Losing Weight, Adopting a Healthy Lifestyle, & Kumquats?

By: Shana Adams (@bbgtonline) You know, it’s funny how a simple trip to the grocery store puts losing weight into perspective. I had a sobering moment on my quest for kumquats. Years ago I heard the name and was immediately intrigued. What is this ‘kumquat’? Where do I acquire said fruit? I imagined that the kumquat was big, with a larger than grapefruit presence, a delicacy with unlimited potential. In the produce section of The Fresh Market, I realized that nothing is what it seems. Seeing my first kumquat was anti climatic. There he was, in a plastic carton with a dozen of his countrymen squeezed between a monstrous display of granny smith apples and out of season plums. How can something with such an epic name be so small and insignificant? That led to an epiphany: losing weight and pursing a healthy lifestyle is not unlike my discovery of the kumquat. Losing weight and adopting a healthy lifestyle was such a daunting task at first. I would flip through weight loss success pictures online and feel overwhelmed by the task at hand. How was I going to give up Minute Maid, and Bojangles fries? When was I going to have the time to exercise thirty minutes a day while I was busy being a full time student and part time worker? I had been eating this way for so long that this was the only way I knew how to eat. I had been inactive so long, that I didn’t know how to approach exercise. Fast forward to 2013, and I realized that I approached my fitness journey the wrong way from the beginning.  Basically, it has to start with how you approach food and the goals you set for yourself. Here are five things I realized after my epiphany:

1. Put the scale AWAY! The best way to gauge how you’re doing is to measure yourself. I use “progress pants” to see results.
2. The internet is there FYI.  We all need guidance. How else would we know where to start? I use http://macronutrientcalculator.com/ and http://www.eatthismuch.com/ for help
3. Don’t share your goals excessively. Sharing my goals on social media put more pressure on me to achieve them. I would say, I want to be XX lbs by December 31^st and when it didn’t happen, I would feel like I let others down. As they say, “Hustle in Silence, Let Your Success Make Noise.”
4. Reward yourself, but not with food. I did Jenny Craig briefly and this is something that my advisor told me. Rewarding yourself with food, leads to self-sabotage. I’ll address this in another post.
5. Stress will kill you (and make you plateau). I cannot stress this enough, pun intended. Bills, work, family, etc are a part of living and aggravate us too. But I’ve accepted that these things will be here now and long after I’m gone. Akuna Matata.

In short, losing weight and adopting a healthy lifestyle is easier than you think. I know, easy for me to say right? I’ve been doing this for three and a half years. No, it hasn’t been easy and through trial and error, so so so so many errors, I’m able to offer you my advice today. You never know where you’ll get your inspiration. Get out and find your “kumquat.”   ---------------------- Shana is a 25 year old communications professional who took her health into her own hands and  started her weight loss journey mid 2010, but really took charge when she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2012.  She will be launching her health and fitness blog Big Boned Gets Toned! on May 6, 2014. You can view her Big Boned Gets Toned! weight loss vlog on youtube http://ow.ly/vbvYs

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