You only need a parachute to skydive twice

You know those emails you receive from Aunt Mary with the cute sayings? Usually they tout “life through the eyes of a 5-year-old” or “signs with outrageous text – if you read it the right way.”

Well, I got one today with some very funny sayings in it. One really caught my eye:

You do not need a parachute to skydive.
You only need a parachute to skydive twice.

LimeLeaper

Now, there are many things I’d like to do twice – especially skydiving.

But, what about weight loss? Anyone want to do that twice?
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World’s Easiest Weight Loss Tip

The people of Okinawa eat until they’re 80% full. They even have a name for this naturally slimming habit: hara hachi bu. We can adopt this healthy habit by dishing out 20% less on our plates or leaving 20% behind.

80% Burger

Does it make you uncomfortable to leave food behind? I used to feel that way. I broke the habit (more…)

What I Like

One of my clients saw my last blog post. She said, “Pat, you don’t like any of the traditional weight loss formulas, do you?”

No, I don’t.

I don’t like them because they don’t work. Trying to follow them took years of effort and rendered me mind-numbingly incapable of success. When I threw them out the window, things started moving in a positive way in my life.
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M’am, Step Away from the Scale!

Being on a diet usually leads to fixation on the scale.

We are happy when it goes down, unhappy when it goes up, frustrated when it stays the same. (The truth is, any time it stays the same, we are winning, but few of us see it that way when we’re immersed in the struggle of dieting off excess weight.)

ScaleMmmm

Here are some basic facts. The body is made up of fat and non-fat (lean) tissue – this includes bone, muscle, organ tissue, interstitial and connective tissue. All of this lean tissue is mostly water – 73.2%.
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Keeping Quiet About Goals

If you’ve read my newsletter or this blog for very long, you know there are several instances where the so-called “weight loss experts” and I disagree.

One is the question of divulging goals. Just about every weight loss program, diet book or advice column will tell you to shout your goal from the rooftop.

But, when it came time to really (I mean REALLY) lose the excess weight for good, I didn’t tell a soul. It just didn’t seem necessary. I knew what I had to do. I knew no one could “get it” like it felt inside me. And I’d been sabotaged many times by supposed friends and family members.

So, I loved seeing this video:

Many of the clients who come to me for permanent weight loss coaching don’t talk much with others about their goals either. They’ve gotten serious enough to hire a coach, so they are truly committed. They are sometimes surprised they haven’t been running around telling people about this step in their life. They usually don’t feel the need to binge before coming to their first coaching call either, and that sometimes surprises them too!

But what is telling the whole world supposed to do actually? Invite the world to measure and judge us by our body weight? Shame us when we fail? Or simply open ourselves up to needless comments and interference?

When it’s for real, and it’s about true lifestyle change, I don’t think telling is helpful. At that point, the time for talk is over. It’s time to do.