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Committing yourself to losing weight and adjusting your lifestyle to a healthier one takes a lot of time, energy and mental stability. It’s not something that will miraculously happen over night, and it’s not something that you’ll be able to do without putting in hard work and dedication.
So, I’ll be honest.
I really don’t think I would have been in any place to lose my “freshman 15” last year. Not just because I was in the process of actually putting the weight on, but also because I was all over the place mentally and emotionally.
As a freshman myself, I was adjusting to a new city, new school, new lifestyle and new home. I had to focus on getting myself acclimated to the life of a college student, and I’m sure that’s part of the reason why I put some weight on in the first place.
But, I also had to deal with tackling college-level courses, making new friends and learning how to live on my own (and in a dorm, nonetheless). So the stress of all of that was surely a recipe for weight gain.
However, this year was a different story. I had a year of college under my belt and I established a nice life for myself at the University of Florida. I just had one minor problem: a slight weight gain and no resolve to do anything about it.
But then this program came around, and it changed everything. I was finally in a positive place, mentally and emotionally, and I was able to dedicate myself to getting healthier and losing the weight I’d so longed to get rid of.
Flash-forward nine weeks, and here I am. Fifteen pounds lighter and leaps and bounds happier, and I can confidently attribute a lot of my success to just being finally ready to lose weight.
Any successful weight loss journey has its ups and its downs, but as long as you have the determination to see it through, you can do it!
So that’s my little piece of advice to you all today: make sure that you’re in the right state of mind and that you’ve got the time and energy to commit to losing weight BEFORE you do it. Losing weight isn’t something that you can commit to half-heartedly and it isn’t something that you can just say you’re going to do but then not put the hard work into doing.
If you don’t commit yourself to losing weight, you’ll never get the results that you’re looking to see. And, I promise that it will make your journey so much more rewarding and worthwhile if you really have the mental, emotional and physical strength to fully commit yourself to it.
I’ve been lucky enough this semester and these past nine weeks to be able to balance school, work and my life while still fitting in the appropriate amount of time to exercise every day and do my best to stick to my diet.
And I encourage you to embark on your own weight loss journey if you are prepared to do the same. Take this summer has an opportunity to focus your time and energy on losing weight, but make sure that you’re ready to take on the commitment before doing so.
In the end, it’ll only make your weight loss journey that much more successful! And, you’ll be happy that you did it.