A woman lost 40 pounds by quitting strict diets that made her miserable. She started by visualizing 3 healthy habits her ideal self would keep.

Mae Suzuki lost weight by visualizing how her dream self would live. 

For years, Mae Suzuki was stuck in a cycle of restrictive dieting and binging that left her miserable.

But when Suzuki started visualizing her dream self and following the habits she imagined she would have, she lost 40 pounds sustainably.

The technique of visualization has been linked to improved musical ability, athletic performance, self-confidence, decision-making, and emotional regulation. Many successful entrepreneurs, including Steve Jobs, are known to have used visualization techniques throughout their careers, as well as Olympians such as Michael Phelps.

Growing up, Suzuki, a YouTuber based in New York, was overweight and wasn’t taught healthy eating habits, which made her feel different.

“That sort of added to the whole shame around ‘Why am I not fit? Why am I not healthy? Why do I feel different from everyone else around me?'” she told Business Insider.

In spring 2023, the “food noise” and misery of yo-yo dieting reached a fever pitch, and she decided something had to change.

Suzuki had discovered the concept of manifesting — which she described as “basically creating whatever you want into your reality” — a few years earlier. She used the framework to examine her lifestyle and reimagine her ideal one.

She started by reflecting deeply on what she wanted her life to look like, and envisioned her dream self.

“I really sat down with myself and thought about, ‘Who do I want to be? If I want to achieve things in my life, who do I have to become?’ And it’s not about being someone else other than myself, but it’s more so discovering new extensions of myself,” she said.

Suzuki added: “I basically did an entire overhaul of my self-concept, my identity, basically like who’s Mae? What does she do? What are her habits like?

“And I also thought about what people who are at my goal, people who are fit and healthy, what are they doing?”

Then, Suzuki made a promise to herself to gradually start living her life as that person. “I manifested by living the life of the person I wanted to become,” she said.

After six months, she reached her goal of losing 40 pounds and has maintained her weight since around October 2023. Losing around 10 pounds a month is in line with what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is healthy and sustainable.

Suzuki used to focus all her energy on losing weight rather than being healthy and enjoying her life.

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.

Suzuki loves strength training at the gym.

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.