Why you aren’t losing weight…
Warning: Rant ahead!!
First of all, the diet industry does NOT want you to be successful. What they actually want is for you to continue buying their products. Most fat loss products are nutritionally unbalanced and some are downright dangerous. Think about teas, juice fasts and meal replacements and how popular they’ve become. Or even pills and supplements promising to burn fat… Give me a break!
The reality is, if you get great results, they will ask you to share your transformation pictures. Then you go back to what you were doing before and you gain that weight back, plus some more. So then you buy the product again. It’s the perfect business plan and NOT a good health plan. They do not care for your health, they do not care if you don’t get results. Or how long you maintained your weight loss. They are too busy looking to sell you the next round and are looking into the next fad so that they can create their next quick fix.
There is no solution here, just inflated promises and big marketing budgets.
Secondly, we are bombarded by images of models, happy looking couples and fitness competitors with six packs within ads for food and drink that they probably don’t go near. Of course they look happy, they’re getting paid to be in that advertisement! Have you ever seen an ad for any junk food or soft drink where the people were overweight and feeling crappy about themselves? No. These big companies want you to associate their product with being lean or happy.
We also have a blend of both the diet industry products, mixed with advertising by people we know, like or follow online. On social media, you need to understand that these fitness models are paid, or get a kickback, to promote these products. They probably lift weights twice a day, and the photos they are posting are from when they are at their leanest or their ‘peak season’. And if it’s not their peak season? They are posed, tensed, and it probably took many pictures to get the right shot. Each perfect (filtered, edited, photoshopped) ‘bod goals’ photo gives you an expectation that simply cannot be met by whatever product they are advertising. Results come from hard work in the gym, smart work in the kitchen and being consistent with both.
Then we get the groups that almost turn cult-like; diets. Oh, but you know someone who got amazing results on the paleo diet? Awesome, did you know they have probably fast tracked their way to a whole list of chronic diseases? You see, it can be difficult to assess overall health, because we can’t see what is happening on the inside.
Don’t get me wrong – if eating a certain way makes you feel good, then do that. But just know that because it worked for someone else, it does not mean it will work for you. A better way to decide what to eat is to look at what all diets have in common… Drink water and eat your fruits & veggies, right?
It’s so crazy, it might just work!!!
Most diets are restrictive, unrealistic and come with a lot of rules. If you combined them all you’d have to stop eating: carbs, meat, sugar, dairy, gluten, eating after 5pm, and whatever else. It’s no surprise that you are confused what is the right way to eat.
Enough is enough.
If you actually want to lose weight, stop looking for a quick fix.
“Yeah, I know”
No, you don’t.
Everything I wrote above, you already knew didn’t you?
“Yeap”
Wrong.
If you really did know it, you would have already lost that excess weight.
To lose weight, or more specifically, to lose fat, you need to:
1. Work hard in the gym. Join a group, hire a trainer, always put in 100%.
2. Eat smart in the kitchen. Eat loads of veggies. Keep a food diary and constantly assess where you can improve.
3. Celebrate your progress. Break your goals down into action steps. Set milestones and rewards to celebrate your progress.
4. Love your body, right now, exactly as it is. Appreciate what your body can do. Stop bashing how your body looks – kindness is more important than cellulite on your ass.
5. Be consistent with steps 1 to 4. You can’t eat once and for all, you can’t workout once and for all. Consistently show up and do a little better every day.
Ok, enough ranting. Let’s take it down a notch and reflect inwards.
To get the answers we need, we need to get out of our own head and listen to your heats.
Find somewhere quiet and sit down with a pen and paper. Ask yourself why you want to lose weight, and what you will do to achieve it. Ask yourself why what you have done in the past hasn’t worked, and why now is the time you need to get serious about it.
If you need help, reach out to me at contact@boxitout.com.au
Or if you prefer to get help within a group, join me online, free of charge, for four weeks here.
Deanna