same level as some of the gym instructors who were 15–20 years younger than me, not that it was a competition but my progress was astounding but at the same time It was something that had come over months not weeks so it also wasn’t a shock to me either the progress was real and gradual. My point is having a healthy life style is not all about losing weight or how you feel about your weight and you shouldn’t be checking your scales on the daily in fact it can be very bad for your progress, every time you check your scales you mentally reward yourself and it can also make you feel like you have done your job and hit the target so its over now and go back to how you were. Fitness and health are not always co related to weight or size, it’s actually more to with how you feel about yourself and your self worth ! It’s not really about how you see yourself in the mirror either it’s how you feel about yourself inside and that feeling that deep down you know you have let yourself go and you know you can do better which keeps you in a cycle of punishing yourself by giving up and being lazy or comfort eating as it is your normality now so what the hell why bother changing now ? So no matter your situation whether it be similar to mine and you want to improve your mental state or you are seriously over weight don’t use your weight or your self image of yourself to be a motivator for changing your life style whether it be fixing your diet or working out , instead use that feeling inside you that you know you can do better and feel better and you know that real change can be a constant in your life and understanding that change over time lasts longer and has longevity and the only person you should be proving it to is yourself. Sure I put some weight on after I moved to the city as I couldn’t afford the gym again but my fitness levels are still very much higher than they ever were and my general body shape is still a lot different than before, real work reaps real results and they have permanent change.
Giving yourself a helping hand to kickstart changing your life style is perfectly good if you are putting in the work for long term consistent change, drinking water or a lot of fluids while working out can really help with burning fat and obviously properly hydrating yourself is a must , you can benefit in the short term by having nutrients and supplements when you transition from your current fitness levels and they also help with motivation and attitude. I have used some energy boosting supplements in the past and they definitely helped kick start a new enthusiasm for the gym and my healthier life style choices in general. I'll include some links below for some products that I feel are good options for anyone wanting to start a healthy new year or begin a healthy new life ! Thanks for reading I hope it's helped you and been motivating and informative. Dave x
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