Weight Loss That Fits Your Lifestyle

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Related Episodes:

• 4 Ways to Make Weight Loss Fun
• My Emotional Eating Habit
• How an Eating Habit Coach Helps
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Full Episode Transcript:

Weight Loss That Fits Your Lifestyle

 Hi there, welcome to the podcast. Just yesterday, I was brainstorming a list of podcast topic ideas and I am so excited because I have come up with so many good ideas for the coming weeks and this was one of them. Today I’m going to talk to you about weight loss that fits your lifestyle.

I just have to say it was tough to choose off of that list which one to start with, because I felt like they were all really good topics. So be on the lookout over the next month or so for those remaining fun topics that I’m going to be covering as well.

Before I dive into weight loss that fits your lifestyle, I want to share with you that I have a brand new free on demand video class on weight loss habits. It comes with a workbook as well, so that what you learn in the class you can easily apply afterward and start moving forward with some very doable changes.

As you probably know, what I coach on mainly is eating habits, but I’m a certified habit coach, so I know what goes into forming and breaking habits, and so I can take just about any behavior that you have and help you change that behavior, regardless if it’s already a bad habit or a new habit that you want to create.

How I help people with weight loss is I would say more specifically I help people with weight loss that is a lifestyle change. Weight loss that is maintainable. And that entails changing habits. Mainly eating habits, but there are other habits that help as well. Which is what I cover in the weight loss habits class. Some main ones at least, including one very important one that helps with all the rest, that you may be a little bit surprised about, but once you hear it, it will make a lot of sense.

So, grab that free weight loss habits class (here: https://kate-johnston-coaching.myflodesk.com/free-course) with the link in the episode description right in the podcast app that you’re listening on. Or if you’re listening right from the episode page on my website, you’ll see the link for the free class on my website as well. And again, you get the video class, plus a printable workbook to help you apply what you learn and make it much easier for you.

In this episode, I’m going to share the importance of weight loss that fits your lifestyle, plus why diets and many other weight loss plans and programs don’t help many people keep the weight off. I’m also going to share some things for you to think about regarding your specific lifestyle, plus 2 key elements for effective weight loss that fits your lifestyle.

Why I wanted to do an episode on weight loss that fits your lifestyle is because this is going to be really important if you want to be successful with weight loss and keep that weight off. And that’s where I find that many of the current weight loss programs and diets fail. They are created so that you have to try to fit into that diet or program, which just sets you up for failure.

You may be able to lose some weight, or even a lot of weight over the first few weeks or even few months. But is that something that you want to or feel that you’re able to continue for the rest of your life so that you can keep those weight loss results? Oftentimes the answer is no. And then what ends up happening, is that because the weight loss didn’t fit your lifestyle or fit your personality, your likes, dislikes, your body, is that it ends up not working for you.

Then you may end up feeling that you didn’t work. Meaning, there’s something wrong with you for not being able to stick with that. I know that people can especially feel this way when they are given something to follow and feel like “oh I should be able to follow this.”

It’s kind of like if you order a piece of furniture and it’s not already assembled, and you have to assemble it with the instructions provided. Seems like it should be easy, right? But what if those instructions were not written in your language or you didn’t have the right tools? Or they didn’t supply enough of the right screws or hardware, or maybe the instructions were really terrible and unclear? That wouldn’t be your fault that you couldn’t assemble the furniture, right?

Now maybe if you looked at it and didn’t even try it, that would be on you, but if you attempted to follow the instructions and just couldn’t do it, because of the inadequacy of the instructions or what they supplied you with, you are not to blame for that.

Same thing is true for weight loss. Now maybe the furniture analogy wasn’t the closest analogy that I could have used, but it’s the first one that popped into my mind. I think because I have had many situations where we have put furniture together, and it has been very frustrating many times and left me thinking, “why can’t I get this?”. However, it was really that either the holes weren’t aligned because of factory error, or the instructions were very unclear.

So how exactly do you find weight loss that fits your lifestyle? I strongly feel that you shouldn’t have to eat what someone else tells you to eat. I also strongly feel that any weight loss coach, program, etcetera should help you really learn when you’re hungry, when you’re full. Also help you to learn what your body actually needs as far as amount of food and also what kind of foods.

