I’m so excited about this week’s post! We’re getting into the real deal around what makes the difference in losing weight for good. There’s so much noise out there around what works for weight loss and it gets confusing, so I want to share what I know about what actually works for permanent weight loss…
For many of us, our weight loss journey has been an up-and-down roller coaster kind of experience. We try diet after diet, finding some success in dropping the pounds, but then we go right on back up the scale when we come off the diet. Let me tell you what had to happen before I was successful in losing weight.
I’d been frustrated by my weight for as long as I could remember, maybe back to the start of puberty. Probably earlier. I’d gotten through college and medical school, started life as a married woman, and had my first baby. When I realized that I was avoiding taking pictures with my baby because I was ashamed of how big I’d gotten, I was angry, frustrated, discouraged, and fed up. This was not going to be my life. It could NOT be that my weight was an obstacle too big to be solved.
I was done.
Like D-O-N-E, done. I wasn’t going to be overweight the rest of my life. I refused to believe that this was my story and I was going to do what I needed to do to change this situation. But how?
I started thinking seriously about how to solve my weight problem for good. No more shiny object syndrome, looking for the next quick fix option to get off the weight. I needed a permanent solution.
One thing was for sure – I was not going to choose some super strict, ratchet diet to live on. I wouldn’t live the rest of my life never being able to have a piece of pizza or slice of birthday cake. No, whatever I did would have to be something I could live with forever. Diets were out.
That’s the first distinction that has to be made. There is no quick-fix diet that will get you to permanent weight loss. The word diet implies temporary, which works against the long-term permanent weight loss you really want. If you want permanent weight loss, you’ve got to choose a way of eating that will be yours for life. It has to be a plan that you design and that you can live with and enjoy your life.
Now let’s be clear: You can choose any style of eating you want for your plan. It might be that you enjoy eating a plant-based style and that you build your plan around that kind of eating. Or you might decide that you feel best with less grain and fewer carbs. You might want to keep seafood but not dairy. Most of us feel better on fewer processed foods. Whatever it is, you have to choose and craft it to fit your life.
I can help you with this. With my lifestyle medicine and holistic nutrition background, we can create any kind of plan you want. But make no mistake, it’s got to be your plan. You get to decide and you own it. You decide where the exceptions fit and when they don’t. No more falling off the plan and then deciding that the diet didn’t work for you – you either work your plan or you don’t.
This is where the permanent weight loss actually happens. When you change your mind from a diet mentality to owning your results, you don’t binge because you had a crazy day at work. You don’t eat a sleeve of Oreos because you’re irritated that your kids have broken yet another expensive thing in the house. Your long-term plan trumps the temporary speed bumps in your day.
Getting to the mindset of permanent weight loss starts with ending diet mentality. It’s not the end of the story, but it’s the beginning. Self-sabotage, mindless eating, triggers – those have to be addressed too.
If you’re feeling like I’m reading your mind right now, that’s because I’ve been there. You can do this – you can get rid of diet mentality and turn off triggers and self-sabotage! If you keep working at this and don’t give up, you will get there. But if you feel like you’re running up against obstacles that you can’t seem to solve on your own, that’s where I can help. Having a coach is like going from walking to driving: Having help to see your patterns and troubleshoot makes your progress so much faster!
If you know you’re ready to get off the roller coaster and a coach will help you get to your goal, email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com and let’s set up a consultation. My coaching program is almost full and I will have to open a waiting list shortly. So don’t wait: If you’re ready, we can start working together!
Do you have questions about weight loss coaching? Do you want to chat about the obstacles you’re running into? Have you struggled with diet mentality but don’t know how to get away from it? Comment below and I’ll answer your questions!
Here’s your video help for the week!