4 Ways to Make Weight Loss Fun

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Full Episode Transcript:

4 Ways to Make Weight Loss Fun

Hi there, welcome to the podcast. So good to have you. We are going to make weight loss fun, so are you ready? I’m so ready.

I’m excited to get you pumped up about weight loss and see just how fun it can be. And if you’re looking to truly make weight loss fun and work toward the weight loss goals that excite you, then you and I will get you there together. Just request a free consult on my website katemjohnston.com/consult.

Okay so, when you take out all the “should’s” or “have to’s,” weight loss is so much lighter. It’s not as much of a chore. It’s not as serious. It’s just doesn’t have this underlying negative vibe to it.

So, that’s what this episode is all about, but really that’s what I’m all about. I see weight loss as a fun challenge AND something that can also improve your health and even many medical conditions. And by challenge, I don’t mean hard, but rather more like a game. A puzzle you just get to figure out and challenge yourself to, just because it’s something new and there’s a specific goal to be reached oftentimes.

So, before I get into how to actually make weight loss fun, I want to just briefly talk about what can make it not fun.

It’s not fun when you put this pressure on yourself to lose weight in a certain time period. It’s totally fine to have a weight loss goal for a certain time period and in fact, I do encourage that in a lot of cases.

However, to actually put pressure on yourself to reach that goal and think there’s something wrong with you if you don’t, that’s not fun, nor is it healthy emotionally. It’s not really that productive either. Typically when you’re talking negatively to yourself, and then feeling negatively toward yourself, it doesn’t the result in actions that are nearly as productive as positive and encouraging thoughts and feelings are.

Weight loss is also not fun when you think of it as a chore or something you have to do. For example, if you saw something on the news, read an article, or were told by your doctor that weighing over 300 pounds can increase your risk of a multitude of preventable diseases, this can result in fear or a similar emotion to fear. This fear-based emotion ends up being the motivator to lose weight. Fear or any sort of fear-based motivation is not going to feel good, and it’s going to make the process of losing weight feel very “graspy” or “urgent” and not enjoyable at all.

Now certainly, weight loss can decrease the risk of preventable diseases, but the energy that you end up being in when your actions are based on fear, is going to make weight loss much harder, and definitely much harder to actually stick with.

Weight loss is also not fun when you do it out of disgust for yourself in general or for your body. Again, that is another negative emotion that is driving your actions, which is not going to be enjoyable and not going to be great fuel To keep the actions going to actually get the weight loss results you want and to keep those results.

Also, actions that are to the extreme to lose weight, can make weight loss not fun as well. Such as extreme restriction of calories, complete elimination of all of the foods that you love immediately, forcing yourself to vigorously exercise just to burn calories, are all actions that are not that enjoyable for most and are also not sustainable.

So, you end up putting in a lot of effort and not enjoying yourself during the process, only to result in some weight loss that is not sustainable. Meaning, you can end up going right back to where you started, but worse, because now there is a feeling of failure, which then tends to prevent people going forward with any other attempts.

It also tends to close you off to any other ways of doing weight loss, such as an easier, more enjoyable, and more sustainable way. Which is exactly how I help clients with weight loss. In a way that feels good, is easier and completely sustainable. That’s how the weight loss process should be and is, when we work together.

But, when there’s already that fear of failure, there is a lack of confidence in yourself and in any process. So, any solution that is presented, may provide a lot of doubt. This is only because of the past experiences. Your brain absolutely loves to try to protect you based on past experiences. This is just a survival mechanism from back in our primitive days. Basically, if you had a past experience of eating a plant that made you sick, your brain made sure you didn’t do that again.

With many other things, including weight loss, your human brain doesn’t realize that it is actually harming you oftentimes. Because it’s preventing you from trying again and actually reaching your goals this time.

Alright, now let’s get to the fun part, which is what this episode is all about, making weight loss fun.

OK so for the sake of time, I have four big ways to make weight-loss fun for you. The last one is the most important one, so do not miss it.

So the first key to making weight loss fun is to make it about you. Not about other people. Meaning, not about your spouse, your significant other, your friends. Not about what society tells you that you should weigh to be “attractive” or even healthy.

