What do you want your body to look like?

You probably already know that I don't care how much you weigh — and neither should you. It's a pointless metric that doesn't have anything to do with what you really want. 

You want your body to look different. 

That's what "comfortable in my skin" really means. 

That's what "confident in my body" really means. 

You want your body to be a smaller, tighter, leaner version of what it is now. 

Great! Now that we've established that...

What is the dream outcome? 

Would you like to look the way you did in your 20s or 30s? 

Because you probably won't. 

Your skin has changed. Your musculature has changed. And, since you are no longer in the peak of your reproductive years, your body fat pattern has changed. 

Bodies change as they get older. 

Clinging to the vision of Younger You is going to be continuously discouraging. Every day you'll look in the mirror and, when you don't see the Younger You looking back, you'll think you're failing. 

And when you feel like you're failing, you'll quit. 

And if you quit, you won't lose any weight. 

(And, just to close the loop: quitting before you've lost any weight will perpetuate the myth that "nothing works.")

We need to get clear on what you want your body to look like so that you can more reasonably manage your expectations of outcome. 

If you reach for an impossible goal you'll feel perpetually discouraged by it, and/or you'll need to become an obsessed person to try to get even close to it... and if you're like me, you don't want to be obsessed about your food or body at this stage of your life. 

You must gently revise what you envision your "dream body" looking like.

These are reasonable body shape goals.

And we need to start there.