I also strongly feel that for weight loss that fits your lifestyle and your personality, you shouldn’t feel restricted or deprived, which unfortunately is the case with many diets and weight loss plans/programs that are more about getting the weight off quickly.

Because remember, these are lifestyle changes you’re making, changes that should be lasting you a long time. If you’re feeling restricted or deprived just to lose weight and keep it off and you’re gonna have to feel that way for the rest of your life, of course you’re not going to want to continue with that. I wouldn’t want to.

If you enjoy having cheese and chocolate, you should be able to continue enjoy having cheese and chocolate, but you just learn how to balance that, so that you can reach your weight loss goals and then maintain.

When I say maintain, I don’t mean that if you reach your goal of being under 150 pounds and you are 149.4 pounds, that you’re gonna maintain specifically 149.4 pounds. Your body weight will fluctuate naturally a little bit, but when you learn the skills that I help you develop, it’s easy to just naturally stay around the weight you feel really good at.

It’s no longer work. You can easily stay right around that weight, without really trying. Because you’ve built the habits that got you there and will keep you there. You’ve learned the skills to do so. And also, you’ve learned the mindset, the way of thinking that makes it super easy to maintain those weight loss results.

That’s why having a weight loss coach that works with you one-on-one is very effective, because everything is customized to you. Everything’s customized to your day-to-day, your challenge is, your schedule, your lifestyle. You don’t have to fit into a cookie cutter diet or weight loss program.

Now there are some weight loss programs that do offer coaching within the program itself, so they’re more personalized. So I’m not talking so much about those ones being cookie cutter, because I don’t think that’s the case. I’m talking more so about a weight loss program telling you specifically what and how much to eat, or like a meal plan for example. Without accounting for your challenges, your likes, dislikes, body needs, schedule, etc. That’s the kind of weight loss that doesn’t fit your lifestyle very well.

So I’ll tell you a little story about myself with my experience with weight loss in the past. So I was working a job where I had a ton to think about, just like probably everyone listening to this podcast, right?

I had patients to see in the office, I was in the OR half of the week in surgery, I had consults in the hospital, all the things. There was a lot on my mind just from work, but there was also a lot on my mind at home as well.

I found that to lose weight and keep it off for me personally, I did not want to have to count calories. I also did not want to have to worry about being hungry or low in energy all day. I enjoyed running and cycling, so I needed energy for that. I also needed energy for my job. It was actually a pretty physically active job when I was a Physician Assistant, especially on surgery days.

So, I needed to have energy, and didn’t want to add more to my list of things to do or keep track of, as far as counting calories or measuring foods. Now, the first biggest thing that helped with weight loss, was breaking my emotional eating habit, which if you haven’t listened to episode #59 on My Emotional Eating Habit, take a listen to that one where I share the details on that.

The next biggest thing, was incorporating some of the more nutritious foods that I had not been eating. So, I was eating less of the processed carbohydrate foods, but more of the more nutritious foods. And I never cut out foods that I enjoy. I just learned to find that balance.

I learned how much food I really need in the morning, throughout a busy day, and at night. I learned how much my body needs depending upon how much activity I did throughout the day. I learned how to have awareness.

None of this was difficult either. I didn’t put any pressure on myself to lose a certain amount of weight in a certain period of time. That’s because I knew that I wanted to keep the results once I had them. I just had to work on the habits, (which also included learning to be okay with and feel an uncomfortable emotion instead of escape it with food) and then I’d feel confident I could lose weight and keep it off, and not slip back into poor eating habits.

So, who cared if it took me two weeks to lose 5 lbs., or if it took two months. As long as I was doing it in a way that was easy enough for me to do, fit into my lifestyle, and didn’t leave me feeling hungry or deprived. I needed my weight loss to fit into my active lifestyle and my busy career woman’s lifestyle.

Alright so how do you find weight loss that fits your lifestyle? Here are some things for you to think about.

