I was looking through some old photos the other day and came across pictures of myself from when I was at my largest weight (220lbs in 2009). I had to do a double take. I literally did not recognize the young woman in those photos. Those days seem like lifetimes ago - almost to the point that it doesn't feel like they were ever a reality. I look and feel like an entirely different person and essentially, I am. This is what happens when we let our old state (set of beliefs/attitudes/ways of being) die and fully enter a new state. People ask what I did to maintain a 75lb-ish (don't know my current weight because I haven't owned a scale in years but the pic on the top right is from Jan 3, 2019) weight loss over a period of 10 years. The truth is that I saw myself healthy long before I had physical evidence to support that reality. I could deeply feel how I would experience life differently - from the way pants felt, to how it felt to sit in a seat with extra room, to walking/running without being winded. I completely moved into a new state - the healthy state - and I abandoned my old state. From there, I was led to take certain actions. I became mindful of how much I was eating and kept track of it using what's now called MyFitnessPal. I worked out here and there but nothing really regimented or routined. But what I want to emphasize is these things that I "did" were not the cause of the transformation. The cause was my shift in state. The cause was letting my old state die and fully dwelling in a new state.
This is why there are an abundance of ways to lose weight and become healthy - there's no set way because the true cause is shifting states. The actions we're led to take once we shift states are dependent on what we believe is necessary to bring the transformation about.
Over the years, I've become more conscious of the power of shifting states because this is the ultimate cause of all transformations.