When we think about why we want to lose weight, we have to ask ourselves a few questions. The first is why are we overweight? This is actually a question that very few of us have really answered for ourselves. Most of us put it out of our mind, try to wear the clothes that hide the extra weight, and chalk it up to an excuse such as menopause or getting older.
But if we want to get to goal weight, we really need to answer the question, with an accurate answer, of why we are overweight. The only reason that any of us are overweight is that we eat more food than our body needs. We can say we have a slow metabolism, or it's menopause, or our hormones but it's because we eat more than our body needs. So then the question becomes, "why" do we do that.
We have to dig deeper. In fact, I recommend you ask yourself why about "7 times" to get to the real answer. I'll give you my answers 1. Why am I overweight -> Because I eat too much. 2. Why do I eat too much? -> Because I go out to eat a lot. 3. Why does going out to eat a lot lead to eating too much? -> I avoid making sensible choices when I am out. 4. Why do I avoid making sensible choices when eating out? -> I don't want to deprive myself. 5. Why don't you want to deprive yourself-> I feel deprived in other areas of my life and get my pleasure from this. (or why would I feel deprived?-> Am I always supposed to eat all the things when eating out?) 6. Why do I feel deprived in other areas of my life?-> I don't make an effort to reward myself. How do I deprive myself? 7. How can you reward yourself so that I no longer feel deprived ->
What actions steps can I take to reward myself? ACTION STEPs: Look in local art center brochure for an art class that would be enjoyable. Aim for 1 hour of downtime per day doing fun, non-eating work related activities. Unfortunately, one of the major reasons many of us overeat, which really has nothing to do with us, is our environment.
Food companies make money when we buy their product and many have become like cigarette companies used to be, strategically planning to make their \ products as irresistible and addictive as possible to get us to buy their product, with little concern for our health.
We have processed foods all around us, and marketed to us, and these have caused obesity rates and chronic disease to skyrocket. It's actually the blight of our modern age, and will cripple and bankrupt us if we are not careful. It may be too late to avoid those outcomes in terms of public health in fact. But that's a discussion for another time.
What I wanted to talk about in this video was everything that is INTERNAL to us.
Here's how the usual path of weight loss goes: 1. We find a new plan or approach, for example BestShape50.
2. We are all excited and start losing weight.
3. Then a couple of different things will happen.
a. Because we are not eating as much, we start feeling emotions that we don't typically feel because we have been stuffing them down with food. OR
b. Our life will throw a random problem at us that we will use as an excuse to go off track OR
c. We do everything we should and our body adapts to weight loss, we stall and we tell ourselves nothing works. Instead of making a few additional tweaks, we go back to our old eating patterns and put back on any weight we lost.
Weight loss is really tricky!! No?
What we need to focus on with BestShape50 or any lifelong weight loss plan is to make our life so enjoyable and fulfilling that we do not need to use food (or anything else to escape it). First we must allow rather than resist our negative feelings without eating off plan. We can't expect to be happy and joyous all the time.
In fact, about 50% of the time we can expect positive emotions, and the other 50% will be negative. So, that's step 1, allowing, feeling and living with our emotions as they occur without overeating or going off plan. The second thing that is "internal", although it doesn't seem like it, is that life throws "problems" at us. Some of these problems are of our own making and some are not. Whether we caused our problems or not, we need to not be victims. Something may or may not be our fault, but everything in our life is our responsibility of how we look at it and what we choose to make it mean.
Join the next BestShape50 FREE 7-Day Challenge! BestShape50.com/challenge
The next challenge is starting soon. For 7 days, the challenge will be to follow along with the BestShape50 weight loss plan.
- Commit to eating no sugar and no flour
- Eat twice a day between an 8-hour window
- Prep your food for the week on Day 1
- Plan your food every morning
- Weigh every morning
Come and join us! BestShape50.com/challenge
