I felt compelled to write this post as I have been hearing a lot of grumbling recently about being annoyed with gaining “X” amount of pounds over the last few months. I watch clients stare in the mirror as they poke and prod at their waistlines wondering out loud, “Why cant I just lose these few pounds?” With a confused look on their faces they make the most commonly heard statement to the world “I eat healthy.”
I gained 10 pounds last year. Not because I stopped eating healthy food. I love eating and cooking healthy food. There are so many things I can blame on the weight gain. Like I was under a lot of stress and I was recovering from a prolonged period of calorie restriction and excessive exercise resulting in overtraining syndrome. While those circumstances certainly had an impact that led to where I am it is not the ultimate reason I gained weight.
Successful nutritional habits lie in our ability to CONSISTENTLY do the mundane things. It’s about mentally and physically showing up every day to do the habits that will help you reach your goals.
I gained the weight because I stopped mentally showing up each day. I didn't eat mindfully. Like listening to fullness cues, or working on catching and stopping myself from mindless eating or stress eating. I allowed my trigger foods like salted dry roasted nuts, dark raw chocolate and gluten free bread to become a staple in my cupboard (which results in ALL of them becoming a staple in my daily eating habits). I never allowed myself to be hungry and I definitely justified a lot of impulse food purchasing to take place.
Losing weight or maintaining a lean healthy physique is NOT easy for most people. It involves sticking to performing daily tasks and habits that may frankly feel boring. With all the exciting food out there it involves committing to a daily practice, and at moments you will feel frustrated.
Here are my musings of key behaviors that need to be adopted and maintained when it comes to successful weight loss:
- Making the time to stock your fridge with healthy food.
- Committing to keeping junk food or trigger foods (foods you have trouble moderating) out of the house.
- Don’t succumb to impulse food purchasing.
- Standing up to your inner voice that is telling you that you DESERVE this (eg I'm tired, stressed, life is hard etc).
- Practicing MINDFUL eating. Sitting down to meals, and planning meals. NOT allowing yourself to stand in front of the fridge and eat, pick off others plates, snack in front of the TV, eat while walking around etc.
- Work on getting used to feeling a little uncomfortable; eating less or eating different foods brings with it a period of discomfort.
- Understanding that adopting new habits are hard and our brains are wired to resist the discomfort. It requires you to push against that every day until the habit is ingrained.
- Being willing to sit with occasional hunger.
- Focusing on the PROCESS, not the OUTCOME. You can’t make your body lose 5, 10 or 20 or 50 pounds. But you can adopt new habits every day that will increase your chance of getting to that outcome.
- Plowing ahead without seeing immediate results. I hear a lot of clients say “I only get motivated to lose weight when I lose weight.” Constant validation is not a reality when it comes to losing weight. Our bodies are complex and sometimes a combination of external and internal factors will stall progress. If you cannot stick to a plan or commit to the work despite this then you cannot enable long term progress (or the yo-yo effect takes place).