Last week, my cheat meal day was with waffles. This time, my cheat meal day is with a piece of doughnut and a cafe latte. Since I implemented cheat day, my health journey has become way easier. Instead of craving sugar daily, having something extremely sweet once a week helped me curb the cravings. I also feel less guilty after eating them since in the past, I felt like a failure when I had a cheat meal day.
I recalled reading a post lately that mentions a strict diet. For me, strict dieting never works. I tried everything and it all just became a yo-yo experience. But now, I am no more a struggling dieter. In fact, I can say I am quite successful changing my diet and how I eat. I eat the same food for a lesser amount. When many people say to avoid carbs such as bread, rice, pasta, I still eat them. And after countless hours of learning how to lose weight without struggling, the math is simple; calories in < calories out.
To make things more accurate, I use the TDEE calculator because in the past I overestimated how much I should eat. Now, with my activity level (heavy exercise), 2000-2200 are safe though on some days, I just eat about 1500 to 1800 calories. But again what I learn to make the cutting program more successful is the food that we choose. The hardest part for me is still avoiding the hidden sugar even though I no longer take sugar but the hidden sugar is there, haunting my diet.
By working out 6x/week for an hour in 2 weeks I lost about 3kgs or around 6 pounds. I can tell you as much that in some days I didn’t want to go because I felt demotivated but I persisted through it. It was my first time facing the challenge in front of me and just showing up. Even the workout that day won’t be effective; I still workout and inside the gym, it all just has a rippling effect where I would want to try newer stuff and increase the intensity of my workout.
After a while, I started noticing a shift in my mindset that it’s okay if things are not perfect, just show up; that’s all that matters. I started getting more confident as well and from being afraid of seeing my own face at the gym, I stare at myself and feel good about it. In fact, I love the way I look in the mirror now. After years of not being confident, I finally gained my confidence back. Now, I finally understand how these things truly help with kick starting a mindset change.
There’s also this song that really motivates me. It’s a song by Vedo, You got it.
It's time to boss up
Fix ya credit, girl get at it
Get ya bag up
Hit that gym and get back fine
Go get that degree, go girl
And it’s a motivating song when you want to get your shit together.