How to end weight loss misery
Does weight loss feel miserable? For many of us, the answer is a resounding YES! Keep reading for how to end weight loss misery. Many of us approach weight loss with a list of “rules” that make it feel like yet another chore—something we have to do. But what if I told you there’s a way to make this journey feel lighter, more enjoyable, and even empowering? It all starts with one simple mindset shift: replacing “I have to” with “I get to.” Whenever I was on a diet, everything felt like a burden: “I have to skip dessert.” “I have to find time to exercise.” “I have to cook something healthy.” Each “have to” made me feel resentful, like I was punishing myself for not being good enough. But then, I decided to shift my thinking. What if these weren’t obligations? What if they were opportunities? Suddenly, “I have to” became: “I get to nourish my body with wholesome food.” “I get to move and strengthen my body in ways that feel good.” “I get to choose habits that support my energy and health.” This small change made a huge difference. Gratitude turned my weight loss journey into an act of self-love rather than just another to-do list item. When you approach your choices with gratitude, everything shifts: Empowerment, Not Obligation: You’re no longer forcing yourself to follow rules. You’re choosing actions that care for your body and health. Enjoyment Instead of Resentment: Gratitude reframes healthy habits as privileges rather than punishments. Long-Term Fulfillment: Instead of chasing short-term results, you’ll start appreciating the process itself—how good it feels to take care of you. Ways to Use Gratitude in Your Day Here are some simple ways to weave gratitude into your weight loss journey: Start Your Day with Gratitude As you write your daily plan, write a few things you are grateful for from the previous day. This is a great time to take notice of the non-scale victories. Reframe Tough Moments When you’re tempted to skip a healthy choice or feel like giving up, reframe the moment: “I get to prepare a meal that fuels me and supports my energy.” “I get to pause and choose what’s best for me right now.” “I get to choose progress.” Celebrate What You Have Focus on what your body can do right now, not just what you want it to be. “I’m thankful for my legs that carry me, my heart that beats, and the strength I’m building with every step.” “I’m thankful for the breath in my lungs.” “I’m thankful to have a body to experience this world in.” By shifting from “have to” to “get to,” you’re no longer approaching your journey with a sense of dread. Instead, you’re celebrating your ability to care for yourself and make positive choices. This mindset makes the process more enjoyable and helps you stay consistent because you want to do these things—not because you’re forcing yourself to. The beauty of gratitude is that it reminds you how much you’re already capable of and how far you’ve come. It’s a way of saying, “I’m doing this because I deserve to feel good, inside and out.” I hope this small mindset shift gives you a new perspective and renewed hope for your weight loss journey. You don’t have to do anything—you get to take steps that nurture and love the amazing woman you are. Your Coach, Andrea
How to accept any number on the scale
Far too many of us hold the scale as the final authority on whether or not we are doing weight loss right. If we see a loss less than the gold standard of two pounds, we tell ourselves it’s “just” a pound or not really a loss at all. Here are three ways to accept any number on the scale. Remind yourself that fluctuations happen Lots of things can affect your body weight. Water consumption, salt intake, time of the month, illness, and bowl movements can all affect the number on the scale. It’s important to remind yourself that not all blips on the scale are a result of our habits. Weight naturally fluctuates anywhere from two to four pounds day to day. Embrace this as a part of your journey and don’t freak out. Don’t reside in La-la land either. Blips week after week on the upward trajectory is a sign of weight gain and needs a closer inspection of your daily habits. In either case, you can accept the number on the scale by reminding yourself that this number is never fixed. The number is meant to go up and down and you can always take action to change it. Always err on the positive side Small, downward blips can also be attributed to natural fluctuations but you get a choice to count it towards progress or something fleeting. Always erring on the positive. Count it towards your progress. Why? Because when you tell yourself you’re a little closer to your goal, you’ll feel more motivated to take more action and confident that you will eventually hit your goal. When you tell yourself that it’s not really a loss or that it’s just a weight fluctuation, you’ll feel inadequate and disappointed. It’s much easier to accept the number on the scale when you tell yourself that it’s evidence of progress. There is no downside to counting it. Embrace every win, no matter how small and insignificant you may think it is. You are in control When the number goes up, and it