Weight loss is a personal choice and should be based on you only. You should never want to lose weight only for the purpose of pleasing your significant other or thinking that he or she will be more attracted to you. Your significant other is attracted to your person, your soul, who you are. The connection between the two of you. Otherwise, he or she would not be with you.

Same thing with your friends, your friends love you for your beautiful personality. And I guarantee you that they also think you’re beautiful on the outside just as you are.

Also, don’t solely do it for your children either. Your children already love you and look up to you. You’re already an example to them. When you lose weight because you want to lose the weight, and you want to do it in an enjoyable way, that serves much more of a better purpose of being a role model to your children, if that is your desire.

Think about it, if you had a daughter (or maybe you have one) and she knew that you were trying to lose weight to get your husband to be more attracted to you versus if she knew you were trying to lose weight as a gift to yourself, which do you think is going to be a much better and healthier inspiration to her if she ever wanted to lose weight in the future?

Or even if she knew that you were trying to lose weight because you were disgusted with yourself, versus losing weight because you want to be able to enjoy life more by being healthier and capable of more physical activity?

So ALWAYS make it about you. Lose the weight because you want to. Lose the weight because you think you’ll benefit. Lose the weight as a gift to you, and no one else.

It’s your body and it’s for you to enjoy. If you just want to lose 5 pounds, do it. If you want to lose 100 pounds, do it. Just do it for you.

Alright so the second way to make weight loss fun is by thinking of all the benefits. When you get down to asking yourself why you really want to lose weight, you’ll discover that it’s more than just to “look better.” You’ll probably even discover that it’s more than just to “feel better.”

You’ll get down to the reasons of why you want to feel better. That may be so that you can go hiking again like you used to. Or maybe that you will feel a lot less tired, because you’re eating foods that are much higher in nutrients. And feeling less tired, means getting more done in your career, which you might be super passionate about.

Also, what I recommend doing is to think of all the benefits of every single action that you think you’ll be taking to get that weight loss result.

So, you don’t necessarily just have to look at the benefits of the results themselves, but also the benefits of all the individual actions. Let me explain. For example, if you decide that one of the actions you’re going to take to help you lose weight is to decrease your stress. Think about all the benefits of decreasing your stress. It’s not just the weight loss.

You’re going to feel so much more relaxed. You’re not going to feel that tension in your shoulders. You’ll probably be able to enjoy conversation with other people more because you don’t have that underlying stress. You’ll probably be able to enjoy your job more and your home life more. You’ll probably be able to enjoy your children and your other relationships more. I know when I decreased my stress, I enjoyed everything more.

Another example of looking at the benefits of one of the actions that you might potentially take to get a weight loss result is if you plan on adding in some daily exercise consistently. If you decided that you wanted to do yoga or a stationary bike several days a week. Think of all the benefits besides just contributing to some weight loss, that that activity would provide. Typically, exercise is a mood booster.

I’m not a yoga person, however I know it has a ton of benefits. The few times I’ve done it, I’ve felt really good afterwards in the sense of feeling like I released some tension in my muscles and felt really relaxed and sometimes even invigorated afterwards.

Yet another example of some benefits of one of the actions is say you realized that you’re only getting 4 hours of sleep a night and getting more sleep will help you lose weight. Just a side note, if you don’t get much sleep or don’t get good quality sleep, getting more and better sleep can definitely help with weight loss efforts.

So, think about all of the other benefits that getting better sleep would provide you. More energy for the day. Maybe you’ll feel like you need less coffee, which will save you money and decrease those caffeine jitters. So, you can see that once you start thinking about all of the benefits not just of the results, but also the actions, there’s so much more on the table. That means, if you don’t go forward with losing the weight you want to, there’s a ton on the table that you’re losing out on, right?

It makes it so much more fun to go through the weight loss process when you realize all the benefits that you didn’t even think of before. There are so many more rewards than you even realize.

It’s kind of like going to the store, to the weight loss store and thinking that you’re going to pay a few thousand dollars for a weight loss result, say it’s 20 pounds. But then you realize that you’re paying the few thousand dollars for the weight loss results of losing 20 pounds plus 50 other different things. Things that will improve the quality of your life, and potentially prolong your life. Such an amazing bonus, right? An incredible package deal. How fun is that?

