Can Coaching Help With Weight Loss?
I’ve been working with (mostly) women for over 20 years. In that time I’ve never met a woman who’s said to me
“I love my body”.
Let that sink in.
NOT ONCE in my entire professional career of working with thousands of women, have I encountered a woman who is happy with her body. I’ve met a few who are neutral about it, but each and every one of them worked hard to get to neutral.
I point this out because I think it’s really important to dig down and figure out why you want to lose weight. There is no shortage of people who will take your money and promise you weight loss. But very few of them will sit with you and help you figure out WHY you want to do it and then help you decide if you like that reason.
This is why I do things differently.
I get to the bottom of why you want to lose weight and we work on that. NOT the weight loss.
I can sum up the reasons people say they want to lose weight into two categories:
Physical Health Related Reasons: This is the most common. If you fall into this camp, the key here is to define what healthy means for you.
Is it exercising consistently?
Getting more sleep?
Eating more vegetables?
Eating less processed foods?
Not fearing your annual medical bloodwork?
Without a clear goal, you won’t be able to make a plan and accomplish it. If you need help with this let me know. I can help you.
Mental Health/Self-Esteem Reasons: People in this group will often say “I just like how I look when I’m thinner” or “I feel uncomfortable in my body when I weigh this much”.
Although most people will tell me a physical health reason for wanting to lose weight, after a few sessions there is usually some aspect of poor body image that comes into play.
And that makes perfect sense. We live in a fat phobic society which can do some serious damage to one's sense of self.
Working through body image issues is critical in this instance.
If learning to love, or even feel neutral about, your body isn’t enough of a reason to change your approach- trying to change something you hate isn’t productive. There’s a whole lot of data that proves this. Long term results don’t come from shame or loathing. So constantly being mean to yourself isn’t going to get you where you want to go.
Because even if you did manage to lose that 20 pounds by terrorizing yourself into action, will you like your body at that weight?
Probably not, because you didn’t learn to become the person who likes themselves along the journey.
Please stop the madness and try something different.
Don’t work with people, companies or products that see you as a renovation project that needs to be fixed.
Don’t do one more thing that has you in a place of shame, loathing and frustration.