5 Life Lessons that will Help You Achieve Weight Loss

What was on your New Years’ Resolution list this year?  Are you making successful attempts towards finding your solution to your resolution?  Many of us didn’t even make plans to change our behaviors for 2012.  Why not?  Perhaps because we have failed in the past and are more focused on the things that we have had success with?  Let’s face it, no one feels good about failing.  Many of my clients come to me with one goal in mind - to lose weight.  I work with hundreds of successful, career-oriented people, but for some reason when they attempt to lose weight, they fail.  Weight loss is suddenly a foreign language to them.  In fact, over 65% of the U.S. population has failed at reaching a healthy body weight.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than one billion adults are overweight and at least 300 million of them are clinically obese.  Worse yet, an estimated 17.6 million children under five are estimated to be overweight.  To learn more about the health consequences and costs associated to being overweight, visit http://www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/gs_obesity.pdf.  As a wellness professional, I have been committed to helping people stay motivated to reach their weight loss goals.  I speak from years of experience working with overweight individuals and from a point of view when I too was overweight.  It wasn’t until I established a new thought pattern that I actually succeeded with achieving a healthy body weight.

Why is it so hard? 

I used to ask myself this question over and over.  There are so many reasons/excuses on why we can’t lose weight.  “I have to put my children first,”  “My spouse doesn’t support me,” “I’m stuck in meetings all day and am forced to eat the donuts they bring us,”  “I hate to sweat,” “I can’t afford a gym membership,”  “I’m just getting old and my metabolism has slowed down,” “I don’t like the cafeteria food so I have to eat fast food…” And the list goes on for miles. 

I’m here to tell you, “STOP!”  Stop the negative affirmations and stop focusing on all the reasons why you cannot lose weight.  Did you doubt yourself when you wanted to obtain a successful career or job?  Did you make excuses?  Is it human nature to be our own worst enemy and no matter how large or small our goal, we set ourselves up for failure?  Even if we get off to a great start and are highly motivated, about a week or so into the journey, we can easily fall of course. 

The following life lessons will help get your mind focused on goal setting.  This material will come as little surprise, but it will get you one step closer to your weight-loss goal. 

Lesson 1:  Let go of the negative self-talk

If you continue to tell yourself, “I’m too fat,” or “I just can’t lose wait,” then that’s exactly what you will let yourself become and you will never be healthy. Instead replace negative affirmations with positive affirmations.  Sounds simple.  Good.  Then take Nike’s advice and, “Just Do it!”  Every time you catch yourself saying something negative, immediately stop and say, “I am one step closer to my goal because I took the stairs today.”  Or whatever – you fill in the blank. 

Lesson 2:  Identify your support system

Often clients tell me they cannot reach their goal because their peers or family have poor health habits and don’t support them.  I coach the client to have a heart-to-heart with the people they are closest too by explaining to them that they really need their help.  If you truly want to do something for yourself, the ones that love you will support you – you simply have to approach them seriously and tactfully.  If the unfortunate event occurs and they do not support you, but instead try to sabotage you, start to reach out to other people in your life that will help you.  We all don’t have the luxury of having a personal trainer, dietician or chef, but we all can find at least one person that will lift us up when we doubt ourselves.  Have this person on speed dial and don’t hesitate to use him or her as a crutch when the going gets tough. 

Lesson 3:  Set a specific goal that you can measure that is realistic.

“I want to tone-up” or “I want to get in better shape” does not define this lesson.  For example write down, “I will lose five pounds in one month by exercising two days a week and eating healthfully and mindfully through the reflection of my food journals.”  Big difference!  I recommend you to write your goal down on paper and place this vision sheet in a visible area that you recite everyday.  If you have over 10 pounds to lose, create sub-goals.  Build non-food rewards for yourself once you meet your goals.  The goals must be S.M.A.R.T. – Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed.  If you do not reach your goal in the time frame you created, try again.  Reassess your goal.  Perhaps you were a little too aggressive.  It’s better to start smaller and succeed, than to start off larger, with an unrealistic goal and fail. 

Lesson 4:  Create an “Accomplishment List”

Write out everything that you are proud to have accomplished over the past year…or even five years.  Brag out yourself to yourself!  Although being overweight can define your health, it does not define you as a person.  You are far more significant than a number on the scale or your BMI (body mass index).  Place your accomplishment list in a separate place from your vision list.  I like to have mine pop-up from time to time on my Outlook calendar.  It helps me remember that I have many things in my life to be grateful for…and so should you.

Lesson 5:  Put it in motion.

It’s now time to make your goal reality.  Start by documenting your experiences and then share them with me and others on my blog.  I want to see some results!  Let’s work together to take an active role in decreasing the overweight and obesity epidemic on a global level. 

Best in health,

 

Aubrey Worek

B.S. Exercise Science

Certified Health & Fitness Specialist with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)

Certified Member of the Aerobics & Fitness Association of America (AFAA)

Owner of Wellness Solutions at Work, Inc. (WSW).  To learn more about WSW programs, visit my website at www.wellnesssolutionsatwork.com.