People engaged in the weight loss and weight gain battle often have a number in their head. It is either a number on the scale or a clothing size. The battle sheds a lot of blood. For many people, this battle is a struggle. It challenges their self-worth. They give up when they aren’t perfect only to shame themselves in to starting again. I think so much of this could be avoided if you stopped focusing on a number, stopped viewing weight loss a permanent solution to your happiness and stopped trying to change so rapidly that you saw results yesterday. Let me explain. When we focus on the number on the scale, for example, we get too caught up in what it says. We can never win. If it is lower, it is usually never low enough to satisfy us and when it is higher, everyone better watch out because this is not going to be a pleasant day! We start to live and die by what a little box on the floor tells us to feel. The reality is that the number on the scale vacillates wildly throughout the day. Instead, focus on getting your body to a place that it feels better. Focus on victories and changes that have nothing to do with a scale. On the issue of happiness, I have had client after client tell me that they will be happy as soon as they lose weight. Good plan in theory and it may be true to a point, but you take your emotional garbage with you no matter what your body looks like. By addressing the emotional barriers that lead to emotional eating and weight gain, you actually can be happy. It doesn’t mean that you can’t make changes in your body and eventually focus on weight loss, but you can be happy before you ever get to that point. For many people, it feels like they would be giving up if they accept themselves as they are. Exactly the opposite. You can’t change your body in this moment, so why spend so much energy hating something you can’t change? That energy would be much better spent on other things that might actually get you where you want to be! Focus on realistic changes. Recognize that the journey will probably be longer than you would like, but if you start today, it will be faster than if you start next week. You have been fighting in this battle for so long. I’m sure you are exhausted! What if you changed your battle plan? What you have been doing isn’t working, so what do you have to lose?
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