Yes, many people want to lose weight. But WHY do they want to lose weight?
People get confused and mix up their means goals with their end goal.
Meaning, they believe their goal is just to lose weight. But WHY??? Losing weight
is the means goal. To what end?
There is always a reason, or an end goal, and it always has to do with how you
think achieving the means goal will make you feel. So, how will losing weight
make you feel? Happy, sexy, confident, content, energetic, what? It could be any
of those or one that I didn’t list. But find out what your real END goal is and then
backtrack from there.
For instance, if your goal is to be happy, then think about how you are going about
this. Ok, so losing some weight may make you feel happy, but believe me when I
say that it depends on how you go about it.
Say you want to lose 10 pounds in a week. You may be able to do it, but you will
be miserable at the end of the week. You would have to deny yourself a lot of food,
you’d be very hungry which would then make you cranky and possibly mess with
your hormonal levels which then just makes you feel all sorts of different angsty
pangs of disconnect and yuckiness (not to mention this presses the ON button for
future health issues). If you screw up your hormones enough you will
break out, create other skin issues, and lose some hair also. Sound fun? How about
your bowels? Oh yeah, you can mess those up good, too. Ouch and YUCK. And btw-
if you lose the weight that fast, it’s pretty likely you will gain it all back even faster, and then
some. Fun, right?
So then, go a little deeper. What is your end goal? Yes, you can use losing weight
as a means to reach it, but let me suggest something that’s just WAY out there…
How about shifting your focus to living a healthier lifestyle? I know, radical, right?
The truth is, for as long as I’ve been in this biz (since 1997) I have seen again and
again that being healthy just doesn’t seem to be a strong motivator. People would
rather lose weight and be miserable and gain it all back again. From my point of
view it looks like most people are missing the point. It just looks plain weird. I’m
pretty sure it has to do with the human desire, at least in our culture, for instant
gratification. If we can find a way to circumvent that, then we might actually be able
to reach and KEEP these goals AND be happy, too!
So, how to do it? Focus on HEALTH vs WEIGHT LOSS. Hear me out on this.
IF you focus on your health, you are doing lots of nice things to
your body, including but not limited to getting and keeping your hormones at healthy
stable levels. Once you have maintained a healthy hormonal level for about a month
you will notice that your body starts to readjust. Your skin improves, all body functions
improve, your mood improves and you’re just plain happy. I’m not talking jumping around
and singing every moment of every day (unless you want to!), but I mean more like just
an overall sense of peace and contentment. Take my word for it, it’s nice!
Not only that, but once you begin to maintain a healthy lifestyle, part of your body’s
readjustment will be that it will automatically drop any excess weight. Yes, it’s true!
Chances are that some of that extra stuff you’re carrying around has to do with one
of the following: hormonal imbalance, crappy eating, or not exercising. Maybe you’ve
got all three going on.
So how do you begin? Just by acknowledging that this is a lifestyle choice, not a
week long experiment. Then figure out what you want your first step to be. Just pick
one action step and then take it. Pick the one that is easiest for you to begin with.
Here are some suggestions to start with. Replace your sugary snack with a piece of
fruit, take an exercise class, get 8 hours of sleep, drink 8 glasses of water, replace
white bread with whole grain. Pick one of those or maybe one I didn’t list and make
it into a habit. Then pick another. Then another. Keep adding on slowly. It is safe
and healthy to lose up to 2 pounds per week. And this is also the best way to maintain
the weight loss.
Most importantly, enjoy the journey and know that you are being wonderful to
yourSelf!!!
If you would like further guidance, you can always hit me up for a FREE strategy
session! Fill out this questionnaire: http://mirzukfitness.com/mirzuk-fitness-questionaire/
I can only take 1-3 of these per week, so fill it out asap to get on the list!
Your Fitness Coach,
Miranda Zukowski