My Weight Loss Regret: I Wish I Knew THIS Sooner!

I struggled with the same 10 or 15 lbs before I made one major change that allowed me to get to the weight that I wanted with a lot less effort, rather than yo-yo dieting.

I always had a strong idea of what good and bad foods were. So I avoided all junk foods as much as possible.

But I always had a thing for a chocolate and for ice cream, so it wasn’t always easy.

Your Relationship With Food

One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to develop a healthy relationship with food.

This is something that I work with most of my clients on. Because for some reason through this weird society, a lot of us don’t have a great relationship with food.

It really felt like I had to use a lot of willpower to avoid those foods I really loved.

My Weight Loss Regret With Yo-Yo Dieting

There was always the feeling that I was on a diet where I was trying to get leaner or I was off the diet and then I was binging all the time. So it was either one or the other.

I had have a period of time, let’s say six to 8 weeks. I would eliminate all junk foods. Everything! I wouldn’t allow myself any of that. I only ate healthy “clean foods”. Eventually the cravings would overtake me for my favourite foods and I would binge and binge and binge.

Then I would be like,”this is disgusting, I feel horrible, I’m going to go clean again!”

That lasted you know a month or two and then again I would be back into it this is a very common pattern obviously of yo-yo dieting.

I was successful in taking the weight off and then I would gain it back again.

Many people constantly fight with that last 10lbs that they’re trying to lose.

Depending on how strict they’re able to be.

The Role Of Food In Our Lives

Food is a comfort for us. And food is an important part of our social experience as well. So it’s very difficult to just take that out of the equation. It often doesn’t work.

And I don’t think that you should. I think you need to experience food and enjoy it.

This whole pattern of overeating and the terminology that most of my clients use when they describe having the same experience is “All or Nothing”.

It’s probably the most damaging way that you can look at your weight loss process.

“I’m either on the diet or off the diet.”

“I’m either starting a diet or stopping a diet.”

“The diet starts on Monday.” 

So that’s an excuse to eat all weekend.

That’s the reason why many people never find a way of eating that works for them.

They’re unhappy with where they’re at.

Fad Diets Dangers

You’re constantly hearing about these fad diets that you should be on to get the results that you want.

And you might try them and be successful for a short period of time, because you’re restricting yourself. You might be able to just stick it out for a little while, like I did.

Then eventually you give up because the diet was never right for you in the first place.

What you actually need is something that’s quite close to what you’re doing now. It includes many of the foods that you’re eating now. But it just includes more of them in terms of more fruits and vegetables, maybe it’s more water, and fewer highly processed refined foods (calorie dense foods) that most people call “junk foods”.

I just call them “treat foods” because that’s part of that positive relationship with food.

I want to look at them positively.

That’s a key ingredient in what I aim to teach my clients.

How To Break The Diet Cycle

That cycle of diet, overeating, diet, overeating can be broken if you allow yourself to enjoy the foods that you enjoy. You give yourself permission to have them as part of your plan.

You can work things out so that you can be in a calorie deficit and be losing fat but also enjoy small amounts of your favourite foods.

Exercise And Fat Loss

A lot of people make the mistake of also relying on exercise in order to burn off calories. Not only is that a negative relationship with exercise, in that sometimes people use it as a punishment for overeating or just for eating particular foods.

“I ate too much on my holiday I need to spend a lot of time running or I need to go to the gym spend hours there in order to make up for the damage that I did.”

That’s not a great way of looking at it using.

Exercise is really difficult anyway because it doesn’t burn off as many calories as you think.

If you get ill or injured or you get so busy that you just don’t have time to exercise regularly you’re going to have a harder time maintaining your weight.

Focus On Nutrition For Fat Loss

That’s why it’s always best to manage your diet first.

Nutrition has a greater impact on fat loss. If you have the right relationship with food where you can enjoy your diet and create one that works for you, you’ll never feel the need to go on or off your diet.

You won’t be stuck in this All or Nothing mentality where it’s:

“I’m working out every day and I’m eating perfectly or I’m lying on the couch and constantly eating.”

It doesn’t have to be either of those things. There is a happy middle.

That’s what I want you to find.

The one thing that I want to add is that initially there may be foods that are trigger foods that you may need to avoid. You can’t have them in the house. It’s actually is a good weight loss strategy to not have those foods in the house for most people. Or have them hidden up on a high shelf. But in some cases even that doesn’t work. And you can’t always not have them in the house, especially if you live with other people who may want to consume them.

That’s probably a whole other discussion there.

Do you relate to this idea of all or nothing?