We start derailing our progress to seek novelty

If it works, don’t touch it

Here in Spain, they say: if it works, don’t touch it. I learned the meaning of this advice firsthand when I was changing my mobile phone operator. The old one worked just fine, but I wanted a different one. It took me over two years to put all the papers in order. No kidding. It was a life lesson for me. Indeed. Never in my life again. If it works, don’t touch it. Seek novelty is not always the best idea in the world.

And the very same works in weight loss. You know best what to do, which exercise works best for you, what meals are the right and what are the absolute no. It is clear. There is no rocket science in this. But the problem is that with time it all becomes boring. Yes, this all worked great while you were losing weight, but now, when you are at your optimal weight, it is not appetizing anymore.

It is forever

Doing and eating every single day the same is inhumane. No one can do that. Maybe for a while. But forever? No way! Why am I saying forever? Because if you want to maintain your healthy weight, you will have to stick to a plan and never let it go. The ugly truth people don’t want to acknowledge is that it is not about losing weight. The real game starts when you start maintaining it. This is when things can get really hard.

The thing is that when you are losing your weight, it is your priority. You are laser-focused, you do everything right, and you sometimes even overdo things to see the results faster. Each of us has been there. You say you are on a diet. And this is the pitfall in the whole thing. Diet evokes in everyone something short, and unpleasant, with lots of suffering involved. You know what I mean.

Forever, like really forever

You are starting, but you are already planning what you will eat after the diet ends. And no, you are not craving steamed broccoli. See the problem? We give the process and our attempt a very wrong name. From the very beginning, we treat it as something temporary, unpleasant, and with an end date. And then we want to go back to what we have always been doing and eating. Is this sustainable? Can you count on keeping the weight at bay? You know the answer.

Even if you manage to lose weight, you are obsessed with the idea of what you will eat and how you will be munching in front of the TV after this is over. And this is the crucial problem. We want a different result while doing the same thing as usual. This is completely crazy. This will never work. And we gain the lost weight back incredibly fast.

And it leads to inevitable frustration, we are angry, and deceived, but we are already looking up a new diet to start on Monday. Who hasn’t done this, raise your hand… no one? 😀

We need to change

The weight loss thing needs to be embraced from a different perspective. You will need to change. You will have to become a person who is slim, fit, and healthy. Does that person eat burgers, wings, and pizza every day? Nop! Maybe on a Superbowl night. But that’s it. You are not that person now. But you would love to be. But it means that you will have to make a lot of changes in your life, which will be forever. No going back. Change is simple. But definitely not easy.

Changing is uncomfortable. Sometimes psychologically, and even physically painful. You will have to be incredibly uncomfortable first to get to the point when things will become automatic. And the new behavior and habits will have to stick with you. Seemingly easy, right? Sure. Until the moment when your old habits start attacking and want to come back. And surprisingly, they do it whenever things in your life get hard. They never do that on a sunny day.

Variety is needed

Even when things are going your way, you manage to change things, and you are sticking to them reasonably well. At some point, it will become a routine. Something we do every single day. And it will start to be boring. Eating veggies every day can easily become boring. What is funny, eating pizza every evening never annoys us, right? 😀

That is why it is incredibly important to get some variety into your routines and diet. Yeah, but it will always be meat and veggies! Maybe. But if you are a curious person like me, and you check Pinterest the same often as I do 😀, you would know that there is an infinite supply of ideas, recipes, cuisines to explore, suggestions, you name it.

Just dive in there and you will easily find yourself at 3 am downloading a pin with some yummy recipes to cook tomorrow. (Been there, done that 😀) Seek novelty in food is important. And you will learn to cook something new.

And it is the same with your gym routines. No one finds any pleasure whatsoever in doing every day the same. What is more, the moment your body gets used to that, you can keep yourself lying on the couch. It won’t do anything to you anymore. There is Youtube! If you want to learn something, YouTube has a tutorial 😀

I didn’t want to believe that but it is true. There is an infinite supply of new exercises, new trainers, new sports, and new sports gadgets (careful here, they can be pricy and the results are often questionable) but still, a lot to find, and all for free.

We need to keep going

We know firsthand that if we stop doing and eating what we are supposed to, things won’t work for us and we will start gaining the weight back at once. Losing 5 kilos may take you a month. But gaining it back? In a week! 😀 See, this is what I am talking about. It is incredibly stupid, but it works exactly like this.

So we need to stick to our plan and goals, but do it in a way that won’t kill us while trying. It should be still the same thing but with a little change and variation. Make it new somehow. Try something we don’t know yet. Who knows? Maybe you will find some activity you will fall in love with and you will develop a whole new skill set. This is what I mean.

Weigh loss like a long-term relationship

Doing the right thing all the time the same is great. It works, we know that. But is it sustainable long term? Can we actually do it? Week by week, month by month, year by year. This is the real challenge in maintaining the weight. We need to stick to our routine but keep it spicy for us.

To tell the truth, it is like a long-term relationship. You fall in crazy love at first, you can’t imagine a day going without it, but after a year things are different. And have you ever thought about those grandpas who spent their whole life together? 50 years or even more!

This kind of relationship we need to build with our weight. Yes, sometimes things get hard, we “quarrel”, but we know how to fix things and make them work again. There might be less exciting periods and others when it is a wild ride 😂 But the general idea is to keep it going.

If things were not going amazing, our grandpas didn’t run to divorce. They worked it through and they made it work again. This is what we are aiming at with the relationship with our weight. Yes, sometimes it can be nasty and stubborn, sometimes it deceives us, sometimes it is a naughty kiddo, but sometimes it is a well-behaved lady, it helps us and it maintains our life great.

We need to build those skills and work on that relationship. It is all 50:50. You will reap what you saw. If you do things right, your weight will do what you want. If you misbehave, it will punish you. It is as easy as this. There is no need to hate the weight. That is the thing. Make it all as good as you can, because it is you who will have to live with it. You make your bed and then you sleep in it 😉