An old friend from high school (of all places) posted an article on Facebook recently about how one guy lost 100 pounds. He admits the way that he did it was “dumb”, but in fact it some ways it was pretty smart.
In the article he admits to walking a lot- that’s how he did it folks, just walking- but what’s more important is the mindset he had going into exercising:
“The trick was finding a routine that I actually enjoyed doing and wanted to stick with.”
I’ve lost a substantial amount of weight between when I started jiu jitsu, and people over the years have asked me how I’ve done it. There was a change in diet, but when it comes to exercise, I’ve stressed you should really find something that you enjoy and keeps you occupied, and for me jiu jitsu does the trick. The desire to learn, to acquire new skills has kept me going and has made me a healthier person, which is a pretty sweet deal when you think about it.
He also talks about his primary goal wasn’t even weight loss, it was just to feel better- again, a point I think is pretty smart. I think a lot of people set up these expectations for their weight loss, and become frustrated when those expectations aren’t met. Then people quit because they feel whatever they are doing obviously isn’t working, and restart the vicious cycle all over again. If you take those expectations out of the equation, you can deal with a weight plateau more easily, because there’s no real goal to meet by a particular deadline.
Finally, there was a point he made that I agree with, and have personally thought over the past few years:
“I wish I could have found a way to be comfortable in my skin even without the weight loss”
Whatever size you are, you should never be ashamed of the “skin you’re in”. If you are healthy, if you can do all the things you want to do, and most importantly if you feel good about yourself then what the hell does it matter what the scale says. I know, that’s rich, coming from a grappler that has repeatedly lost weight to make certain weight division, but let’s be real, those are just numbers that someone, somewhere thought was a brilliant idea to come up with to avoid lumping everyone together, it’s not any remark on you as a person.
Anyway, check out the article, let me know what you think. Otherwise, have a great day everyone!
A Skirt on the Mat 
Great thoughts, and very relevant to all of us who have to constantly diet to fit into weight divisions as well – it’s too easy to let those divisions define us a bit too much sometimes!