Mae Suzuki
Shifting the focus away from weight loss and toward enjoyment and health
Suzuki realized she was previously solely focused on losing weight, which led her to eating foods she didn’t like and doing workouts she hated.
“Everything that I thought revolved around ‘how do I lose weight? How do I burn more calories?’ That wasn’t giving me joy at all,” she said. In fact, it made everything feel like a chore, which was unsustainable.
As she observed people who had healthy habits, she noticed that they tended to be active simply because they enjoyed it. They might get off the bus a few stops early to walk the rest of the way home, for example, because they enjoyed the process.
That was a perspective she had never considered before. “I had to kind of unpack all of these underlying mindsets that I had that clearly brought me to where I was. It wasn’t working out for me,” Suzuki said.
This time, she focused on feeling strong, healthy, and happy. Once she stopped focusing on the things she didn’t like in order to lose weight, she started to see gradual but sustained weight loss.
She didn’t restrict herself but didn’t eat more than she needed
In Suzuki’s childhood home, there was a scarcity mentality in relation to food, she said. Her parents’ financial struggles fostered a belief that she had to eat everything on her plate or else go hungry.
And while that might have made sense at the time, as an adult it led Suzuki to often overeat. Instead, she allowed herself to eat until she was full and put the rest aside for later.
“Food is abundant. If I’m hungry, I can go get a snack. So I don’t feel like I need to overeat and be extremely full just so that I won’t be hungry later on,” she said.
After years of restrictive dieting, she also let go of demonizing certain foods and glorifying others. Instead, she paid more attention to nutritional value, portion size, and flavor. She tracked what she ate to make sure she was in a calorie deficit— which means eating fewer calories than you burn — but wasn’t strict about it, she said.
“I don’t have to eat five cups of salad every day. I just need to eat what I like and then feel full and then move on with my day. And if I’m hungry, I can get more food,” she said.
Maz Suzuki
Discovering weight lifting
In June, Suzuki joined her local gym and committed to going three to four times a week. She knew there would be times she didn’t feel motivated but she just kept focusing on her goal until it became a habit.
She tried as many different workout classes as she could, and discovered that she loves lifting heavy but isn’t so into cardio.
On days she doesn’t feel like exercising, she leans on the workouts she knows she enjoys, like practicing squats.
“I just want to move my body. I just want to feel good in my body,” she said.