A couple of months ago, I had a fallout with my ex. As a result, he no longer takes care of our dog, which means I've become the primary caregiver to this teeny tiny animal with an endless amount of energy.
I knew I was in trouble.
This particular breed needs a lot of exercise. If they don't get enough, they basically explode into an irritating little gremlin. So I did my best. We walked. A lot.
The problem was that I was exhausted all the time. I couldn't recover properly, and it made me wonder if there was something wrong with my diet.
So I started tracking everything.
First, I counted my daily steps. Then I tracked everything I ate. Finally, I asked AI to calculate whether I was missing any important nutrients.
It turned out I was.
I was eating a very sad 20 grams of protein a day. Considering that I now walk around 10,000 steps every single day, I actually needed somewhere around 70–80 grams of protein.
That discovery completely changed the way I eat.
I started weighing myself every morning. I tracked my protein intake like a gym bro. I weighed my food. I realized I was only eating around 1,200 calories a day, yet I wasn't hungry. The problem wasn't the amount of food—it was that my macros were completely off.
So I flipped them around.
Now every meal contains protein. If I want watermelon, I add Kefir yogurt. Breakfast is usually a protein shake or protein pancakes. Instead of simply eating whatever happens to be available, I actually think about what my body needs.
This also sent me down a rabbit hole of learning about nutrition.
I've spent countless hours watching YouTube videos, trying to understand how to support my body better, especially because of my nerve damage. The changes have been remarkable.
I recover much better now. I feel stronger.
Initially, my weight was dropping at an alarming rate—almost 300 grams every single day—which definitely wasn't sustainable. Thankfully, that has now stabilized. My weight still fluctuates a little from day to day, but it feels balanced rather than concerning.
Because I've been consuming so much nutrition content lately, YouTube occasionally throws absolute gems into my recommendations.
Today I watched a fascinating video about how our beliefs can create measurable physical changes in our bodies.
The idea is surprisingly simple.
If you genuinely believe something benefits your health, your brain may respond in ways that actually influence your physiology. Scientists have been studying how expectations alone can change measurable health outcomes.
One example involved hotel cleaners.
They already performed physically demanding work every day, but they didn't think of it as exercise. To them, it was "just work."
Researchers divided them into two groups. One group continued as usual. The other group was told that their daily work actually met the recommendations for physical exercise and that they were effectively getting an intense workout every day. They learned how many calories they burned and how beneficial their work was for their health.
Nothing else changed.
They didn't work harder. They didn't change their diets.
But over time, the informed group showed improvements such as weight loss and better overall fitness simply because they now viewed their work differently.
I found that absolutely fascinating.
It made me wonder...
Now that I know my diet is supporting my body, that I'm consistently walking 10,000 steps a day, and that I'm finally recovering well, could I deliberately reinforce those positive beliefs?
Could I tell myself every time I'm climbing a staircase that this is exactly what my body needs?
That my body is becoming leaner, fitter and healthier because of these daily habits.
I'm going to try.
Maybe you could jokingly call it gaslighting myself into fitness.
Or maybe it's simply choosing to encourage myself instead of complaining about the effort.
After all, the behaviors are already there. I'm already eating differently. I'm already walking every day. I'm already taking better care of myself than I have in years.
So why not let my mindset work with me instead of against me?
We'll see what happens over the next six months.
I've already lost almost three kilograms, and I'm actually at my ideal weight currently. I don't need to lose any more. But there's always room to become stronger, healthier, and more toned.
I'm curious to see whether changing my beliefs about what I'm already doing will make an even bigger difference.
If nothing else, I'll spend those 10,000 daily steps telling myself that I'm doing something wonderful for my body.
