Why I feel that I'm not on a diet

When people tell me I'm losing weight, and how I'm dieting, I kinda cringe, because I really hate calling my weight loss journey a diet, because to be honest, it really doesn't feel like I'm on one. In our society, the word diet comes with so much baggage. Pain, shame, challenge, etc. When we think of someone on a diet, we think of someone eating lettuce leaf, fight craving tooth and nail, and running miles to get in shape. Now, my lazy, video playing ass wouldn't be caught dead running miles and just eating vegetables all day. But this is the vision I had in my mind every time I thought about dieting was the struggle that it was going to be.

Boy, was I wrong.

This thought, along with my lack of knowledge about weight loss more than often led me to say fuck it, and say, "well, this is the way I'm gonna be my whole life, better learn to love it..." or try, and give up on the diet after a few days or weeks. But it's funny what motivation can do for you. If you read my journey post, then you will know what things that happened in my life to motivate me. These things led me to wanna change my life. And that is the point I want to make. This is why I don't feel like I'm on a diet, because a diet to me, and I'm sure most of you means the things I mentioned, but it also meant that it was a temporary thing. The way I'm eating and exercising now is something I can easily see myself doing for he rest of my life. I really enjoy the foods that I eat now. And what is intoxicating is the energy and the geniuine happiness I feel right now in my life from just eating better, and doing exercises that I love to do. It's like an addiction, but a good one. I really understand is being happy in your own skin and have a better body image of yourself is the key to happiness. I'm way more intimate relations with the women because of the confidence in myself that I have. Just thinking about last year around this time, how messed up I really was. But only now, do I realize how down I was. I thought that life was a motherfucka, and you're played the cards you're dealt. But it doesn't have to be. Once I started realizing that, then the skies have been the limit. The thing I love is when people who only see me from time to time compliment me on how great I'm looking. It is motivating, because you know you're making progress. But what is really motivating is that you know that I'm not done yet. 2 years ago, I was at 290 (may have been more, but this was when I got on the scale and said "oh fuck!") and at the beginning of this year, I was around 280. I'm down to 227 when writing this. I really started hear the compliments when I got sub 240, and that kept me rolling. Then finding Mr. Low Body Fat gave me the support to keep pushing.



I this moment in my life, I eat to live, not live to eat. That was my former self. I guess you can say I was only a boy mentally until recently. I had to go through some struggles personally to get where I am right now. And even though I was always a good person, I was sad for years and didn't even realize it. I really have a new zest for life. Sucks that I had to get like this toward the end of my 20s, but I plan on having an awesome rest of my life. All of this, because I'm losing weight. I feel more energetic, which makes it easy to do things in life. I'm having more sex than I've had my whole life combined. All because of my weight loss. Big Dawg, if you take this journey, and get your mind right, you can feel the same thing. The funny thing is that in the past, I wanted weight loss to be quick, painless, and easy and was to naive to the fact that patience and practice are important virtues to have. Practice, because losing weight requires some practice, because I don't think anyone can just completely change the way they eat over night. I remember back when I would try to attempt losing weight, that weekend was a smorgasbord of whatever I wanted to eat, since I was going on a diet that Monday. And the night before, I would dread the next day because of the not so tasty foods I was going to have to eat now. But in this weight loss journey, it was a gradual progression, and the researching, and motivating factors that are driving me. And plus with my knowledge, I know that it is a simple process that we have overcomplicated (have to remember to write about the conspiracy theory I have about obesity in America). Now, I love the foods I eat, because it's the foods that I've always loved, but never had the patience to buy and cook my foods. I look forward to my workouts, because I love challenging myself. And seeing the results of my hard work helps enormously. Patience because this should be no rush. To get where you want to get in terms of your body is not quick fix. You shouldn't look at your progression from day to day, or even week to week. Think more in months. If you're too impatient to wait a few months, then you are doomed to fail. If you look at success stories, you can see that people can loss significant weight within a year. Some guy loss 200 pounds on the biggest loser in 8 months. I think that's a little extreme, but you get my drift. Even without excersising, you can lose a lot of weight within a year. But even with that said, my advice would be not to even trip. What I do is monitor my weight and take mental notes. I only have pictures to show my weight a month ago. No notes, or anything. But I can see with my own eyes the changes I see in the mirror. I think this journey is kinda cool, and in no rush to get it over with. Maintaining the weight seems like it's gonna be boring. Trying to keep my intake below 1800 is at times challenging, but I succeed on more days than others. Some days, I'm way below. Some days, I'm right at it. And there are those rare days that I exceed that. But that's the challenge in this. I'm not saying that I feel terrible when I eat an I-N-Out burger, but when I start to think of the food I ate for the day, I do kinda take note that my intake was over 1800 and I have to do better the next day. But on those days, my intake was probably only 2200, which only means that my deficit won't be that much on that day, but I'm still losing weight. The compliments I receive from family and friends feels great. And can't wait until months from now where I'm at my ideal body fat percentage and how ecstatic I'm gonna be. With all of that in mind, that is why I don't feel like I'm on a diet.