Five Things to do BEFORE Losing Weight
1. DECIDE
Trisha Yearwood recently said about her significant weight loss that people asked her when she decided to lose weight. She said, “I’ve been deciding to lose weight since I was 15”. Most women have had the same experience. Through pregnancies, hormone shifts and illnesses, we’ve been dealing with trying to lose weight most of our lives. Actually losing weight is a combination of many things including timing, body response and determination, but it begins with a decision. Once you truly decide, you physiologically allow your body to succeed. Weight loss is a whole-person experience, body and soul, involving emotions and mental games we may not know exist. It’s a journey and not something to check off the list, which is why so many of us hesitate to start. But when we’re ready to begin, we will become a more whole and better person. We will have conquered something vital and life-changing, and will have gained new habits and perspectives along the way.
What would help you decide to get fit and fabulous today?
What keeps you from that decision?
2. Make an “eat, exercise and energize” plan that works FOR YOU.
Create a lifestyle eating plan, not a “diet.” Author Betsy Schow hilariously shared that before starting a diet she would say goodbye to all her “friends”—Ben and Jerry, Mr. Goodbar, etc. And of course, gain another five pounds in the process. That’s what dieting does. In Faithful, Fit & Fabulous I share that when super-disciplined military men were put on a diet, they ended up binge eating and stealing penny candy. Yeah.
Eating is about nourishing. It’s about feeling what your body wants and needs, then giving it to your body. It’s about satiation—learning to taste your food, appreciate quality and get energy. It’s about enjoying ALL foods, at the right time, for the right reason.
Create an exercise plan doing activities that YOU enjoy and that your body responds to. Discover which physical activities you actually ENJOY, and/or feel energized about doing. Energize with rest at the proper time as best you can. I’m finding that one of the keys to NOT losing weight has been my lack of resting in between strengthening exercises. In my desire to plow through the workout “efficiently”, I actually decreased my results.
3. Identify Negative Triggers.
Negative triggers are knee-jerk responses to life, situations or people that keep us in the same old patterns that get us the same old results. These can be food triggers—you have pizza and must have soda, or have a brownie so you must have ice cream. Or emotional triggers—someone makes you angry, so you stuff your feelings with salty or sweet foods. Or mental triggers, like saying I’m on a diet suddenly makes you starving. Write them down and find a positive, non-food coping skill for the top three triggers for you.
4. Keep the mainstays.
What’s already working for you? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For me, the “two bites of anything” is a lifesaver. Anything I see that I really, really want, I have two bites and I’m good. Now, two bites of a mint chocolate shake releases the scarcity trigger as well as keeps me from downing the whole thing. I just have to remember this only applies to a must-have—it’s two bites of anything, not two bites of “everything”!
5. Begin with a whole-body approach.
Fit and Fabulous is not just about losing weight. It’s about a more balanced, joyful lifestyle. It’s eating the foods we love in their proper time and amount, while getting the healthy amount of exercise and rest to live enjoyable lives. When people tout various weight loss programs, they invariably say how much someone can lose. My question back is always, how much can I maintain? Often a woman isn’t losing weight because of various factors—hormones, allergies, (etc.) This time around, understand your body. Learn about it, listen to it, become a partner with it and you will have more energy, joy, and wellness.
With these five keys, you will become more fit and fabulous, inside and out, before you even begin a workout!
Best,
Connie
