zz-7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Fitness and Weight Loss A Long Time Ago

7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Fitness and Weight Loss a Long Time Ago 25.02.
2020, 13:34
Lifestyle
7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me

About Fitness and Weight Loss a Long
Time Ago
Shannon Hilson Follow
Dec 24, 2019 · 13 min read
Photo by Nilotpal Kalita on Unsplash
I’m not a )tness guru or a health nut. Despite growing up in a part of

California where a lot of people do get up with the sun and start their
mornings with a long jog, I’ve never once done that myself. In fact, I’m not
even sure I’m from the same planet as your typical gym rat, and I love food
way too much to be a very dedicated dieter.
What I am is a freelance copywriter by profession who works completely out
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7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Fitness and Weight Loss a Long Time Ago 25.02.2020, 13:34
of her home on a full-time basis. My idea of a lit Saturday night is staying

home with my husband and binge-watching NetEix or marathon-reading
whatever book’s most recently caught my interest. I like to sleep in on the
weekends, and I spend a lot more time than I probably should scrolling
through Facebook or playing with my phone.
In other words, I have a lot in common with almost everyone who says they
have trouble managing their weight, watching what they eat, or turning
exercise into a habit. However, I’ve also successfully overcome years of
backwards thinking about )tness and gotten myself into the best shape of
my life regardless, and if I can do it, I assure you that anyone can. The
following are just a few of the more important lessons I’ve learned along the
way that I honestly wish someone had taught me years ago.
Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash
1. Exercise Doesn’t Have to Be a Chore
As a dyed-in-the wool homebody, I spent many years trying to )nd a way to

stay slim and be happy with my body without actually getting oL of my
cushy, little behind and moving around more, and it was for one reason
only. I simply took society’s word for it that exercise (by my de)nition) sucks
— that it’s hard and that it hurts. I thought that for something to count as
exercise, it had to be done someplace “oQcial” — like a gym, or a jogging
trail, or an aerobics studio, or any number of other places I did not want to
be. I de.nitely thought it had to cost a lot of money and take up a lot of time
I didn’t really have to spare.
Well, I’m here to tell you that none of those things are true. Anything that
gets you up and moving is exercise, even if you really enjoy it and never
would have thought of it as “good for you”. In fact, the more you genuinely
enjoy your physical activity of choice, the easier this whole process will be
for you. If there’s truly nothing active that you enjoy (which was
embarrassingly close to being the case for me when I )rst started), choose
something you can at least see yourself tolerating.
For me, that meant purchasing an elliptical, a stationary bike, and a set of
resistance bands to turn a corner of our oQce into a mini home gym,
because I knew I wouldn’t actually stick with anything that required me to
put on pants or leave the house. You decide what it means for you. If you’re
genuinely jazzed about joining a gym and lifting weights, by all means do
that, but only if it realistically makes sense for you. For lots of people,
Top highlight
dancing more, going for evening walks, or taking up roller skating is a better
)t, and that’s OK too. The best exercise is the exercise you know you can
stick with because it actually )ts your lifestyle, interests, and personality.
Photo by Chris Tweten on Unsplash
2. Diets Don’t Work, Moderation Does
Like a lot of people who had trouble managing their weight at one point,
I’ve been on my share of crash diets over the years. And I’m weirdly good at
sticking to extreme diets for someone who loves food, so I’ve lost large
amounts of weight that way before. The problem with adopting an
approach like that to dieting is its not sustainable over the long haul for
most people, nor would it be good for you if it were. Despite being pretty
excited when you see all those pounds falling oL, you feel like trash when
you “diet”. You can’t focus, you‘re sluggish beyond belief, and you de.nitely
miss eating things you actually enjoy.
The bad news is that, like exercise, taking control of what you eat isn’t
optional if you’re serious about not only losing weight and getting in shape,
but maintaining your progress. (Eating whatever whenever is how you got
to where you are, so change is a must.) The good news is that you don’t need
to cut out all of your favorite foods or eat Eavorless diet food that you hate.
You do need to start regulating calorie intake and setting some limits for
yourself by changing how you eat.
The game-changer for me personally was intermittent fasting for a lot of

reasons. For one thing, it didn’t force me to cut entire food types completely
out of my diet the way paleo, or keto, or any number of other approaches
might have. What it did require of me was that I only eat within a certain
window of time each day and fast the rest of the time. (I personally like the
16/8 version of this discipline, but there are other patterns you can adopt as
well.) I’m the sort of person that can really only put away so much food
within a short period of time anyway, so that really did the trick for me.
Most importantly, it was comfortable enough and realistic enough, that it

