How do I lose weight FOREVER?
You’ve decided you want to lose weight, but do you want to lose weight & keep it off FOREVER?
Or do you want to lose weight then keep regaining?
I hear from people over & over, stuck in that dieting cycle. Where you start off having the last supper, before you ‘go on the diet’. Clearing out your cupboards each time you ‘start again’, then feeling like you just have to stick it out until you get to your target…
Diets don’t work!
Unless your definition of ‘work’ is to just lose weight – yep any diet can help you do that. But how long will it last if you’re cutting out whole food groups or following strict rules? Do you really want to be cutting out your favourite foods forever?
Whatever you do to lose weight, needs to be forever.
What happens if you have those foods you’ve told yourself you’re ‘not allowed’? I’m guessing you’ll tell yourself you’ve been ‘naughty’, then you’ll feel guilty and end up eating more. Coz you’ve ‘blown it’, might as well keep eating right…?!
Dieting makes it worse in the long term.
There’s a better way.
Here’s my step by step guide to help you lose weight forever:
Step 1: Get clear on your goal – what do you want to achieve?
You might not want to lose weight at all and that’s fine. Remember it’s your life, your body, your choice. Think about how you want things to be better. Do you just want to get back to eating proper meals and stop the constant snacking? Do you want to feel comfortable in your clothes or be able to keep up with the kids/grandkids? Or is it that you want to feel in control of your eating instead of eating ALL of your emotions all the time?
Whatever it is, get specific. Ask yourself how you’ll know when you’re there. Imagine being able to write it down on a piece of paper and putting a tick box next to it. When will you know that you can tick that box?
Step 2: Use your ‘why’ to drive you.
Once you know where you want to be, ask yourself ‘why’. This is your motivation – so many people talk about not having motivation or willpower. If that’s all you focus on then nothing will change. But if you can focus on why you want to change then you can use that to help you take things step by step and keep it going.
Write a list of as many reasons as possible why you want to reach your target whatever that is. Keep asking yourself ‘why’, to give yourself as many specific reasons as possible. So instead of saying you want to lose a stone to be healthier – get specific about how your health will improve. Make sure your list of reasons are all YOUR reasons, otherwise it won’t help you. Your GP might be telling you to lose weight to help with a health condition, but if that doesn’t bother you, yet fitting into your favourite outfit is more important – then use that instead!
Step 3: Tweak your current habits
Make it easier for yourself. You don’t need to change everything or do anything drastic. It surprises a lot of my 1-2-1 clients how the little changes can add up over time – as long as you stick to them.
Get clear on what your normal day-to-day habits are then tweak them a little. You might think you have way too many things to change to improve your diet, but start with one thing. Ask yourself what’s the tweak that’d make the most difference and start there. It could be about aiming to eat regular balanced meals. It could be about planning your meals in advance – check out my Anti-dieting Meal Planner to help with this. Maybe you need to have more fruit & veg, drink more water or go to bed a little earlier. Just take the first step and if that step seems too difficult, break it down into smaller steps.
Step 4: Focus on building habits for life
Be prepared to change for life not just until get to your target. This is where dieting fails you and makes it worse in the long-term. Too often the plan you follow is too strict, but you think you’ll just do it to kick-start the weight-loss, then you’ll sort the rest out later on when you’re feeling motivated… That’s the wrong way round. The sooner you can get started on life changes, the more practice you get and the easier it is to turn the changes into new habits.
It all comes back to your day-to-day habits. Changing habits is HARD (under-statement!!!). Building new habits takes time, practice, patience and perseverance. You have to purposefully focus away from the dieting mentality of there being an end date or using dieting language like ‘I’m on a diet’ or ‘I’m slimming’ etc. Keep reminding yourself that you’re changing for life.
Step 5: Change your perspective
Be aware of those thoughts and beliefs that pop up to sabotage you. If you keep telling yourself that you can’t do something, you’re more likely to give up coz it feels too hard. Whereas if you focus on looking at the bigger picture and looking for solutions, then you’re more likely to keep going.
What’s the little voice in the back of your head saying? How can you argue against that little voice if it’s saying you can’t do it? Sometimes you can hold onto a belief so strongly you have blinkered vision so you can’t see the possibilities or solutions out there. How could you take a metaphorical step back from the situation and see what else you could do to help yourself? This is where talking it through with someone like a trusted friend, or someone like me who offers 1-2-1 support.
Remember whatever you do – you don’t need to do it all 100% perfectly, 100% of the time!
Ditch dieting forever – you deserve better.
Need help to ditch dieting forever?
Want to eat normally again AND lose weight healthily ..? While still enjoying the cake & chocolate? Hell yes!
I will help you ditch dieting forever, either with my 1-2-1 support. Or if you prefer to work independently, then learn all the skills I teach my 1-2-1 clients, on my ‘No More Diets’ online course.
My Weekly Round-up! AKA; what I’ve been up to recently…
- Tea of the week has randomly been bog-standard English tea-bags – I just don’t fancy anything else at the moment!
- I just about recovered from the double session of Aerial Hoop last week. My shoulders were sore from finally being able to do one of the moves I’d struggled to do before. So I’m glad I took it easy in the second session, especially as I did quite a bit of driving the next day. Only a little aching on the Saturday and it’d gone off by Sunday.
- Not only was I pretty sociable during the week last week, but I also went away for the weekend. I met up with 25 people I know from an online business group. I’d never met any of them in real-life before, although I’d spoken to some on video calls/social media. It was pretty nerve-wracking, but I’m glad I went, especially after embracing the hermit-life a little too much over the last few years. We rented out a youth hostel so we had the entire place just for us. There were some fab chats, a spot of perfume making and a belly-dancing taster. Plus walking along the River Thames, which seemed weird as I always think of the Thames only in London – whereas this was rural Berkshire! I took some chocolate brownies, which seemed to go down well too.
- I was super nervous about driving so far to somewhere I’d never been before. The drive down was really tiring, the weather wasn’t great for driving in to start with, then there were loads of queues on the M6. But I made it down there in one piece and managed the drive back ok too. I only had one minor detour as I went the wrong way on the A34, but realised straight away and it wasn’t far to get off and turn around. Feeling pretty proud of myself surviving both the driving and the socialising – definitely doing it again if I can!
- Bird Nerd Report: all weekend I kept seeing Red Kites, they were flying all round our youth hostel, which was pretty cool. I also saw a cormorant flying along the Thames while I was walking. Back home I keep seeing jays, at least a pair, sometimes 3 at the same time, down by the brook. I’m pretty sure that spring is now officially here as I’ve heard chiffchaffs singing for the first time this week – yay!
