Don’t Lose Faith In Yourself

If there’s one thing all of us should not do, it’s not to lose faith in ourselves. Many of us start blaming ourselves for not losing weight fast enough. Many of us start blaming ourselves for binging incessantly. But at the end of the day, does it solve matters? It doesn’t. If there’s one thing it does, it certainly makes you feel bad. When you feel bad, you start perpetuating the same vicious cycle over and over again. It traps you within.

If you have put on 10 kg in the last 2 years because of your lifestyle habits, then do not expect yourself to lose that extra 10kg in the next 2 months. We have to be realistic and set achievable goals. It is demoralising to set a goal that is highly unattainable just because it makes us feel good initially. And when you finally realise that it is mission impossible, your regress to your old habits. 

A friend emailed me recently lamenting her woes, chief of them all was that her weight was spinning out of control. 

I totally understand how she feels as she’s not the only one battling weight issues in this world. As the saying goes, we reap what we sow. We are what we are today because of our past decisions. It’s completely normal to feel this way – to feel lousy and out of shape. For far too long, we have been conditioned by society’s notions on what looking good means and getting their perfect figure. But in life, there is no perfect figure. If you ask me, the hourglass figure is not prefect because in some cultures, big is beautiful. Likewise, not everyone aspires to be a size 0 like Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham as many consider them to be anorexic. 

Besides helping her to better accept the reality and work on it, I also advised her by telling her to take baby steps forward. It is one thing to know what you don’t like but a totally different issue to work on it. By taking baby steps forward, she will not be putting undue stress on herself. Once she starts picking herself up again from where she left off, she will find it much easier than she initially imagined it. 

Never lose faith in yourself because if you abandon yourself, no one can save you. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Think of the times when you couldn’t accomplish something massive but still managed to get it done by breaking it down into parts. Then slowly but surely, when you worked through the parts, you got to the whole at the end. You may not be able to complete a marathon now but you could still finish an hour run on the treadmill. 

In the same vein, exercise works in the same manner. It is a way of life which you need to incorporate into your existing lifestyle slowly. If it is done in a forceful manner, chances are high that you will regress as you feel disheartened by the seemingly slow results. 

I have faith in everyone. Dismiss any non-supportive thoughts in your head, wear your sports shoes and head down to the gym!

Merry Christmas everyone!