was sustainable over the long haul. I felt great and liked the system, so I
actually wanted to stick with it, instead of counting the days until I could
stop. I will eat this way for the rest of my life because I genuinely prefer it to
how I used to eat, and that’s how you’ll feel as well when you hit on the
right system for you.
Photo by Carissa Gan on Unsplash
3. It’s Possible for Healthy Food to Taste Good
We all have a really vocal friend or a relative who’s totally on the wagon
when it comes to healthy eating and wants to get everyone they know on
board as well. The problem is that person’s probably into eating things that
aren’t going to appeal to someone who hasn’t quite got the knack of
voluntarily eating healthy foods yet. Just please don’t let that person’s
dedication to replacing every food you love with cauliEower convince you
that all healthy foods are sad, sorry substitutes for things that actually taste
good.
Take vegetables, for instance. I spent most of my life convinced that I hated
a lengthy list of them, including green beans, peas, cabbage, beets, and
squash to name just a few. Once I learned to cook them myself though, I
realized that I actually only hated those things when they come out of cans
or are otherwise served overcooked. It’s been my experience that most
people have zero idea how to cook vegetables, and some vegetables can
taste pretty horrible if they’re not prepared properly.
The other issue I run into has to do with people who don’t understand how
critical seasoning is, especially when you’re cooking healthy things like
vegetables, )sh, or brown rice. Those foods aren’t packed with the fat,
sodium, and sugar that make other foods so appealing, so they need to be
seasoned if they’re going to taste good. Keeping salt to minimum is a great
idea, but you need to use at least a little to stop your food from tasting Eat.
Other spices and herbs can be used relatively liberally, and olive oil or broth
make great substitutes for all the butter you might be in the habit of using if
you’re not on the health wagon yet.
It’s all about bringing out the natural deliciousness of these foods, because I
assure you it’s there, just waiting to be discovered. The more thoroughly you
come to realize that, the more you’ll grow to love healthful, delicious, good-
for-you foods in general, and the easier it will be to maintain any progress
you make toward your goals.
Photo by ja ma on Unsplash
4. You Don’t Have to Eat Anything You Don’t Like
And you shouldn’t eat anything you genuinely don’t like. It’s great to give
healthy foods you thought you didn’t like a second chance, but at the end of
the day, eating lots of beets or Brussels sprouts isn’t going help if you just
plain can’t stand them. The key to actually making progress toward your
weight loss and )tness goals is sustainability. Diets don’t work, because
losing weight and getting in shape aren’t things you do just once. The
minute you go back to what you were doing before, your body will go back
to the way it was as well, so it’s important to make changes that you can see
yourself sticking with inde)nitely.
Can’t stand celery and cabbage, but love broccoli and carrots? By all means,
buy broccoli and carrots, and prepare them the way you like them. Can’t
picture a life that never )nds you enjoying an Oreo ever again? Don’t insist
on living one. Instead, ration your Oreos or turn them into more of a special
occasion treat instead of an everyday thing. Not interested in cutting alcohol
completely out of your diet? You don’t have to. Just commit to cutting way,
way back on the overall amount you’re drinking.
Getting my eating in check wasn’t about cutting out all of my favorite foods,
because I already know I’m the kind of person that just really needs a
cheeseburger now and again. However, I eat cheeseburgers a lot less often
than I used to. I don’t put an overabundance of cheese or a ton of bacon on
them for no good reason anymore. I do use leaner meat to make them, as
well as load them up with tasty veggies I like. Also, since I genuinely enjoy
salmon, turkey, or plant-based burgers, I will opt for one of those a little
more often than I might have in the past. I still love burger night every bit as
much as I used to. It’s just not keeping me overweight and unhealthy
anymore the way I do it now.
Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash
5. Scales May Hurt More Than They Help
Read just about any guide to weight loss, and it will go over the importance
of weighing yourself sooner or later. It’ll tell you that number on the scale is
how you know how much progress you’re making, as well as keep you in
check if you start backsliding, and I de)nitely get that logic. I get it so well,
that I agreed with it wholeheartedly at the beginning of my journey and
weighed myself religiously at the close of every week. I )gured that when I
inevitably started getting tired of being good, the fear of that number
getting higher would stop me from going back to my bad habits.
What that number actually did is cause me unnecessary stress. Anyone

who’s ever tried to lose weight before knows that what your scale says can
be unreliable, especially if you’re also working on toning up or building
muscle at the same time. That number can also start to matter too much.
Despite knowing that I shouldn’t be paying but so much attention to the
scale, I did regardless. On weeks that number didn’t change enough to suit
me or during periods where there was a lot of up-and-down, I felt super
discouraged, often despite just having noticed other signs of progress (like
clothing )tting much diLerently).
Eventually I realized it just wasn’t serving me, so I stopped weighing myself

