Does your weight-loss goal feel about as easy to achieve as climbing Mount Everest right now?
If you’ve got several stone to lose, it probably does.
And the more weight you gain, the higher that summit grows.
You’re standing at the bottom, looking up at the summit thinking ‘How the hell do I get there?’
You look at the height of it; look at how much you’ve got to climb to get to where you need to be…
And it’s all just too much
Too much to do
Too big a task
So you don’t even bother trying…and the weight continues to creep up, and up and up.
Every now and then you may decide to do something about it…
But you jump in with both feet…going all out to change everything once and for all.
This is it!
Your time to change!
Enough is enough!
And you plunge into an intense exercise plan and a really strict eating plan and it works,
boy does it work!
You’re elated – the weight starts to drop off, people start to notice and comment and you feel fab!
Spurred on, you start to set goals for dates – I’ll lose ‘x’ for this date and then another ‘Y’ for this date…
But then you don’t quite reach the goals you set
and then the will-power starts to fade.
Your confidence is knocked coz you didn’t achieve what you set out to.
Exercising as much as you are just isn’t sustainable and you miss the foods you used to eat.
You feel like a recluse coz you don’t go out any more…you can’t coz it will send you ‘off-plan!’
Soon enough the weight loss stops and starts to go in the wrong direction and it totally knocks you back.
Knocks your confidence big time.
Eventually you end up back where you started…often even bigger than you originally were.
And the whole cycle repeats…again and again and again.
You know there is another way…
There really is!
A better way…a better for your body and hugely better for your mind…and your confidence.
But it takes patience.
It takes delayed gratification…and that’s something many of us just don’t have these days.
We want things now, immediately, yesterday even! We want a quick fix…a magic bullet!
It’s taken us 3, 5, 10 years to put this weight on but damn it, we want to lose it all in a few months!
Hey, I get it!
I used to be EXACTLY the same…exactly!
‘Lose a stone in a week’ was a diet I used to do.
That and trying to eat less than 1000 calories a day for as long as I could in order to lose weight.
It all ended up in bulimia for me…in my 30’s and that’s certainly not the way to go about weight loss.
Then in my 30’s after a lot work on myself, I finally gave up on the whole diet culture.
Essentially, I stopped dieting.
The answer that you’re looking for lies in consistency…always has done.
Consistency is the fix you’re looking for…the magic answer but it’s NOT quick.
Suppose you forgot all about how much weight you have to lose…ignored it.
And instead focused on one day at a time.
That’s all, just one day. Moving forward.
What if you exercised a few times a week…EVERY week? Consistently.
And you ate well MOST of the time…about 80%? Consistently.
Still having a life, still socialising, still having the odd drink and whatever treat it is you like to have? Consistently.
Doing everything in balance but not stripping things out and depriving yourself of the things you enjoy.
Chances are, you’d find that easier to stick in long-term eh?
But the weight won’t fall off quickly if you do that.
It’ll come off slowly – maybe only 1-2 pounds a week.
And that just feels so slow doesn’t it? So frustratingly slow.
But guess what, 1-2 lbs a week is over 5 and a ½ stone in a year.
Yes, you read that right…5 and ½ stone in just one year!
And just think, the next year is going to happen no matter what you decide to do with it.
You can carry on as you are and stay at the weight you are now, losing and gaining over the year, probably coming back to where you are right now….or bigger.
Or you can find your sweet spot of balance and be consistent, day after day, week after week.
Exercising regularly, eating well MOST of the time, but also regularly enjoying treats, social occasions, life!
And after that year, will that weight come piling back on?
Of course it won’t! Because you’ll keep doing what you’re doing and ultimately that’s all you need to do!
It’s our daily actions that become our habits that lead to the results that stick around.
Sure, if you then stopped exercising and started eating as you did a year ago, of course it would all come back on.
But if you’ve found a balance that works for your life now, and you’re over 5 stone lighter, feeling bloody fab and looking amazing, why the hell would you?
So please, please, please STOP staring at the top of Everest and focusing on your ultimate goal.
An arbitrary number, a point on the scales that you’re so fixated on.
Take one day at a time and move forward.
Figure out what you need to do daily, weekly, consistently.
You may not get it right first time and you may need a coach to help you but figure it out.
Find it and then do it, consistently…every day, every week.
The pounds will fall, they’ll turn into stones over the months and you’ll enjoy the journey.
You’ll look back at the end of the year and wonder what the hell happened.
You probably won’t believe what you’ve achieved.
1 year from now….where will you be?
