Most people’s goal is lose weight or get to a certain weight, but why?
How will life be different when you weigh X?
Behind that weight loss goal (and every other goal in life) is the desire for a feeling.
You want to feel slimmer, toned, attractive. You want to feel in control of your body and your mind. You want to be able to wear the clothes you really like and feel confident enough to be yourself.
That shouldn’t only be allowed to happen once you hit X number on the scales.
All these things are feelings – they are all part of your mind and you have the choice to create those feelings whenever you want.
So why not make the choice to start working on these things now?
What does looking and feeling good mean to you?
Picture the greatest version of yourself that you can imagine, feeling slim, happy and living life the way you want it to be.
What clothes will you wear? How will you have your hair and nails? How will you carry yourself?
What will you say to yourself? What will you say to others?
Start doing those things now!
You don’t need to get to a certain weight before you can allow yourself to feel good and start looking and behaving differently. You have the choice to do these things at any moment.
It might feel weird and totally not like you at first. But the more you follow this approach, the easier it will get and the faster you will start to see results.
As you work towards your weight loss goal, stay constantly aware of your own thoughts and feelings towards yourself.
If you catch yourself saying negative things about you and your body, STOP. Would you ever say those things to someone else? Then don’t say it to yourself!
You deserve to feel happy and good about yourself now. You might not be where you want to be yet, but criticising yourself won’t help you get there.
Find things that you like about yourself and your body (don’t say there’s nothing – what would your partner or best friend say are great features about you?) and write them down each day. (This could be part of a gratitude journal where you also write down 10 things in general that you are grateful for each day. Brilliant habit to get into to improve your mindset).
Focus on the good things you’re doing and reward yourself for any milestones you reach, no matter how small. Over time this will build your confidence and give you the motivation to keep going when times get tough.
Most women trying to lose weight are coming from a history of yo-yo dieting.
They’re used to depriving themselves for weeks and months to get to a certain weight, only to see it creep or pile back on again once they can no longer sustain all the rules and restrictions.
Weight and the scales can become associated with negative feelings and poor self esteem.
So it’s important to take notice of all the other much more important ways of tracking your progress too. How your clothes fit, how you feel about yourself, how your body is performing in the gym and in daily life, and your general health and wellbeing.
I’ve seen many clients have great weeks in the gym and with their food, fit into a smaller size item of clothing and then step on the scales to find they’re the same weight or maybe even a pound more.
They’re usually gutted.
Why?! Your body is performing better, you’re into the habit of eating really nutritious food, and you’ve fitted in to a smaller pair of jeans. That is CLEAR progress right there.
The scales tell you the sum total of everything in your body and will go up if you drink a glass of water or go down if you go to the toilet. They often read higher when women are pre-menstrual too.
So don’t use that as your only way of measuring how you’re doing. And don’t feel the need to weigh yourself every day. Some who are at a very advanced level of training and nutrition may weigh daily, but for most people it isn’t necessary and can easily become obsessive.
I get most of my clients to weigh themselves once a week. We use methods such as circumference measurements, clothes size, food diaries, and training records as well as weight to assess whether or not they’re making progress. Over a period of weeks, the scales should be going down and you should see other things happening too to show you’re heading in the right direction.
So, to sum up my ramblings….yes, if you are overweight, weight does matter. Long term (over a period of weeks not days) it is a very reliable tool for assessing progress. But it is not the be all and end all.
If you feel slimmer, your clothes are feeling looser, you are healthy and you feel generally happier in yourself, who cares what the scales say?
Interested in online training or personal training? Click here to get in touch.
April 15