by patbarone
Huge topic here. TRUST. In my role as on-air life coach for NBC-15 here in Madison, I spoke about trust this morning.
I’m interviewing potential students for the enLIGHTen Your Life! course, my mastermind permanent weight loss course, and I’ve heard several people make statements like “I’m afraid to try weight loss again. I can’t trust that I will lose weight and keep it off.”
When I ask them to explain, they mention trusting a diet, or a “plan.”
I like to gently point out that is not even a point of trust.
To lose weight and keep weight off, we only need to trust OURSELVES.
You have never failed at a diet.
I repeat: You have never failed at a diet.
Diets always fail and always will. If you’ve let the weight loss/regain process erode your trust, there’s a bigger issue here to address. If you’ve forgotten how to do that, come join the course!
Learning to trust is part of the process of re-educating ourselves for long-term success. Non-diet weight loss is so much easier than the alternative and leads to permanent weight loss because we create a new lifestyle and the kind of deeper change that has positive effect on behavior.
Why Trusting Ourselves is Important
- It’s up to us. We are responsible.
- Trust is essential to the process of developing natural eating and activity patterns based on your own, unique body cues.
- Attitude is the most important aspect of weight loss. This requires “rewiring” the circuits in the brain. It can be done and it helps establish or re-establish trust.
- To lose weight permanently, we have to learn to cut through subconscious emotions that sabotage progress; trust is vital to this process.
- Trust, once present, goes EVERYWHERE. You don’t just suddenly leave it at home one day and abandon your deepest wishes. It’s part of you, portable, accessible, and, therefore, powerful.
Think back to the times when you trusted yourself and really stepped into life.
Trusting may have felt a little wobbly at first. It’s a leap.
But the leaps in life are important – that’s where we get to show up and put it all on the line. That’s exciting and it’s memorable.
by patbarone
Today, I celebrate 12 years of sustained weight loss. If you are new to this blog, after years of yo-yo dieting, I set out to lose weight permanently. My initial weight loss of 74 pounds was an incredible journey for me, an education in life I never expected.
After losing that weight, I was determined to “keep” the results. I knew from my research that permanent weight loss is defined by the medical profession as weight loss sustained for 5 years and more. I also knew, sadly, it is very rarely achieved.
I had to keep learning and growing in order to maintain the weight loss. In the last two years, I’ve lost more weight. Today, I’m 92 lbs. lighter.
As I was thinking about this anniversary, it occurred to me that I got what I wanted. How many times can you say you got exactly what you wanted (and more) in life?
I don’t call it amazing anymore, because I know the work that was involved. It’s no miracle. I literally “grew myself up” out of food addiction. I found, for me, most addiction theories don’t work. To me, they just get a person addicted to a program, instead of freeing them from the addiction.
In essence, the entire medical and therapeutic community says, “You are damaged and will always be addicted. Here, be addicted to this, which we deem healthier, rather than that substance (food, alcohol, drug, sex).
That just didn’t work for me.
What I wanted was freedom. Freedom was a huge value and driver of my behavior. In fact, as a weight loss coach, it’s something I hear practically every day from a client, or two, or three.
“I just want to be free to eat what I want.”
It’s perhaps the most common derailer of the average diet, and why diets don’t work long-term. When I was in the throes of addiction, the minute anyone told me “you can’t eat that” or “at your weight, is that wise?”, you could be damned sure I was going to eat it! That’s the freedom value showing up.
Well, today, I am free. I’m free of the compulsivity of addiction, feeling as though my actions are occurring without my permission.
I am free of excess weight, which hindered my movement, my self-expression, my comfort in the world.
I’m free of a host of medical problems.
I’m free of my excess weight making, refusing or coloring decisions for me.
Once I grew up, I discovered huge gifts: Choice. Opportunities. Meaning. Connection. Self-esteem. Love.
And true freedom.
by patbarone
I saw this on facebook last week:
For breakfast… one of the items on the menu read: “2 eggs, potato pancakes with applause.” While applesauce is traditional with potato pancakes, some clapping might be tasty too!
I think I posted something like this in reply: (more…)
by patbarone
Working out at the gym today, I heard a personal trainer tell her client, “If you want to lose weight, you just gotta learn to deprive yourself!”
Oh, brother!
I used to be surprised when a “fitness professional” said stupid things. Now, I don’t even blink. (more…)
by patbarone
In a week that saw Karl Lagerfeld attack singer Adele for her weight, and Golden Globe winning actress Octavia Spencer announce she didn’t feel healthy at her weight, I had four clients encounter the madness of the medical profession about weight issues.
There’s never been a time when there seems to be more controversy about weight. Is it really “bad” or unhealthy to be overweight? Although it’s a common part of the entertainment industry, does it serve any purpose to call someone out for their size, shape or appearance?
Is Your Doctor Helping or Hurting You?
On one hand, it makes sense that there’s a wide range of healthy but, on the other, does the HAES (Health At Every Size) movement help? EVERY SIZE? Yes, we can all get healthier, no matter what our size, but it’s simply not true that you can be healthy at ANY size. (more…)