Okay, so the third thing to make weight loss fun, is just simply that it is a challenge. Not in the sense of it being hard, but in the sense of it is something that is like a game or a puzzle. You want to solve it. It can be fun to play a game or do a puzzle, right? Well weight loss can also be fun.

As a career woman, I know you probably enjoy challenging yourself. And when you think of challenges, that can really excite you. I know for me it does. Sometimes that’s the only reason I’ll go for a certain goal, is the fun of the challenge.

For example, being a runner, people would ask if I ever planned on doing a full marathon. I had no desire. None. The thought of running 26 miles without stopping, sounded terrible. The training for it for all the months prior, sounded even more terrible.

But one day, I had the thought, can I run 26 miles? Can I actually do that? As soon as I asked myself the question, I decided to answer it by accepting the challenge and I decided that the answer was going to be “yes.”

I didn’t think about how much of a commitment it might be.  I didn’t even let any objections come into my mind. I was working at the time anywhere from 50 to 80 hours a week, so I really could have used the excuse of “not having enough time” even though it still would have just been an excuse, but I decided to do it just because I thought it would be a fun challenge. I didn’t even think about anything else or fear of failure.

I trained for it, I ran it, and I ran it faster than I thought I would. It was that easy to just do it, even after a long day in the OR on a hot summer day.

Just a quick story. I remember it was July, and it was hot in Pennsylvania where I was living at the time. It was going to be a long day and night in the OR because lots of traumas came in, which meant lots of fractures that we needed to fix in the OR. We had a little bit of a longer break in between surgeries than we usually do, so the surgeon that I was working with told me to run home and do what I needed to do at home like grab some lunch a shower, a quick nap, because we were going to be in the OR until pretty late at night.

So, I drove the short distance home, ran 10 miles fast, showered, grabbed two protein bars, and drove back to the hospital. I was excited to get that break and get my run in, because I was putting in another piece to the puzzle. Even on an 80 something degree day with high humidity and a long night ahead of me.

My point is, when you’re thinking of your end result as being a fun challenge that you are going to accomplish, you just do what you need to do no matter what, and you’re excited to do it, regardless of some inconvenient circumstances.

Alright, for the last and most important key to making weight loss fun. That is to make it about loving your body and yourself not hating your body or yourself. There are a few reasons for this, but too much to explain in the remainder of this episode.

But one that is very easy to explain in a simple way is think about an object that you love and think about an object that you don’t love, or even hate. Which of the two are you going to take better care of? And if you’re taking better care of something, typically it’ll last a lot longer and be in better condition and look nicer. That’s the simple way of explaining one of the ways or reasons that loving your body and yourself is much better for weight loss than hating your body or yourself.

Now, there are easy ways to find love for your body and for yourself which I can help you do, but for some people it’s more difficult, which I also help you with as your coach. It’s especially more difficult, if you’re feeling hatred or disgust. But don’t worry, that is all “fixable”. Or “treatable”, if you will.

That’s all part of coaching and helping someone with healthy and effective weight loss. You can do all of the actions, like eating healthier, exercising, getting better sleep, drinking more water.

However, you’re going to get so much more results, and typically ones that actually last or even results at a faster pace when you’re doing it out of love for your body and yourself. It’s a lot to explain on just a podcast episode, but again that simple way to explain it is to think of it as like an object that you love and an object that you hate which one are you going to take better care of?

Alright, so those are just a few ways that we can make weight loss fun together. Don’t worry though, I have lots of other different ways to make it fun for you, so let’s work together on hitting your weight loss goals and then some.

Do it for you. Do it for all the other benefits, besides just the number on the scale or the way your body looks. Do it for the challenge of it. And start loving your body and yourself.

If you need help with any of that, that’s what I do. Let’s talk and let’s do this. For you, for your now and for your future. Don’t delay this for yourself any longer. Just go to katemjohnston.com/consult. We’ll set up a time to talk that works for you. We’ll get right to it, so you can enjoy the process and the results as quickly as possible. I’ll also put a link on the episode page if you’re listening to this episode from there.

Thanks for joining me today, take care and I’ll talk with you soon.