Whenever you are going through a process, learn to have patience and see beyond the appearance that may be linked to losing weight with these goals.

Losing weight is not just about kilos! It is about the journey and everything it brings new and useful in your life while you learn to let go of the unnecessary. Losing weight is a process and while you are surfing it, new lessons come your way. Losing weight is an experience, a way that teaches how to handle ourselves better, how to improve ourselves both mentally and physically. It is never about lost kilos, per se.

When you put losing weight into perspective, you can discover new meanings that will help you even further than just looking better. Let me tell you about 5 objectives that, in my opinion, are more important than losing weight.

Society is based on image and, in the name of it, many people try to project their perfect version. The society of image went so far that now-a-days, because of media and social platforms, we think women and men should look a certain way. And this brings a lot of insecurities, sadness and lack of acceptance of ourselves and others. But you must understand none of it is real and being skinny does not mean being healthy, happy or fulfilled.

We are oftentimes left with the impression that a skinny person has it all: love, money, fame, health. But this is not at all the case! What you should think of when you think of health is choices for mind, body and soul: enough sleep, food that nourishes you, workouts that give you energy and strength. And whenever you do all of these, you are healthy, and happy, and free. This feeling comes in all shapes and sizes because feeling good in your own skin does not look a certain way!

Loving ourselves, despite our flaws, is the greatest challenge people all over the world have! We seem to be on a constant quest of punishing ourselves by thinking that, no matter what we do, we are never good enough: we are not smart enough, we are not beautiful enough, we are not skinny enough. This kind of thinking is deceiving and, once more, it is not your fault for having these thoughts in a society that created the monster of perfection as a standard no one can really submit to.

The journey of losing weight might bring you less kilos, but will this make you feel better about yourself and happier? The longterm answer is usually NO. While you might feel extatic and proud of losing weight – and you should be – in the long run you discover the number on the scale is not the one making you feel more or less valuable. The answer for self worth relies in yourself, in all the choices that you make in your life: the people you spend time with, the way you cherish yourself through your thoughts and actions, the things that make you feel good, including self-love!

Accepting the pass of time seems extremely difficult now-a-days as society fake norms put a heavy pressure on women to fight it with all available means. The quest for youth, no matter what, becomes a debilitating topic for many women as it creates the idea that to be young is the only way of being desirable. We need to normalize that aging is inevitable and that it is part of human life. Accepting that nothing is permanent is one of the most important lessons once should learn in life as experiences will demonstrate it over and over again.

Thus being said, change is also inevitable when it comes to our bodies. With age and different experiences, body changes. So, in the journey of losing weight, make sure you actually understand the benefits of eating healthy and exercising: their aim is to give you great health and state of mind no matter how old are you. Because, despite good nutrition and exercise, body will still change its shape and size and adapt to hormonal changes and other influences. Embrace change and everything will come easy!

The way you treat yourself should be intentional! That is why, living a healthy lifestyle means living a disciplined life where you make conscious choices about what you eat, how you spend your time, what you read, what impacts you every second of the day. A healthy lifestyle does not resume to food only, it is about everything that we take in day by day, from thoughts, to information, to beliefs, and so on.

A healthy lifestyle is the one we choose to have because we know what it gives us back: energy, focus, strength, good vibes. Discipline means knowing that what we repeatedly do, day in, day out, brings us satisfaction that translates into a quality life for ourselves and those around us!

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