Lose weight, Keep it off, Look younger, Live longer (Coaching tips)

Don’t Just Lose the weight, keep it off

If you live in the United States of America the odds are that you have tried a diet at some point. At any given time there’s 46 million Americans on a diet.

When I found out about that I was actually shocked it wasn’t more. Now at first it may seem like a good thing.  If so many Americans are trying to eat healthier and exercise more that must make us a healthy country, right?

Wrong. America is currently the 9th most obese country in the world. But if everyone and their mother is dieting why aren’t we all skinny?

I believe that the biggest lie that we all believe about weight loss is that if we lose the weight it’ll stay off for good no matter what we do.  Because of this many people are in such a rush to get to their goal weight. They go on diets that make them miserable but believe that it’ll be worth it once they shed enough pounds. But studies show that most people who do lose weight gain it back within 2 years. How can that be?  

I believe it is because it is exciting to lose weight but little attention, if any at all, is given to keeping the weight off. If you’re in the process of losing weight, you usually will receive many compliments from well-meaning people about how you look so much better and healthier.

But when was the last time you heard someone being complimented for staying at a healthy weight for a few months or a few years? Probably never. This leads people to forever be dieting and yo-yoing their weight. But how do you break this cycle?

Breaking the cycle

I believe that the first step towards turning your body into a body that’s in shape is to first learn to love your body. Now that’s easier said than done. So much of TV shows and advertisements make us feel horrible about our bodies.

We wonder why we can’t look as amazing as models and actors do so we beat ourselves up for not having amazing bodies like them. In reality, many of these models and actors are dangerously overweight and will have health problems because of it. They often do not love their bodies either and develop eating disorders.

But I believe that, no matter what you look like, your body is something to be cherished. And by cherishing it you can learn to not only get to a healthy weight but maintain one too.

Learning to love yourself

If we learn to love our bodies we won’t put our bodies through the damage that fad diets that made outrageous claims will do. Eating healthy and exercising is a form of self care.  It’s saying to your body “I’m willing to put in the work to make you healthier.” 

Having raspberries (one of my favorite desserts) may not taste quite as good as having a big bowl of ice cream but it is a way of taking care of ourselves. And exercise can do even more. 

Countless studies have shown that exercise (when done at a pace you can handle) has outstanding benefits for our mental health as well as physical health. If we can get on an eating plan and exercise routine that is not only healthy but makes us feel good it won’t be that hard to stick to it for years to come. I hope you will all pledge to learn to love your bodies in order to discover a healthier you.   

Allow me to explain this better with a short story. One man, let’s call him Tom, is looking to lose a lot of weight. He wants to get into good shape as soon as possible in order to be healthier and impress his peers. He goes on a diet that doesn’t allow him any of his favorite foods and requires him to work out at the gym 4 hours a day.

The diet and exercise plan makes him absolutely miserable. He can’t wait until he hits his goal weight so he can stop torturing himself. He finally does reach his goal weight and is very happy.  But most of his happiness is because of the fact that he will no longer have to do such an intense diet anymore. So he goes back to his old habits of snacking on chocolate and chips while watching TV all day.  

At first things seem to be going well but then Tom starts gaining the weight back.  You see, getting down to your goal weight by no means means that you’re going to stay there forever.