Weight Loss Is a Journey Not a Battle

What words do you associate with your weight loss efforts? If you’re like most people words like control, struggle and frustration have probably peppered your thoughts at some point. It’s little wonder how most of us have come to view our weight loss as a battle instead of the journey that it is.

Compounding the problem are many well-meaning but misguided health professionals “declaring war” on our expanding girth and flooding the market with even more information, advice, products, plans and programs that don’t translate into lasting results.

Why aren’t these approaches working? Because the very paradigm or model they were created from is fundamentally flawed. They typically view weight loss as an issue to be conquered or a fight to be won and claim all you need are the right tools or arsenal. Take this pill, follow this diet, do this exercise…

But what if you replaced the word control with consciousness? The word struggle with ease? And the word frustration with learning? Now you have a model for a weight loss journey and all that it offers — curiosity, discovery, growth and much more.

Consciousness is about awareness of your internal environment (your perceptions, thoughts, feelings and sensations) and your external environment (your situation). Some people may think they already have a lot of awareness regarding their weight but the truth is they likely pay a lot of attention to their weight, which is not the same thing. These people often do a lot of measuring and tracking but they have very little insight about their weight.

Developing awareness requires powerful questioning — asking the right question of yourself at the right moment — to lead you to deeper insights. A life coach is trained to stimulate your curiosity through questioning and to help you discover these insights. These insights are important for identifying your individual needs and tapping into your unique resources in dealing with your weight.

Ease and Learning are about relaxing and simply observing your behaviours. When you relax into a situation — especially a weight loss setback — you release your “inner critic” and enable your “objective observer”. For every observation, there’s a lesson to be learned. A life coach is experienced at helping you keep your inner critic in check while developing successful strategies from your lessons learned.

The first step in redefining your weight loss efforts is choosing a different paradigm or model to operate from.

You can imagine your current model as trying to walk up the “down” escalator all your life because it’s the only way you’ve been shown to get to the level above. And every pill, diet or exercise you’ve tried has no doubt felt like the uphill battle this is.

Now imagine being introduced to the “up” escalator, a totally different model. It offers a sense of ease you’ve probably never associated with your weight loss before. And the best part? The journey to the next level will be much more enjoyable.