will, remind yourself that no number on the scale is ever final. This helps accept the number for what it is: temporary. As mentioned before, normal weight fluctuations will move the number up and down regularly. Even if you gained a large amount of weight, it serves you to remind yourself that no number is final. A change in your habits caused the weight gain and a change in your habits can help you lose it. Seeing a number on the scale and lamenting that you’ll never be able to lose the weight is a sure way to quit. Reminding yourself that no number is ever final can crack open hope for you to believe that you can see a lower number in the future. It reclaims the power back from the scale and puts it back in your hands. The number on the scale is a reflection of your habits. You are always in control. The number on the scale doesn’t mean anything until you think something about it. It’s your choice. The sooner you accept it, the sooner you can continue on your journey in a positive direction. Fighting against reality never wins. Your Coach, Andrea
Creating consistency in weight loss
Action is the currency of weight loss. You can’t do the same things you’ve always done and expect different results. And you most certainly cannot take different actions only once in a while and expect consistent results. If you want to reach your weight loss goal, you must be consistent. Consistency is what I coach clients on the most and so I have put together this list of five things you need to know for creating consistency in weight loss. Consistency is NOT perfection My clients often say they are not able to be consistent, when really they are being pretty consistent. Let’s say the goal is to drink 64oz of water each day and they are only doing it five days, instead of seven. Hate to break it to you but that IS being consistent. That is consistently meeting the goal for five days. There is a difference between wanting to increase the number days you meet the goal and being consistent. Too often we believe we are not being consistent in weight loss when we aren’t perfect. But that’s not the case! Consistency does not equal perfection. In fact, thinking you are not consistent because you aren’t perfect is defeating and causes you to quit. So recognize when you ARE being consistent and that will increase your desire to continue to be consistent as well as take more positive action towards your weight loss goal. Only make small, doable changes I get it. Being overweight can feel terrible. There is likely an urgency to want to be thinner NOW. But when you try to change everything about you, your routines, the foods you eat and the life you live, it takes a lot of energy and won’t last for long. Too many weight loss journeys fail because they are trying to use willpower to muscle through changing everything about themselves and their lives. Don’t do that to yourself. The greatest gift you can give yourself is acceptance of where you are. Take the pressure off of needing to be anything else. You can accept where you are and still make positive change. The best way to make that positive change is to make the changes small and level up when you get really good at that change. Small, doable changes make weight loss feel really manageable and allows you to collect tons of wins. And when you are winning, you know what? You feel like taking more action. And taking more action leads to more weight loss. Use multiple ways to measure your success The scale is not king of your weight loss journey. The diet industry has brainwashed us all by using the scale as the number one measurement of success. But you’re setting yourself up for defeat if that is the only way you measure your weight loss. Scales are a lagging measure of the actions you take. It may take weeks for the scale to reflect the fruits and veggies you’ve been eating or the workouts you completed. I highly recommend using a habit tracker to measure your actions and use that as a sign of your weight loss progress. You can also track your moods, body measurements, clothing fit and use before and after photos too. Expect to not feel like it Consistency often wains when we “don’t feel like it.” But what if “feeling like it” wasn’t required? What if you could take action anyway? Well, you can! It’s great to feel motivated and excited when you first start a new diet or exercise plan, but once that wears off and boredom sets in, it can feel difficult to keep taking action. It has taken over 3 years for me to reach my weight loss goal. There have been a lot of times that I didn’t want to work out or eat the food I planned. And you know what? I was still able to do it. When motivation wains (and it will), you have to be able to rely on commitment and discipline to see it through. One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is to remain committed and disciplined through that time. As you continue to take action, even when you don’t feel like it, that motivation will return and this time with a giant side of pride. Remain focused and keep going no matter what When you focus on the problem on your weight loss journey, you’ll find more of them. When you focus on the