“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a smart man. This quote resides well with me because I experienced this first hand. For the past 5 years I have been trying to lose weight. Like many others I had tried and failed. I got a membership to my local gym, I bought new running shoes and I was even able to convince my parents that I absolutely needed a heart rate monitor to workout. This all indeed got me to the gym. I was very motivated and worked out 6-7 days a week for 1 to 1.5 hours at a time.
After 2 months straight of kicking my own butt at the gym I saw ZERO changes. This made me want to quit, and that is what I did. A few months would pass and I would do the EXACT. SAME. THING. This was my cycle for a few years which resulted in me staying the same weight and actually gaining a few pounds.
I was so sick of the cycle and with all honesty thought that I was just not built to be any smaller. A few months passed and I felt inspired to lose weight, once again, but this time for real. I was motivated more than ever before. I told myself that this time I was going to do it right. That is when I came across this quote…”Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results” …I finally saw what my problem was. I saw what I had been doing wrong for years.
If you do something the same way every time, you will have the same out come every time. So I looked deeper on what my problem could be. I then realized that I had never changed my diet… ever. I had been working out like a mad woman but continued to eat whatever I wanted. I put this to the test.
What to Cut Out
For the next 2 weeks I would try to cut out:
- All processed foods (fast food, burgers, hot dogs)
- All dairy products (cheese, milk, ice cream)
- Simple processed carbs (white pasta, white rice, white potato, white bread)
- Junk (cake, cookie, chips)
- All pop and juice drinks
What to Eat
Instead I would eat:
- Lean meats (chicken, turkey, fish)
- Almond milk
- Complex carbs (sweet potato, whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread, brown rice)
- Lots of fruits and veggies
- Only allowed to drink water and tea (with no sugar)
Remember when I said I never was able to lose any weight over 5 years of trying? Well, I lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks just by switching those items. I didn’t even workout once! Once I saw the pounds melting away, I didn’t want to stop! I started to incorporate workouts into my new clean eating lifestyle and that’s where I really started to see the biggest changes.
The moral of this story – health/fitness related or not – is, if you don’t see any results, you should start making some bigger changes.
Stay Inspired, Ronnie aka Inspiredtobefit
Ronnie Friedman is the creator of the fitness and health Instagram “Inspired To Be Fit”. She started this to inspire herself to live a healthier lifestyle. As her it grew significantly in a short amount of time, she was overjoyed to realize that she was inspiring many other determined individuals as well. Inspired To Be Fit has evolved to offer offline inspiration with its stylish motivational apparel – encouraging everyone to achieve their physical, emotional, and spiritual goals.
Follow on Twitter or Instagram @inspiredtobefit and visit ITBFSHOP.com.