I think the first most important thing is to determine what is your lifestyle? Just start writing down sort of how you live. Are you active, are you relaxed, are you very routine, do you have a very busy family life? Are you single and travel often? Is your work schedule unpredictable and your career is number one for you?

That’s the case for one of my clients currently. And that’s why she feels that my way is the only way that has worked for her for weight loss and eating habits. She likes that we take her work schedule and all the events she has to attend into account and she has learned skills that make it way easier for her to lose weight and still enjoy foods she enjoys.

She loves to have dark chocolate every day, so continues to be able to do so and still lose weight. When she goes out to eat, she gets dessert if she wants, but is now really satisfied with just a sliver, which surprised her, because it didn’t used to be like that.

She doesn’t feel hungry throughout the day, and she knows when she just desires something versus when she’s truly hungry. She has tried lots of different weight loss programs and plans. She reports that she was able to lose weight on them but was not able to keep it off. Because they just didn’t work for her and her lifestyle.

So for her, she knew that because she has a demanding work schedule that is sometimes very unpredictable, she needed something that would fit that lifestyle. Not just during the time that we work together and she loses weight, but for afterwards for the rest of her life.

The next thing to find weight loss that fits your lifestyle is to write down what’s important to you as far as foods and experiences around foods. For example, another client and her husband enjoy eating dinner together, especially him. He cooks a lot and likes to share his cooking with her.

Sometimes she’s not necessarily hungry for all of that food, and sometimes she wants to eat a lot sooner than he does, so they’ve found a balance where they can still enjoy the time together at dinner time, but she is able to eat according to her body.

That’s just an example of finding what’s important to you. Like I had mentioned earlier for me, I needed to have the energy for running and cycling and also running around the hospital and being in a 5-hour surgery. I also wanted to still be able to enjoy foods like cheese that are pretty high in calories. And by the way, if you’re a cheese-lover, you’ll probably agree that it can feel tough to just have one or two slices of cheese.

Next, you’re going to want to think about any health issues you have that you’re hoping to improve with changing your eating habits and losing weight.

For example, if you’re diabetic, you’re going to need a coach who will help you lose weight and change your eating habits to help with your diabetes. Or to help with any heart disease or high blood pressure that you may have. Because this will be a lifelong thing as well.

Cutting out the salt in your diet two weeks before you go to see your doctor and get blood work, does not really change things for you. You have to think about these lifestyle changes, so you really have to think about the eating habits and weight loss that are going to be very lasting for you that will help you specifically with those diagnosis. You also have to think about the life you want to have still vs. what you DON’T want your life to look like if you continue down a path of not great health.

So 2 key elements for weight loss that fits your lifestyle are going to be….

#1 Changes that you can easily make with your current lifestyle that you’re pretty confident you can continue.

That’s what I’m all about. Making those small changes that you can easily commit to, so that you can prove to your brain you can do it and that it’s easy and that will make it easier for you to form the habits. Because habits need repetition.

Same thing with undoing a habit or breaking a “bad” eating habit. You need to be able to not do a behavior or do a different behavior enough times until that habit is broken. So to do that, it needs to be as easy as possible. No matter what gets in the way. No matter the challenges.

#2 Learning what your body actually needs, and when to eat and when to not eat.

If we were masters of this, we would all be our ideal body weight. Whatever that is. But somewhere along the line, we end up confusing hunger and desire and we often don’t learn what our body actually needs, especially because our bodies change.

What your body needed when it was younger is going to be different than when it’s older. What your body needed when you were running around chasing after your kids when they were little is going to be different than what it needs now after your children have grown and you are living a little bit more of a sedentary life, if that’s the case.

Alright, that’s what I have for you today on weight loss that fits your lifestyle. So start thinking about your lifestyle specifically, your desires and even what you don’t want.

Write these things down, because whenever something is just in our heads, we tend to forget it. There’s so much else going on, so many new things that we think about during the day. So if something is just in your head and not on paper it is more likely to just get lost in there. Because weight loss is really important for you, your health is really important for you, you don’t want this to just disappear.

Thanks so much for listening, grab that free weight loss habits class plus workbook here: https://kate-johnston-coaching.myflodesk.com/free-course. Talk to you next week.