Step Away!

Lessons I’m learning on my weight loss journey

It’s barely 4pm and I just had my first meal of the day. Well if you count my smoothie, then I guess second. But my smoothie was three scoops of protein powder and half a cup of Almond milk.
I’m deep in the trenches.

It’s been 3weeks since I started my Green and Grown diet (basically eating only veggies and things growing out of the ground with chicken and turkey for protein).
It has been an interesting road so far.
And I figured I would share some updates on how things are going. So here are some of the lessons I have learned in my 21days of changing my diet and my life

Lesson 1:
Ignore the scale and the mirror for a while

You know how you, yes YOU will go to the gym once and the next morning you’re looking for the abs or the fatter ass?
Yeahhhh same concept.
I struggle a lot with this because on most days, I would wake up and check myself in the mirror. Mostly because I would always observe my body and make sure everything was still in place and still working.
You know 30+ vibes

But there have been many days where I look at myself and because I don’t see the full sculpted version I have been working on, I briefly get discouraged.
Thankfully I ultimately push through but I can’t help but notice that I struggle with it.
This past weekend, I was at a birthday dinner for one of my really good friends and someone hugged me – touching my torso, they said “oh wow, your work is really showing. I be seeing you go off on IG but you’re killing it”
The next day, I had another event and people again complimented my progress, despite the fact that I was wearing a sweater that hid most of my body.

There is progress – someone asked me recently after complimenting “how much weight have you lost?”
I honestly don’t know and I don’t want to know.
I have found that the scale has been one of the places where my joy had been stolen. So no I do not want to know.
I would rather continue working on myself till I see visible changes that I want like I sleep better, not be short of breath when I run upstairs or I can go longer – hehehe if you know what I mean.
So my lesson for you as well in this time, ignore the scale and the mirror – keep pushing and one day you will look up and love the way you look. I guarantee it – props to you if you got that Men’s Wearhouse reference!

Lesson 2:
Love on yourself more than you want others to

Positive talk – remind yourself that you are a work in progress and frankly you are doing the work.
For me, I decided that this year and this stretch would be when I change my body for the rest of my life and that means a lot to me. For who I Want to be – for my wife, my kids, my future.

I am trying to be kind to myself in any way possible because like I said, I am doing the work. I realized that my discipline is the biggest gain I can ever get – when it’s all said and done, it won’t be how many pounds lost, it will be how much I’ve proven to myself that I would never give up.
And that is love.
Never giving up on someone or something.

So spend time telling yourself you are awesome and you are great. Remind yourself that you will achieve all that you want to achieve.

Lesson 3:
Celebrate the small wins

Last week on one of those days that didn’t feel so great at the gym, I felt annoyed. I was starting to lose faith in the work I was putting in.
But from somewhere I got the nugget (oh how I miss those!) to focus on the small wins.
That for me looks like in the last 9 days I have typically eaten dinner before 6pm.
Some days are even closer to 4pm.

Yes.
I would eat a decent-sized meal (really small – sample picture below) and just drink water later at night when I get hungry.
There was a day last week when I REALLY wanted to drink Garri with Peppered Turkey but it was 10pm.
I almost gave in but I forced myself to say no. I drank some water, and some green tea and I went to bed.
The next morning, I had a smoothie for brunch and forgot about the night before.

I am cherishing my small wins. The compliments I have been getting from people about looking smaller and my face shrinking. Someone even told me my head was getting smaller. I NEVER knew that was possible.

I urge you to celebrate your small wins AND the big ones too.
What are you currently working on that you can point to as some small wins? Please share them in the comments.

I hope you have a fantastic rest of the week and as always, please share and comment.

Thank you!

Written 4/5/2022 after eating the last batch of beans and chicken for dinner before a call with the Nifty Nine.