Why is Weight Loss so hard?
Let’s be direct: Our lives revolve around food. Food is an essential ingredient to keeping us alive. Food is fuel for our bodies so we can perform our daily tasks – both mentally and physically. But food has become to mean more than just basic survival.
When I grew up, in my little village in East Germany, food was purchased at a store or grown in the garden, taken home (or into a restaurant kitchen) and prepared. Food was consumed at a table with others, often at set times, or prepped and packaged up to go.
Food, how we use it, how we consume it, and the meaning it has for our life, has changed.
- Food is often at the center of meetings and special events.
- Through food we learn about different cultures, customs and traditions.
- Preparing food is a way to creatively express our love and care for ourselves and others.
- Food is a lifestyle and part of an identity for many; i.e. plant-based, carnivore, paleo.
- Food is also an accessory to fashion. Think: going shopping with coffee cup in hand
- Eating happens on-the-go – thanks to the portability of many packaged foods.
- The food we consume is provided to us by large corporations. They make sure we have access everywhere and anytime, and they tell us what we should eat. Food, therefore requires little planning or thinking – others have done that for us.
The purpose of food has shifted – from solely providing energy for our busy bodies, to also offering a sense of pleasure and comfort in times of need. Easy access to food makes it easy to consume food. Food is often more readily available than a close friend, so we use it not only to satiate our hunger but also our emotions. Food becomes a filler for all sorts of gaps in our life. And despite the millions of diets out there, we seem to still have some old and rigid concepts around food and drink that often play out like this:
- Breakfast happens in the mornings; lunch around noon; dinner in the evenings
- Birthdays are celebrated with cake
- Alcohol is cool (and normal)
- Snacking between meals is critical to survial
- When you say NO to sweets, someone surely will say “Come on, you only live once.”
- Its still widely accepted to eat cereal, pop tarts, and donuts for breakfast even though these are filled with cancer-causing incredients and reap havoc in our bodies.
- When we diet, we need to restrict ourselves. But only temporarily.
This is why weight loss is so hard.
Food has made its way into almost all areas of our life (thankfully we cannot yet eat while we are sleeping, otherwise we might). Food is connected to our social life and our work (many companies now cater food regularly). Food plays a role when we decide where and how we want to live, vacation, and retire. For some people food determines who they choose as their partner (another vegan, for example).
Food is so integrated into our life that it is easy to over-consume. On the flip side, trying to keep food at bay, becomes a chore. One problem leads to another. We fall prey to the promises of strict diets and intense exercise programs, only to crumble because we can’t uphold the rigor they require. The feeling of failure makes us quit completely and we swing back to the other extreme of overeating.
Our life with food requires a reset. Our relationship with food is not found on either extreme but somewhere in the middle, with balance. How do we get there?
In our coaching sessions together, you will
- create awareness around the role food plays in your life currently;
- decide what relationship you want with food, your body, and your environment;
- set the GPS directions for your destination and make a commitment to get there, and
- prepare and train your mind so it becomes an ally to your journey.
And we will approach everything with love, kindness and appreciation for the person you are, the body you are born with and the life you desire for yourself. This is the only way you can achieve the long-term success most diets and intense exercise programs fail to provide; because they are not sustainable.
Weight loss is hard when done alone. You might be totally committed to reach a certain weight or fitness goal, but when life throws challenges your way, you give up.
With a coach, we work through those obstacles. We will adjust, try different strategies, and check in along the way. You have a partner with me. I will hold you accountable. I will challenge you to strive for your best, something we rarely do for ourselves.
On this journey, you will get to know yourself in a major way – your thoughts and emotions, your habits and routines, how you buffer and avoid, over-consume and under-feel, what is hard and what is easy for you, what are you willing to commit to and what are you unwilling to give up.
Losing weight may be your initial goal, but with the foundation we are building in our time together, you can reach any other goal you set for yourself. The process is the same.
Group Field Trips
The best way to become aware of our food environment and how it impacts our weight loss goals is to immerse ourselves. We spend half a day together in a urban neighborhood, engaged in deep conversation, quiet observation, learning new tools, and making connections with others on the same journey. Focus areas are:
Food awareness
Self Awareness
Decision Awareness
Take the First Step
. A lot of problems linger around in our lives due to lack of responsibility. Nobody is taking ownership of the issue, so they get free reign to make our life miserable. Its easy to think that we are at the mercy of an event that we can’t control. Sometimes we try to throw our problems at others, but blaming does not resolve the issue. Beating ourselves up doesn’t do anything either.
I love the idea that we are either WINNING in life, or we are LEARNING. Failure is learning. And obstacle is an opportunity to learn. What does learning look like? We find solutions. We take responsibility. We try again.
Hiring a coach is taking ownership for the areas in your life that aren’t making you happy.
It is empowering to say “I am not where I want to be” AND to do something about it.
I invite you to take charge and take responsibility for yourself. You are the only person that can.
And I will help you get where you want to go.