Many people go into the new year with losing weight as their number one resolution. However, many often forget that losing weight should be a health-based decision and not solely based on image or society’s standard. In this piece, I will discuss approaching weight loss from a positive perspective.

Ever since I was a child, I remember hearing adults talk about new years resolutions—one of the most popular resolutions being to lose weight. As a kid, of course, I didn’t see any issues with this cliche goal, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized there’s so much wrong with basing a year’s worth of success on your ability or inability to lose weight for whatever reason. When I set a goal of losing weight, accomplished it, and end up gaining right back within a year, I was hard on myself. I felt like I failed at the one thing that I set for myself to accomplish, and all the wonderful things that I did accomplish within those 365 days didn’t matter at all.

While I do think it’s essential to better your health at any age, I firmly believe that most women who set losing weight as a new year’s resolution don’t do it solely for that reason. Some women go into this murky resolution thinking that the only way that they’ll be happy with themselves is if they fit the standards that society has built for them. 

Below are some reasons that weightloss as a new year’s resolution is outdated and why women should be more intentional when setting life-changing goals for themself (because that’s what long-term weight loss truly is).

You’re focusing on the end goal and not the progress that will help you get to it. 

So you say you want to lose weight, but have you thought about what it would take to do it and the sacrifices that you will have to make. You don’t just lose weight by saying it. You have to clean up your diet and learn self-control. You have to push through workouts and stop telling yourself that you don’t have time to go to the gym. Of course, keeping your goal in mind helps, but if you don’t trust the process and stay committed to it, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

It sometimes puts unnecessary pressure on yourself.

Change doesn’t come overnight, and neither does weight loss. A lot of women feel pressured when they start fitness journeys because they do not see results fast enough or simply because they’ve maybe made it public that they’re on a fitness journey. Whatever the case, don’t be too hard on yourself or succumb to outside pressures. This is your journey and your journey only.

Think lifestyle, not image.

When on a health journey, stop thinking about a goal weight and put the focus on your health instead. Try saying, I want to be able to run a marathon one day instead of I want to lose 20 pounds to fit in my old clothes. It’s all about perspective.

Many people shape their perception of themselves based on images they see online. 

Social media has made it incredibly hard to be comfortable, not being perfect. We see all these photoshopped images of perfection that have somehow become society’s standard even though it isn’t real. But remember, IT ISN’T REAL. Stop letting your social feeds shape your perception of yourself. Be your own #bodygoals.