Many of you are probably familiar with the “freshman 15” or may have experienced it yourself. I know I did. After that, many of us were also faced with the “quarantine 15,” as well. Surprisingly enough, I ended up losing 15 pounds during quarantine without doing the Chloe Ting ab workouts because let’s face it: they were actually kind of hard. I may have lost weight, but the new mindset I gained was more important than anything else. I feel like I have been on diets on and off for years—thank you to toxic diet culture for that—yet I always ended up discouraged. If you’re anything like me, I want to share with you the three most important lessons I learned from my own experience losing weight that I wish I knew before.
1. Carbs are not your enemy
I know the keto craze is super appealing and it definitely works for some people, but not all. My house has a lot of low-carb foods in the kitchen because my mom is a diabetic. It took me a long time to realize that for someone like me, who has no dietary restrictions, carbs are not the enemy unlike what I was led to believe by diet culture. When I started my weight loss journey in quarantine, I began to follow nutritionists (@sorority.nurtitionist on Instagram is my personal favorite) online and do some research. The biggest lesson I learned from every article I read and every nutritionist I followed was that your body needs carbs. Not only are carbs great because they come from our favorite foods like pasta or bread, but they also are a major source of energy for our bodies that allow us to do anything from hanging out with friends to even reading this article.
2. You do not have to cut out any foods, seriously
A large reason why all my prior attempts to lose weight epically failed was because I thought it meant I had to give up some of my favorite foods and late-night snack runs with my roommates. I found that it’s not realistic for me to just stop eating foods I love because they are deemed “bad” by society. It was difficult at first, but I learned how to control my portion sizes and fit in all of my favorite foods. For example, I switched my Chick-fil-A order to grilled nuggets instead of regular and it is such a healthier alternative for me than trying to avoid fast food completely. The notion that you can never have fun foods such as pizza or ice cream if you want to lose weight is erroneous and can lead to some dangerous behaviors.
3. Don’t let the scale control you
If you take anything away from this article, I want it to be knowing that a number on a scale does not define you. Weighing yourself is a sensitive subject for a lot of people, myself included. However, I found that it actually helped me realize that weight fluctuations are normal. There would be days over quarantine—and even to this day—where my weight would fluctuate up to 10 pounds and of course the next day, the number would be completely different. This taught me to not get so caught up in what the little number on some scale tells me, and instead, I found taking measurements to be way more indicative of my progress.
Please remember that everyone’s body and experiences are completely different, so what helped me may not be plausible for everyone! I have struggled for a really long time with my weight until I finally learned that the best thing I could do for myself is to not overcomplicate the process. If you have an interest in losing weight, do so with the intent of becoming healthier for yourself rather than trying to achieve a certain “look” in other people’s eyes.
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