What the what? Yes, I said it – weight loss on fast food! I know you’ve been taught that losing weight means giving up all the foods you love and never eating fast food, junk food, comfort food again. But what if that’s not true?
This week I want to tell you a new story about a client of mine who lost weight on fast food. When this client came to me, she was crystal clear: She did not want to give up all her favorite foods and live a life of deprivation. She didn’t like to plan, cook, or meal prep and she wasn’t interested in doing any of that to lose her weight. She ate out regularly, and Chick-Fil-a was a regular part of her routine. She wasn’t sure what I’d say or how I was going to help her, but she wanted to be clear where her boundaries were.
No problem.
Seriously, I had no problem with anything she said. Actually, I was glad to find out that she was clear on what she wanted to create for herself. Knowing where to start and where my clients actually are is a crucial part of being able to coach successfully. We spent the first session assessing where she was starting and helping her set up some guidelines she felt were going to be useful to her around her eating. No plans were made to change her actual diet.
She lost 6 pounds before our next session.
This is the power of coaching. When you become aware of what you’re creating in your life, you get to make decisions. Most of us are unaware of how our thinking is creating the results we have in our lives – we just don’t like those results. We don’t like that our jeans don’t fit, or that the mirror is telling a story we don’t like, or that the number on the scale is higher than it’s ever been. We don’t make the connection between our thinking and our results.
Awareness is the first step.
Over the course of time, my client continued to lose weight. I never did prescribe her a diet. That’s what weight loss coaching is not. Now, I can create an eating plan for anyone – that’s why I studied holistic nutrition and lifestyle medicine! I troubleshoot for my clients when they run into obstacles around their eating style all the time. What I don’t do is tell people what to eat. Why not?
Because it doesn’t work. No one likes a bunch of rules. You know I’m right – your teen rebels against rules and so do you. You don’t like to be micromanaged at work, right? Why? Because you want to make your own decisions. And with eating, you absolutely must make your own decisions. If you choose to follow a diet, you’ll probably be successful as long as you follow the diet to the letter. But eventually, you will “fall off the wagon”, make exceptions, cheat the diet, or whatever you want to call it. And when you stop following the diet, whatever you used to do creeps back in. A diet doesn’t change your thinking about food – it just changes your actions around food. If you haven’t changed your thinking as you lose weight, your default thinking creeps back in as soon as you stop the diet. What do you get if you do what you’ve always done? You get the same result you’ve always gotten. And that is why most people regain weight after they stop a diet.
You have a unique life and you have to be able to own your choices. Giving the responsibility of your weight loss over to a diet takes away your power, but owning each choice you make around food is how you take your power back.
Having a coach helps you do exactly that.
You can do this! And if you know you’re ready to take charge of your thinking and you want me to coach you, email me at drandreachristanparks@gmail.com. We’ll set up a consultation and get you started. You don’t have to do this alone!
Here’s your video help for the week!