The One Thing That Helped This Woman Lose Weight Had Nothing to Do With Exercise

Anyone who says their weight-loss journey began with them waking up one morning and suddenly having a burning desire to get fit and eat healthy is probably making things up. That certainly didn’t happen for Ana-Maria Klizs, and she isn’t going to sit here and say that it did.

“I wish I could tell you that 8 months ago I had some major inspiring moment that clicked it all into place for me. Or that I have a magic pill that gives me motivation, but I don’t,” Klizs wrote in a recent Instagram post that shows a side-by-side shot of her before and after she got serious about self-care.

In reality, Klizs was disappointed by the way she had been treating her body. She felt like she had given up on herself. “I wasn’t unhappy with my life, that’s not it,” she wrote. “I loved my life and I felt comfortable with it, even the excuses. But I was disappointed because I knew I wasn’t healthy and I seemed to have stopped caring.”

Her motivation didn’t come from a body type she wanted to have or a weight she wanted to reach. Instead, she started looking at working out as something she had to do to get healthier. It wasn’t an option, it was a necessity. “I decided to look at food the same way too, no diets or supplements. Just vitamins and fuel,” Klizs wrote.

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Then, much to her surprise, she started to actually enjoy working out. She even began to love it. The physical changes happened somewhere along the road, she wrote. But she was way more excited about how great she felt mentally.

“Because every time I didn’t want to do a workout and I did it anyways, when I dismissed the excuses and pushed through my 28 min of BBG or my 45 min runs I felt proud of myself. And that was the game changer,” Klizs wrote.

She was no longer disappointed in how she had been treating her body, and she certainly wasn’t planning on giving up on herself anytime soon. That’s what working out should be about—being proud of your progress and feeling confident in your own skin, no matter your weight.

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