Sunday, December 15, 2024

My strategy for the mental battle of weight loss

What if you could visualize what each step towards your weight loss goal will look like?

Why:

I've attempted to lose weight many times, successfully lost 10lbs, and then gained it all back. A burst of motivation can get you started, but the mental battle of long-term change is difficult. I've been overweight my entire adulthood, so it's hard for me to wrap my head around my goal weight. I'm going all in this time, I'm on tirzepatide and I don't want it to go to waste. So I spent some time brainstorming ideas of what to do differently. My actual weight loss strategies have always come from this sub, but I haven't found anyone come up with a mental one that has ever worked for me. After listening to some podcast episodes about personal change, I came up with an idea that has given me a lot of resilience, persistence, patience, and hope.

The Main Idea:

I've divided up my weight loss journey into increments at the 10, 7, 5, 3 lb marks (170, 167, 165, 163, 160, so on until 130). For each one, I've packaged a gift and handwritten note for my near-future self. The handwritten notes were very meaningful to write. I wrote congratulations, pep talks, motivation, encouragements, and reminders. Each one was different and tied to its gift, and it helped me visualize those milestones. The gifts include jewelry, clothes, makeup, skincare, fountain pen inks, shoes, and a cash fund for the finish line. Some of it is new, but I also included dresses, workout clothes, and jeans that used to fit me at that particular weight. I even wrapped up my most used perfume, I'll get her back in about a month🥰

How is it working?

This little project has helped me so much in the day-to-day of making it to the next increment. It used to feel so much space between me and my goal weight, but now I know what each step looks like in between. I had already figured out how to lose weight, but this has been the key in getting myself to do those things and follow through with the plan. It also stopped being "I need to get to __lbs by XYZ event" (desperate, external, timebound) and it became "I'm going to be __lbs when I open this, I can't wait to have it and appreciate this" (patient, internal).

My Recommendations:

I would say the most important part of this was writing the notes to myself. That exercise alone shifted how I was thinking about this journey. Instead of a "one day, some day" thing, it became something I'm doing right now. So don't skip the notes if you're going to try this. The increments can be adjusted to your goal. And make sure to put the gifts in a location where you can clearly see them everyday.

I'm not one to gatekeep a good idea (or even a mediocre one) so I wanted to share in the case that it helps someone else too! I can't thank Reddit enough for being my main champion through weight loss each time. I'm 2 months in, and I'm so excited to see where it takes me.

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