Five Things We Thought Would Happen During Weight Loss (That Didn’t)

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!

MEET THE KROCKS: We are a married couple who started on a life-changing whole food, plant-based weight loss journey in June 2018. To date, we have lost over 300 pounds combined and we aren’t done yet! Read Our Story

Follow our Journey:
YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | TWITTER

I think any time you start a new weight loss “adventure” (as we like to call it), you have ideas in your head about what will or won’t happen. We made a video a while back about “Five Unexpected Results of Switching to a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet” and it got us thinking… what were some things we DID expect to happen – but didn’t actually happen?

So in today’s video we decided to do just that and talk about all of the things we thought would happen when we lost weight but didn’t actually happen. Watch the video here and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

#1: We’d get sick of eating this way. Especially salads.

When we started out, I’ll admit that we didn’t really intend to make this a complete lifestyle change. I think we were both still in denial, thinking that we could return to our old way of eating after we lost the weight. I did not expect to ENJOY the food. I didn’t expect to learn to love so many new things. I thought we would get sick of eating plants… especially our giant salads.

Yeah, there have been times when we needed a little break from certain dishes, salads, etc., but overall, we both feel like we’ve opened ourselves to a whole new world when it comes to food. It seemed like we would be limiting ourselves, but we actually eat a larger variety now than we ever did before. There are so many ways to get creative with a whole food, plant-based diet, so I don’t think we will ever truly get sick of it.

#2: We would lose all of our hair!

This was one of my biggest fears. If you google hair loss in connection with losing weight, eating a vegan diet, etc. there are so many things that come up. I let my anxiety get the better of me in this case and started OBSESSING over the idea of losing hair. At one point, I was even attempting to count the number of hairs that fell off my head each day. No joke!

The truth is, hair loss can have SO many different causes, including stress, weight loss in general, and a million other things. The process of obsessing and worrying over it can cause enough stress to make you lose extra hair. I discovered that most increased hair loss associated with weight loss seemed to be temporary.

We’ve been eating this way for almost two years now, and I can definitely say that my hair is NOT getting thinner. It is actually very normal to shed around 100 or so hairs per day, so if you start paying close attention to it, you just might convince yourself that you ARE losing all of your hair. My tip? Don’t count!

#3: We would feel like we were missing out on a lot of experiences.

Travel, music and food have always been our main sources of entertainment. We thought we were giving up a lot of those experiences when we started this new lifestyle. Not only were we giving up experiences eating out at restaurants, but finding new places to eat while on the road. But we were SO wrong.

This lifestyle change has actually expanded our food horizons drastically. We get to experience SO many new things. When we travel, it is a fun “challenge” to find new foods that fit within our lifestyle. Finding oil-free, vegan food in the “wild” is actually SO much fun. We used to frequent the same restaurants over and over again, but now we are forced to get outside of our comfort zone. I like to say there is a whole new world out there that we haven’t even experienced yet. Without this diet change, we probably never would have!

#4: We would fail. Again.

We have failed at weight loss SO many times in our lives, so I think there is always an underlying fear that will happen again. If you think about it, we have never actually “succeeded” at this. Any time we’ve lost weight in the past, we gained it back (and then some). Only time will truly tell if we will succeed this time, but I know in my heart that this time is different.

As you probably know, I recently got “off track” with our diet, and honestly at that point I thought yet another failure was looming. But I proved to myself that I’m NOT going to fail this time. We haven’t just lost weight… we have made an entire lifestyle change. We know the keys to success. The fact that I was able to pull myself back on track this time just reinforced this to me.

#5A (Brian): I would lose my identity.

“If I wasn’t the fat guy, then who was I?”

Brian has spent most of his life as the “fat guy” in his social circles, and that became part of his identity. There is a sort of defensive wall I think he had up and he was afraid to let that down and lose himself in the process.

The truth is, being the “fat guy” was never his identity, and now he is able to inspire other people with his journey. I don’t think he LOST anything, I think he just evolved into a better version of himself. The “old” Brian will always be a part of who he is, but he has taken those experiences and evolved into someone who can inspire others to change their lives.

#5B (Jessica): My anxiety would go away.

I have struggled with anxiety my entire life, and I honestly thought that losing the weight this time would take all of that away. I have been resistant to getting help for my anxiety for YEARS because I thought that if I could just get my weight under control, I could “fix” myself.

Although losing weight DID help lessen my anxiety, it turned out that it wasn’t a magic cure for removing it from my life. There is a lot more to dig into on this subject, so I will be putting out a separate video about this very shortly.

What did YOU think would happen while you lost weight?

If you have been on your own weight loss journey, be sure to check out the video here and leave us a comment letting us know what YOU thought would happen (but didn’t).