Lifestyle change is not enough, you also need a change in energy/spirit/ethos.

I was writing for my fitness app’s blog last night, and I had a realization that I wanted to share here for people who might need motivation.

TLDR: Permanent weight-loss requires a lifestyle change, but even lifestyle change isn’t enough. It also requires a change in your ethos, energy, and spirit.

One common trap people fall into is thinking their weight-loss journey is going to be temporary and they can eventually go "back to normal."

As people commonly remind each other here, the weight-loss journey isn’t a short trip; it’s a lifestyle change. The diet, habits, and behaviors you change become the new normal.

But I realized is also much more than that. “Lifestyle change” is a definitionally accurate, but it also fails to capture the tenacity that a change to your life requires.

Some parts of the journey can be made easier by developing plans, building habits, and learning to create enjoyment in the work. But even people who have successfully made lifestyle changes and have been consistent for years face difficulty. Time does not permit for stasis, and every day brings new battles for us to overcome. People lose motivation, get injured, relapse into old habits, or face life events that make it hard to continue. It gets easier, but it never gets easy.

Maintaining a weight-loss routine is hard. Maintaining it for life requires a perpetual spirit of conquest, exploration, and fight.

If you’re starting your weight-loss journey, figure out how to equip yourself with a new energy and ethos for life and an understand that every day will bring a new fight for you to overcome. Some days will be easy victories, others will defeat you. Many day’s will be continuations of lifestyle changes you made. Infrequently, however, your life will get turned around and you’ll have to rebuild. If you can keep your ethos/spirit/energy high, you will eventually work through it all and get back on the path you set for yourself.

I was reminded of a line from Steven Pressfield’s War of Art:

"The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.”

I think that sentiment can be redrafted to include everyone in this group.

Good luck in 2023 everyone!

submitted by /u/erikpavia
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/zp6z7o/lifestyle_change_is_not_enough_you_also_need_a/