IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD... MY JOURNEY WITH WEIGHT LOSS.

Over the past year, I’ve been on a journey. Destination? Inside my head. August 2017 was a month of reflection, and it brought me to a few realizations.

Overall, I was not healthy. I was a little bit unwell emotionally, and very unhealthy physically. I was not sleeping well, I was sore all the time, and I noticed I was having trouble keeping up with my kids or playing on the floor with them for extended periods of time. I was also struggling with self-confidence and my appearance (something men avoid talking about, but deal with just as often as women).

September 1st, 2017, I began a journey towards health; the main focus being my physical health. I knew if I lost some weight, changed my eating habits, and got active, most of my complaints should resolve themselves. I would have more energy, be able to keep up with (outrun?) my kids, have fewer aches and pains, sleep better, and have a more positive view of myself overall.

At the start of this adventure, I knew I wanted to change my life, which meant that I had to set plans in motion that were sustainable long term. I had to choose a different way of eating, and a form of exercise that could become my new lifestyle, rather than just a short-term fad.

I did choose a fairly popular ‘eating plan’; the specifics don’t actually matter in this case, because each person needs to pick a plan that they will adopt into their new rhythm. DON’T MISS THIS: the reason any of this worked for me was because it wasn’t a ‘diet’- it was a whole new way of looking at food as a source of energy to fuel my life.

I also set out to make exercise a regular part of my week. For me, in my stage of life, that meant that going to the gym or taking up running was not a viable option (two small kids, a wife and a growing business mean my time is in high demand, so I chose to learn how to maximize my time at home to produce the greatest results). Because I wasn’t joining a gym or taking a class, I needed some sort of structure, so I made three conscious choices.

3 days a week, complete a 10-15 minute work out at home
Walk my daughter to school (as fast as her legs would go one way, and my top speed on the way home)
Play hard with my kids (don’t be afraid to get out of breath).

With these plans in place, I adopted this new lifestyle. To make a long story short, it worked. I got stronger & fitter, my body changed, my relationship with food (and how I ate) changed, and I developed a healthy way of living that was simple to adapt to and easy to maintain. I also learned a lot about how much I used food to run away from my feelings.

BUT...

Despite my weight loss and healthy gains, there was still a problem. I thought I was in a pretty healthy spot emotionally; it turns out that the way I looked at myself was wrong. About 8 months into my journey, my body had changed as expected and all of my complaints had disappeared. I was keeping up with my kids, I was feeling stronger, I had no aches or pains, I was sleeping better, and I had a new relationship with food.

BUT, I still didn’t like my body. I was still being overly critical of myself, and my self-confidence hadn’t improved a bit. The biggest problem I had was in my head; the last four months have been spent working on and processing this problem. The journey wasn’t complete, and couldn’t be shared until I’d sorted this out. In those final four months, I learned to be kind to myself.

I learned to speak intentionally and positively, both internally and externally, about who I was and how I looked. I began to try and replace my negative thoughts with more positive ones, and I reminded myself of the following 3 things regularly:

To grant myself grace: progress is better than perfection.
Remember that failure is a part of learning; everyone fails.
No one else really cares how my body looks; if I feel healthy and strong, and am able to do the things I want to, enjoying life is more important than pursuing the ‘perfect’ body

At first, it was very much a ‘fake it til you make it’ scenario. I learned as I was more kind to myself, that I actually began to enjoy life more. As I enjoyed more, my confidence grew, and as my confidence grew so did my drive and performance in all areas of my life.

So, can you see the transformation? (Scroll down) I stayed away from mentioning exact numbers and dietary changes on purpose, and for the same reasons, I only posted my face. Yes, my body changed without a doubt, but the most important change that happened was the one in my mind. I think this before and after shot shows this perfectly; something in my ‘spirit’ changed this year.

This has been my year, and there’s something I don’t want you to miss. This journey was about health, about sustainable changes over a long period of time. This was NOT about a diet, or a quick fix. It wasn’t a sprint, its a marathon, and I’m still running. I consciously choose this new path every day.

Be kind to yourself. You are valuable. If you’re feeling like you need to make a change, start small and go from there. If you feel stuck on your journey and you don’t know why, I would love to help you make the changes you want, and find the healing and joy on the other side.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Jordan