Find Your Identity After Weight Loss

Identity crisis is something that I had a difficult issue with after losing around 30-50 pounds within the last two years. It has been a long road to lose the weight but I am happier and healthier than ever before in my life. I constantly have moments of feeling insecure of my appearance, even after I dropped the weight. For me, it's mainly the after affects of losing weight and not being used to what my appearance is at my current state. I'm working on it and couldn't be happier and so can you.

Exercise, eating in moderation and paying attention to my health has been my main and only method of losing weight. Unfortunately there are others in my life whom have gone down the another route to lose the weight, weight loss surgery. Not saying that weight loss surgery is not acceptable, but I think that it is used as a Band-Aid for the real issue causing the weight gain. Weight can be a crutch but once it is gone, it is difficult to make the mental change over what the lifestyle that used to be to the new one. Let's face it, our lifestyle habits (good or bad) will sneak back and we all must learn to handle them.

By losing weight the natural way, a person learns first hand what it means to moderate food and also to exercise. These two things are so important to a healthy lifestyle and ever so much more to keep at a normal weight. I'm not afraid to admit that I have cried, danced for joy and screamed at every pound throughout the entire process (it really is that emotional) but these moments of slow weight loss is what has helped me form the lifestyle that I want my entire life. Surgery patients lose weight very fast and generally miss out on this learning experience, no amount of therapy is going to help 100%. It's one of the main reasons why many weight loss surgery patients actually gain their weight back within the first five years after surgery. Numerous medical experts will state this fact. One example though can be seen here.

My natural weight loss has taught me these 11 tips to keep healthy and active. I may falter here and there but throughout the last two years I have been begun to see positives where negatives used to be. You can too by following these simple tips. Try one at a time and keep working on them; you will be happier in the long run.

1. Don't compare yourself with others by appearance. People obsess over what others look like, especially those in the spotlight such as celebrities.

2. Don't compare numbers on the weight scales to yourself. Muscle can make your weight scale go over a "normal BMI" but it does not mean one is overweight. I remember I used to cry when I gained 1oz!

3. Be honest to yourself; learn to know who you are and not who someone else wants you to be.

4. Look at your true self and not your clothes or makeup skills. Try going to the grocery store or gym without makeup once. You will be surprised with all the compliments by going natural. I feel the most gorgeous when I am in plain exercise clothes, hair in a ponytail and no makeup going to the gym. It's liberating.

5. Have confidence in yourself with exercise - you know you can do it.

6. Push yourself a little beyond your "comfort zone" because that is how you grow it.

7. Think positively, turn your negatives into positives and things will turn positive. Don't plan out negative things in your head.

8. Journal your daily workouts, weights, and other goals that you are working towards. Look back at this and see where your accomplishments have come from.

9. Don't get caught up with what others think about you -- know who you are and know that you are a good person. It's the whole "living in glass house" thing.

10. Set your own goals and continue to follow them. Don't let others get in the way. For example, don't get on the treadmill and try to overdo it by running at the pace your neighbor runner is going.

11. Be kind to yourself as you would be to others -- it goes both ways.