You want to lose weight, you have tried to lose weight but you either can’t or it just comes right back. What is holding you back? Is it knowledge about nutrition? Is it confusion because there is so much information out there you don’t know what is right for you? It could be a combination of several things but ultimately it comes down to one thing. Desire to change your habits.
This desire has to be rooted in personal change. It has to be the first step to make any major change in your life so you have to be willing to do the deep inner work.
Let me give you a basic example of human behavior. You hear the warnings about eating too many processed carbs and how it will make you fat, cause heart disease or at the least make you diabetic...but you still eat them. Knowledge hasn’t changed your behavior because you didn’t want to make a change.
Here is another example: You are 70 pounds overweight and you know this causes hypertension, high cholesterol, and metabolic disease but you don’t lose any weight. You still go out to eat for lunch, don’t exercise more than 1-2x per week and have dessert after dinner every night. All the habits that got you to this point in your life are now embedded into your day. You make excuses like you don’t have time to workout, you don’t have time to pack a healthy lunch, and your kids won’t eat healthy food so you just don’t cook much at all. Well I’m calling bullshit. You just don’t want to reorganize your day to allow for some change. Your comfortable and change is uncomfortable. It will require thinking differently when the opportunity presents itself. What I mean by that is changing your mindset means reframing how you are perceiving a situation. You are not missing out on a TV show by going to bed a half an hour earlier, instead you are still getting the 7 hours of sleep you need and now you are able to get up early to workout for 30 minutes 5 days a week.
You aren’t missing out on eating a free donut when they are in the break room, instead you are improving your cholesterol, controlling your blood sugar and eating what you prepared for lunch because it will make your afternoon much more productive when you don’t have brain fog.
Reframing how you see the situation allows you to be the change you want to see in yourself. I like to think of it like this, “I am the type of person that ______(does this) because I am fit and healthy.” So here is an example, I am the type of person that gets up early to get my workout in because I am fit and healthy. Or I am the type of person that doesn’t eat after 7:00pm because I fast 14 hours a day to regulate my blood sugar. You can insert any behavior in there as long as you know what kind of person you want to be. Convince yourself that you do those things by behaving that way and pretty soon it will be you. I’m not saying it will be easy and it won’t require serious work to achieve a new version of yourself but are you worth it? If you put in 12 months of serious work so that you live a healthy and fulfilled life for the next 40 years do you think that’s worth it? I would call that a pretty good return on your investment.
I never want to assume because I know everyone starts at different points on their journey. If you really don't know and you need to get more educated on what refined sugars and processed foods are really doing to your body then that is one thing but if you know how bad it is for you, why not change that behavior? Make a different decision the next time you are going to eat them. Because if you don’t make a change at that point then you are just fooling yourself by saying you want to be healthy, lose weight, and feel good. Your behaviors simply aren't lining up with what you are saying you want. This is the part where short term discomfort and delayed gratification allow for long-term progress.
I know this has been a stern look at the reality of being healthy so I want to leave you with something positive. Let success motivate you, look for the little things that are changing. Your belt fits on the next notch in, your pants fit a little looser, you can lift a little more in the gym, you didn’t eat after 7:00pm 5 out of 7 days this week. The point is the more you do the things that require a different mindset like saying no to the bad food and yes to the good food, you start to see slight changes and success is motivating.
Want some guidance on your journey, give us a call. It’s free so what do you have to lose but some weight?
“Be the change you want to see in the world” -Gandhi
Make Change, Be Great!
~Brant
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