What’s keeping you from successful weight loss? Sometimes it’s not just the food you eat and how much you exercise. For most people, the main issue is how they view food, exercise, and themselves.
Not very ambitious expectations
The biggest stressors in life stem from failing to achieve desired goals. Right now, you want to lose 2 pounds a week. Why would you set this goal? The answer is to set realistic expectations. Most people who are 18 to 40 pounds overweight can lose 1 to 2 pounds per week if they are skilled in weight loss techniques (but we don’t always master these techniques, more on that later). You may be excited and want to tackle everything at once, and it’s not that simple and should be understood how to lose weight wisely.
You might say, “Peeke, that’s too slow. I want to go a little faster.” Well, then, you need to take some pain. By taking some shortcuts, I can guarantee you’ll get an unwanted result. So-called shortcuts bring bad results, while patience makes you progress.
Be flexible and have a replacement plan
Now, let’s talk about what to do when you’re not good at losing weight. Life is full of randomness. Maybe you’re doing great and you’ve lost 10 of the 40 pounds you want to lose. Then life hits you hard. Mom gets sick, your husband gets depressed or you’re experiencing serious distress at work. There are always difficulties in life, so be prepared. If you are prepared, you will be better prepared to deal with the difficulties. The people who do the best job of maintaining a healthy weight are the ones I call “flexible.
How flexible are you?
How can you be flexible? First, be prepared to start multiple times. Maybe you do well this week, but then winter comes and kills the plan to work out outdoors. When this happens, don’t feel desperate, helpless, and devastated. You should come up with backup plans A, B and C. A is great, B is okay and C is not so great, but it will work. Plan C is for people who have lost their courage and fallen apart during Plan A. They find that they have been trying to make a lifestyle change. They find that the lifestyle change they’ve been hoping for is impossible to achieve.
Your worst enemy is yourself
People always have too much negativity. One of my patients is a lawyer in downtown Washington, married to another lawyer, and they have 3 children. You can imagine how coordinated she is in dealing with things. When she came to me last year, she was 165 cm tall and 220 pounds, but only 44 years old. She was out of shape but started to take action and worked with me on a weight loss program and lost 2-5 pounds a month and currently weighs 178 pounds. She still has a long way to go, but she has lost 48 pounds! Now the whole person looks new. But do you know what she said to me? Not “What an accomplishment,” but, “Oh my God, why did it take me so long?”
She completely missed the point. I don’t care if it took her 25 years, the point is that she lost 48 pounds. She never bounced back, even though she hit stagnation several times. At her most stressful times, she didn’t gain weight either. I reminded her of this, “I had no idea I was even thinking this way,” she said. Don’t let yourself be defeated! When I train Olympic athletes, I ask them how they get through a bad day or week. Invariably, they never let themselves get beaten. They accepted what happened and overcame it.
Talk to yourself
To do this, replace negative self-talk with positive self-talk. Come up with your own reasons, and an inspiring quote. Sometimes I tell myself, “Today sucks, but girl, it’ll pass, you’re doing great,” and find something to say to myself, something that is just for me.
Another patient of mine was at high risk of developing diabetes, and her blood sugar levels and cholesterol levels were so high that she was scared. But that fear only lasted for a while. In the morning, she was very motivated to lose weight, but by 3 p.m., she was in a vending machine with a lot of snacks to choose from.
I said, “You’ve told me about your health risks and diabetes, but obviously that doesn’t motivate you. Tell me something that really touches you.” She said, “My mother told me one day that if I continued to gain weight, I would have to start shopping at Tentmaker’s in Omar. I owned this beautiful Armani suit (size 12) that I couldn’t fit into.”
So when it’s around 3 p.m., she goes for snacks at the vending machine, but the driving force behind her choice of healthy or unhealthy snacks isn’t diabetes or cholesterol, it’s Armani suits. If you choose to eat right, the answer is Armani suits. If you eat a lot, the answer can only be Omar, who is moving away from diabetes through her desire for Armani suits. That’s one of Dr. Peek’s “practical” guidelines. Health is important, but you have to make it more personal. It may be superficial, but for her it’s worth it.
There’s never a moment of “purpose”
.
Just because you’ve lost 24 pounds and you’re at your goal weight doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels. If you’re thinking, “I’m normal now,” then I have new information. Normal means you have to keep eating healthy and exercising every day. The exercises will get easier, but you have to recognize the need to keep doing them, there is no room for negotiation, it’s just another step into a new lifestyle and you will get better and better.