You’ve taken the plunge and decided to get serious about getting fit. You’ve done a lot of reading and research and asked all your friends what works for them. But I’m going to share with you some things that your research may not tell you about losing weight. Things I didn’t learn about until I hit these speed bumps on the road to fitness.
(Photo credit: Diego3336)
1. You’ll need to buy a whole new wardrobe. In fact, you’ll need “transition” clothes before you reach your goal, especially if you have more than just 15-20 pounds to lose. I didn’t realize that until my husband pointed out how bad my over-sized clothes looked on me. At the time, I was wearing a pair of size 16 jeans cinched with a belt I had punched with extra holes to keep my pants from falling down. I marched over to the mirror and realized he was right; I looked horrible in those jeans!
I couldn’t afford to invest much money on transition sizes, so I shopped sales and clearance racks. While still losing weight, I sought out clothing with elastic waistbands and steered clear of tailored tops and bottoms. Of course, you also can get a seamstress or tailor to take in your clothes, especially suits or other costly apparel.
What’s a little strange is that my feet also got a half-size smaller when I lost weight. Really!! Turns out I had fat feet, too.
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2. As you weigh less, your body will need even fewer calories. When my calorie tracker started giving me fewer calories (and on Weight Watchers, fewer points) each day, I felt like I had been cheated. Of course, it’s common sense, but something you’ll need to realize. As tough as it is to stick with any kind of diet, you’ll have to cut back even more as you get skinnier.
You can only cut back so much on what you eat; you have to have a certain amount of food for your body to function at its best. Cutting back too much on what you’re eating can slow down your metabolism and is just plain unhealthy.
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3. At some point, you have to exercise and get active. I did great on changing my diet to lose weight, dropping the first 20 pounds in a matter of months. Before I knew it, a year was gone and so were 40 pounds. But the last 20 seemed to take longer than the first 40. I hit a plateau, and you will too.
I don’t think I’ll ever learn to love exercising, but I love how it makes me feel. I find that I have much more success in eating in healthy moderation when I’m exercising and staying active.
4. You’ll end up with loose skin. Yes, you may end up with what my younger work colleagues like to call “old lady arms,” where the skin on the underside of your arms keeps swinging after you’ve stopped waving. You have to do a lot of triceps work to get those arms firmed up.
But it’s not just your arms. You’ll end up with loose skin in all those places where you’re carrying extra fat. And, I hate to tell you, but wrinkles (let’s call them “laugh lines”) become more noticeable as your face gets thinner.
The good news is that toning exercises are somewhat successful in helping getting your key muscle groups in shape and helping with some of this. I’m still working on the whole loose skin and wrinkles thing myself.
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5. Not everyone is going to be supportive of your efforts. (Yes, I’m just full of good news.) You may find that the very people who were on board with your weight loss when you started may not still support you when you’re successful. I started hearing comments like these: “If you lose any more weight, you’ll just blow away.” or “Gosh, you’re getting so thin.” or “My, you really need to eat something.”
Let me explain that I visit the doctor regularly, and she was giving me the thumbs up on my health and weight the entire time. So I wasn’t too thin, I was just thinner. How do I deal with it? I just smile and take the compliment. don’t let someone else’s negativity get you down or distract you from your goal. You can even counter with — “Thanks, and my doctor and I are both pleased with my progress!” Because you are, of course, regularly seeing a doctor who is helping you set your fitness goals, right?
I share with you the stumbling blocks that I encountered during my journey to fitness not to discourage you, but so that you’ll know what’s coming and be better prepared to deal with it. After all, not all of them are bad things; what woman doesn’t love an excuse to buy new clothes?
Do you have a stumbling block or unexpected hiccup that you’ve encountered along your road to fitness? Share it below and tell us how you dealt with it!
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