Welcome to the Thinner love series of the inner love diva podcast. In some of my episodes I’m going to be talking all things related to weightloss. I’ll share tips and tricks and also help steer you in a healthier mindset towards losing weight and finally keeping it off.
My journey on the lose-gain-lose-gain weight train has been a long one. Almost 4 decades long! Sometimes I’d reach my goal weight, only to gain it all back and then sometimes I’d only be 5 days in before I called it quits. Maybe some of you can relate.
I know I’m not alone because the Weight loss industry was worth over $70 billion dollars last year
Did you know that In America alone, right now, there are an estimated 108 million people on a diet. What!?! Many people will diet to lose weight 4-5 times each year, and yet, only 3 % of those people will actually make it down to their goal weight. Then within 3 years, most of them will have gained it back and then some.
The tiny fraction, in fact, 1% of the 3% of people who didn’t gain it back will keep it off long-term
So that’s .03 percent of people who lose all their weight in a $70 billion dollar industry actually keep it off long-term. Something is terribly wrong. With all the resources the weight loss industry offers us, why is it that only a tiny fraction of people can keep off the weight?
How many times have you started a diet and you were doing so good and then something happened that bounced you off the turnip truck, you went off the rails or you fell off the wagon and then decided you’d start to tomorrow…but tomorrow never came? Either a special event came up, someone brought your favorite cookies to work, or you were just too tired to make something healthy that night? I have. Many times! I always felt I had a good reason, at the time, but I never stopped to think about my reasons for starting the diet in the first place. Or my reasons were too superficial for me to keep motivated so as soon as it got hard, it didn’t keep me in the game until I won.
While I have my own ideas about why so many people gain the weight back, I’ve narrowed it down to the 3 biggest reasons, or the 3 biggest mistakes I made to cause me to keep going on and off the tracks of the weightloss train.
Is this the first time you’ve tuned in? I’m wondering if you’ve heard about the giveaway I am doing? In honor of my podcast launch I am giving away for things that I think everyone is going to want. The grand prize is for private coaching sessions with myself, the second prize is a pair of AirPods pros the third prize is it a $100 Amazon gift card and for everyone who enters im giving you a worksheet that will help you re-focus and start achieving your goals today. So everyone is a winner! If you want to learn more about the contest visit my website www.myinnerlove.com/podcast to get all the details.
Mistake #1
Thinking I’d be happier after I lost the weight.
I can remember when I started my weight loss journey I would dream of how much better life would be once I hit my goal weight. Like all the pieces in life would just fall into place and all my problems would melt away. The fact is, although some things are better, I am no happier today than I was when I started. Yes, things are physically easier, but life has offered new ways for me to feel the 50-50. There will always be good things in my life and there will always be challenging things. The best news is, there’s no more waiting to be happy! That feeling that you are searching for at the end of your journey can be felt today. I’m still on my weightloss journey, but I’ve found so much more happiness with myself realizing that I’m exactly where I need to be, right now. I’m gaining so much in knowledge and patience and I’m still enjoying life just the way I am.
Which brings me to
Mistake #2
Thinking I’ll stick with it longer if I hate the way I look. Isn’t it fascinating how we think hate will motivate? When was the last time you wanted to do anything for someone who was hating on you? I hated the way I looked.
I used to look at myself in the mirror and pick out all the parts that needed to be better. I was essentially telling myself that I wasn’t enough. That I wasn’t worthy of any kind of happiness because I didn’t have the radiant skin of one star, the legs of another person, the abs of another, and so on. I was searching for a collage of people’s best body attributes and wishing I had them. This was just sabotaging myself into an endless torment of chasing a perfection that no one person had. Even if I found it in one person, my body type wouldn’t physically be able to achieve it.
I was so unhappy with the way I looked over 100 pounds ago, but now when I look at old pictures of myself, I can’t help but feel compassion. Compassion for that past person and the past body she lived in.
Odds are, if you have lost all the weight, you may choose to think differently about your body, but if you don’t learn to love yourself, you’ll find something else to beat yourself up about.
Maybe you’re thinking, If I love my body as it is, I’ll never change. If I think I look beautiful and I have 100% worth now, then I’ll just choose to eat whatever I want, whenever I want, including the entire plate of fresh baked cookies or slice after slice of pizza. Have you noticed when you overeat those kinds of things? It’s not when you’re feeling great about yourself. It’s not when you feel that you can conquer the world. It’s when you’re feeling guilty, sad, restricted, stressed, overwhelmed. It’s when you’re thinking there’s something wrong with me so why try. Of course that feels awful!
Loving your body can take a long time. I’ve got decades of indirect beliefs brought on by media, magazines, and culture that I am reprogramming in my brain. The first step to changing them is noticing they are there, realizing those beliefs are causing painful results in my life, and then deciding how I’d rather believe to get the results I’m looking for.
Mistake #3
Believing there’s a perfect time to start a diet. I can’t count how many times I was going to start a diet and thought to myself, “I’d like to, but it’s not the right time.” Or, “I have too much going on right now so I can’t.” Thinking this way is always optional. Which means another option could be, “I’d like to and it’s the perfect time,” or “I have a lot going on, but I’ll figure out how to make it work.”
Have you sat down and really thought about what a perfect time would look like AND if you’ve had one of those “perfect times” yet? I can remember I’d have to start my diet in August because in January there’s New Years and Family birthdays, February is Valentines Day and who wants to be dieting on the worlds largest chocolate money making day? March is out because I celebrate my anniversary, April there’s easter, May is mother’s day and memorial day so we usually are with lots of family then, June was father’s day and camping, then there’s the 4th of July and the 24th for those in Utah and family reunions, summer vacations etc, October started our family’s birthday season and then Halloween, November more birthdays and Thanksgiving, December more birthdays and Christmas and we’re back around to January again. So I was making that little window of August and September to make a big impact on my weightloss. Imagine what was happening with my body while I was waiting for that perfect window of time? Always having the thoughts in the back of my head that I better enjoy this food now, bc come August. Waiting until the perfect time really messed me up.
What are your long-term goals? Let’s say one morning you woke up and you were at your perfect weight and your body looked exactly how you always dreamed it would be. Now what? Is it to stay healthy? Do you know what foods work for your body and what don’t? Do you think you’ll still emotionally eat? With all the weight gone, do you have the skills you need to keep it off? Would you remain in that .03% of people.
Health for the mind and the body is a lifelong adventure for some. Starting to take baby steps now lets you at least be in the game instead of sitting on the sidelines wishing it were different. Small steps daily equal great distances in your future.
Right now is the perfect time to start whatever it is that you’ve been putting off.
What do you think is the cause for your past diet debockles?
Figuring out the right foods for your body are important, but figuring out your beliefs around your body and diets are key to lasting success and remaining a member of the 1% club. Especially if you’ve been on the lose-gain-lose-gain weight train like me.
Consider how you are treating yourself. Your potential is limited when you get stuck on ideas like, “I can’t be happy and fat” or “there’s only one way to look good.” What you think about yourself today matters. What you do for yourself today matters. Even if you have to start small and baby step your way to the finish line, because that means each day you are becoming a better version of yourself.