except for once every few months or so. I rely on other ways to know
whether or not I’m putting in enough eLort, like what I see when I look in
the mirror. How my clothing )ts and how strong I’m getting are other good
indicators. I’m constantly noticing muscles that are becoming more toned or
fat deposits that shrink visibly or disappear altogether. Photographs and
feedback from other people with the ability to be unEinchingly honest are
pretty reliable ways to assess your ongoing progress as well.
Photo by Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash
6. It’s Not a Race
In the past, a new stab at losing weight or getting in shape was typically
triggered by one of two diLerent things. The )rst was literally anything that
made me feel fat — an unsatisfactory number on the scale after stepping on
it for the )rst time in years or possibly a really unEattering photograph. The
second was an upcoming event I wanted to make sure I looked good for —
some special occasion like a wedding or a local event I thought might )nd
me showing up in snapshots or running into people I hadn’t seen in a while.
In either case, I was always in a big rush to get those pounds oL. Naturally,
that led to desperate measures my body really didn’t like, such as starvation
diets and overexercising (if I even was exercising that time around). The
faster I could lose whatever weight I wanted to lose, the better, and I was
obsessive enough about it that it would work. I remember feeling
enormously proud of myself at times for losing something like 60 pounds in
just six weeks or something. But then that local event I wanted to look good
for would come and go. My body was convinced it had just been through
something awful (like a famine) because of how I’d been treating it, so it
demanded that I actually feed it with hefty portions of whatever I felt like
eating. Before I knew it, I was right back where I started, often plus a few
new pounds.
What I didn’t understand then is that being )t and existing at a healthy

weight aren’t goals you rush toward. They’re destinations you journey to
one step, one workout, one meal, one healthy choice at a time. You didn’t
drift out of shape or pack on a bunch of extra pounds overnight, so it’s
unrealistic and unhealthy to expect to undo the damage overnight. Plus,
good habits aren’t established in just a couple of weeks any more than bad
ones are. Slow but sustained progress is ultimately the only kind that’s
going to stick with you. Your body needs time to gradually adjust to the
changes you’re making, and so does your mind.
Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash
7. When You Do It Right, It Changes You
And you’ll love what happens, I promise. When I )rst made the decision to
.nally get healthy, I was oQcially fed up with feeling fat, sick, tired, and
depressed. Yes, I was tired of the extra pounds I’d packed on over the years,
as well as how they made me feel about myself. However, I was also tired of
not recognizing myself in the day-to-day choices I was making because of
how I felt physically, mentally, and emotionally. I was once an avid reader
and information lover who enjoyed learning things for fun. I was intensely
creative, spending much of my free time painting, drawing, or writing. I
took pride in my appearance and loved putting together diLerent looks. The
person I had become was perpetually too tired and sluggish to care about
any of that anymore, but I wanted that to change.
4.6K
And it did… in little ways, at )rst, but then in bigger ones. First I noticed
that I had more energy, that my mind felt clearer, and that my moods were
improving. Then I started getting stronger, and a lot of the nagging stiLness
and discomfort I’d long ago blamed on getting older started to disappear. As
I built muscle, lost fat, and continued healing my body with better eating
and drinking choices, I began to feel more like my old self as well. I started
feeling creative again, as well as intellectually curious. I found I felt
naturally compelled to do things like sign up for courses on topics I thought
were interesting or teach myself to master new things (like several new
foreign languages). Best of all, it was all happening organically without my
needing to push myself much at all, just like it used to.
At the end of the day, who we are is determined by the choices we make
every day. Making the commitment to really start taking proper care of
myself instead of trying to cheat the system with crash diets and gimmicks
the way I had in the past made me a better person in ways I’m not sure I
expected, but that I’m incredibly grateful for. If I’d known years ago what I
know now about this whole process, it’s something I would have done many
years ago, so don’t wait. Do it now.
Yes, it will take a while, especially if you’ve been overweight, unhealthy, or

out of shape for a long while. Just keep in mind that that time will pass
anyway, and more quickly than you think. Would you rather look back in a
year on another 365 days you let pass without taking action, or would you
rather be quietly amazed at how much you accomplished? I know which
one I picked, and it’s the best decision I ever made.
. . .
Shannon Hilson is a full-time freelance copywriter living in Monterey,

California with her husband and her one-eyed ginger cat. She is also a
passionate home cook, voracious reader, and aspiring linguist.
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7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Fitness and Weight Loss a Long Time Ago 25.02.

7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me

Photo by Nilotpal Kalita on Unsplash

I’m not a )tness guru or a health nut. Despite growing up in a part of

What I am is a freelance copywriter by profession who works completely out

of her home on a full-time basis. My idea of a lit Saturday night is staying

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

1. Exercise Doesn’t Have to Be a Chore

As a dyed-in-the wool homebody, I spent many years trying to )nd a way to

Photo by Chris Tweten on Unsplash

2. Diets Don’t Work, Moderation Does

The game-changer for me personally was intermittent fasting for a lot of

Most importantly, it was comfortable enough and realistic enough, that it

Photo by Carissa Gan on Unsplash

3. It’s Possible for Healthy Food to Taste Good

4. You Don’t Have to Eat Anything You Don’t Like

Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash

5. Scales May Hurt More Than They Help

What that number actually did is cause me unnecessary stress. Anyone

Eventually I realized it just wasn’t serving me, so I stopped weighing myself

Photo by Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash

6. It’s Not a Race

What I didn’t understand then is that being )t and existing at a healthy

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

7. When You Do It Right, It Changes You

Yes, it will take a while, especially if you’ve been overweight, unhealthy, or

Shannon Hilson is a full-time freelance copywriter living in Monterey,

Health Weight Loss Fitness Self Improvement Motivation

Discover Medium Make Medium yours Explore your membership

About Help Legal

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