10 things you need to embrace to lose fat forever.
Stop looking for ‘fat loss hacks’
Hacks are so appealing because they look like secret cheat codes that allow you to get results without effort.
The reality is… effort is required in the pursuit of any worthwhile goal.
& if you stop wasting time looking for a way to avoid that you’ll be miles ahead.
‘It’s hard’ is not an excuse not to do it.
It’s just an observation.
Use it as a reminder to give yourself some credit for doing hard things.
Losing fat is hard, changing behaviours is hard, staying lean in an obesinogenic environment is HARD.
Do you know what else is hard? Being overweight, disliking your body, feeling like you’ve let yourself down, dealing with the health implications of storing too much body fat.
Acknowledge that you need to be in a deficit
- that means expending more energy than you take in.
This doesn’t require tracking everything you eat but it does require structure to your eating, being calorie aware & choosing your indulgences.
You can’t eat everything you want all the time and expect to get results. Fat loss requires better choices. And yes, some restriction.
You also can’t buy everything you want all the time if you don’t want to be broke. Managing your money requires better choices. And yes, some restriction.
‘Anti - diet’ people will claim this is disordered. It’s not. It’s reality.
You’ll have to do things when you don’t want to.
Again, seems almost mad to say this but if you want to achieve any goal this is true.
Be it running a marathon, passing an exam, learning a language.
There will be days you don’t want to put in the practice but if you want the outcome you have to commit to doing the actions required even when you don’t want to.
Remember: time is going to pass anyway.
One of the most common things that trips people up on their pursuit of fat loss is impatience.
They try and do it too quickly.
Impatience is paradoxical because impatient acts tend to make things take even longer.
Be impatient with taking actions, and patient with your results.
Real progress isn’t measured on the scales
This is why I will often take the scales away when working with clients.
It’s not because I have decided we don’t want to lose fat or I am trying to change their goal. It’s actually because I want them to get better weight loss results.
If you are obsessing over the scale and it’s fluctuations are dictating your mood and thus your actions then removing the scale makes the process more enjoyable and you are more consistent which ultimately gets you better results. That is the goal.
You’ll learn a tonne about yourself in the process.
Doing hard things & showing up for yourself translates. The amount of clients I have that then go on to get promotions or leave toxic relationships or try that hobby they always wanted to try but never had the confidence to start.
When I say coaching is a good investment - it is and not just in your health but in your life as a whole (including your finances!)
You don’t have to do this
You are not a victim to this. You don’t have to do it. You GET to do it.
You get to do it because you want to improve your life.
I work with a lot of women who have struggled with yo yo dieting their whole lives. This is built a natural preset of shame, lack of self belief and self sabotage.
That usually looks like telling themselves that ‘fat loss is too hard for me and I will never achieve it - there must be something inherently wrong with me.’
There is not. Is it harder for some? 100% there is absolutely no doubt about that.
Will the right support and a program that is designed to support YOU make it a hell of a lot easier? 100% there is absolutely no doubt about that!
And whats the alternative? Stay unhappy? Life is too short for that!
Take responsibility. Own it.
This principle changed my life.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your fault or not. Take responsibility for it - that is what gives you control and power.
It’s not your fault you struggle with food but take responsibility because then you can change it
It’s not your fault your partner treats you badly but take responsibility and stop putting up with it
It’s not your fault your boss is awful but take ownership of your life and go and look for another one
You get the idea.
Stop people pleasing & stop making that your identity.
People pleasing may seem selfless in the moment but it’s not.
You will show up better for others & be able to give more if you are not a people pleaser.
First step: stop identifying as one.
EVERYONE (who is not a psychopath) has people pleasing tendencies. Everyone wants to please people. It is a basic human drive to want to please others and to want to be liked. It’s a lovely trait but not when it comes at the expense of your own goals.
Here is where it commonly sabotages your fat loss:
Peer pressure to eat desert or drink alcohol - sometimes this is genuine people pleasing, other times it’s an excuse.. either way it’s not going to get you results!
Not making any time for yourself because you feel you should constantly be giving to others…
Example:
As a parent there is nothing more important to your child’s wellbeing than your own health.
It’s not selfish to invest time, money & effort into you.
It’s what allows you to show up at your best.
Don’t get into a sh*t situation to start with.
I swayed about putting this one in as I thought it would be pretty unhelpful to those trying but struggling. The reason I have is that most people have lost fat before they just then tend to regain it.
Weight re gain and subsequent yo-yo dieting is so common. In fact, it’s the norm. BUT, if you tweak things early it doesn’t have to be.
Think of fat loss maintenance as like a thermostat.
You don’t want to wait until your house is FREEZING to turn the heating on or until you’re sweating to turn on the air con.
You adjust as you go to keep it within range.
The same is true for staying in shape. There will be times when your habits slip a little - rather than letting yourself regain a tonne of fat make the slight adjustments needed.
Not going to extremes on one end avoids it on the other too.. example..
If you don’t go into debt you’re less likely to make risky financial decisions to get out of debt or take out high interest loans etc.
If you don’t let yourself regain loads of weight then you’re less tempted by crash diets to quickly get it off which never end well.
Appreciate consistency but I mean REALLY appreciate consistency.
One poor choice alone didn’t make you gain weight. It was consistently poor choices over time that compounded.
You don’t need to do anything drastic to stay in shape. You need to make consistently decent choices most of the time.
Extraordinary results in a short period of time always require extraordinary sacrifice.
Have a strong BS radar for anything that seems too good to be true.
I know ‘get lean quick’ is tempting… it’s the same reason that people are tempted by get rich quick schemes. But if it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Anything that promises you abnormal returns will likely require abnormal risk - this is true for fat loss and for finance.
That’s all I have for today!
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