solutions, you’ll find more weight loss. Recognize when you are being inconsistent and figure out what you can do to become more consistent. Focusing on how to be more consistent creates more consistent action and more consistent results in your weight loss journey. When I started my weight loss journey in 2019, I simply decided that I was going to figure it out no matter what. When I overate or missed a workout, I got curious with myself and figured out how to move forward. You can choose the same. There is no need to beat yourself up for being inconsistent. Remain focused on your weight loss goal and allow yourself to be curious and find a different way going forward. After all, if you continue to do the same things, you’ll get the same results. What’s getting in your way of being consistent? Your Coach, Andrea
The ONE thing you need to start losing weight
People overcomplicate weight loss all the time. But to get started and to keep going, you really only need one thing: Belief. It’s absolutely true. Believing that you can lose weight is the ONE thing you need. You don’t need a food scale, a bathroom scale or a calorie counting app to get started. All you need is to believe. You might be thinking, it’s really not that easy. But I promise that to begin your journey, that’s all you need. You would never start a diet if you didn’t believe YOU could do it. You would never start an exercise routine unless you thought YOU were capable of getting results from it. It all starts with belief. And you know what? It all ends when belief goes away. You stop following the diet when you believe it is no longer working. You stop working out when you stop believing that you’ll get the results you desire. Belief is the fuel for you weight loss journey. When you believe in yourself and the ability for you to get results, you take action. If that belief falls away, then you stop taking the action. It was a very powerful moment in my life when I realized that belief was fueling everything. I had experienced success on diets before and couldn’t seem to figure out why I eventually stopped being successful and put the weight back on. Then one day it hit me: I quit believing in it and stopped taking action. There was nothing wrong with me. I wasn’t broken. I wasn’t doomed to be fat for the rest of my life. I simply stopped believing. Just as easily as I can choose to believe in something, I can choose not to believe too. And whether or not I believe, determines how I’m showing up and the results I get. As scary as that might seem, it’s actually the best news ever. I no longer had the responsibility of finding the perfect diet or exercise plan. I simply needed to practice belief. Belief in myself and belief that I could figure this out no matter how long it took. With those beliefs I found safety in trying new things and seeing what worked well with my life. I was able to look at my habits and see which ones were helping on my weight loss journey and which ones weren’t. I could take my time and figure it out because I had the belief that I would figure it all out and reach my weight loss goal no matter what. If you are struggling with belief in yourself, here are a few things to try: Read other people’s weight loss success stories for inspiration Write a list of 100 things you’ve been successful at (nothing is too small) Use motivational quotes to inspire you Begin with practicing the thought “I’m willing to believe I can do this” Reach out for help by scheduling a call with me! How do you practice belief in yourself? Your Coach, Andrea
Magic in Every Mile
This past weekend I ran the runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon and 5k. At the race expo they had tons of merchandise with “Magic in every mile” emblazoned on it. At first, I thought it was a cute saying. But as I ran along the 13.1 mile course, the idea came to me: Magic in every mile is exactly what keeps runners going all the way to the finish line! I often have used the saying “A journey of one thousand miles begins with a single step” as a way to remind myself that it’s the small stuff that add up to get you where you want to go. But a journey of one thousand miles ends up being two-million steps. How do you keep motivated? Find magic in every mile. When we started our half marathon, I knew it was going to take us over three hours to complete it. That’s a long time! I needed ways to entertain myself and make it fun. Otherwise, my brain likes to start dwelling on how long it’s going to take, what’s wrong with the weather and how tired I am. And THAT is a recipe for feeling terrible and wanting to quit. So I found ways to make it fun. I dressed up as Ursula so I scoured the crowds looking for other Ursulas or Ariels and cheering them on. I even asked them to take photos with me! Same thing goes for your weight loss journey. It feels a whole lot better to make the process fun rather than focusing on how long it will take and foods you can’t eat (P.S. I teach you how to lose weight eating anything you want! So if this is YOU, let’s talk). Find others who are also building healthier eating habits, call out to them and cheer each other on! Get excited for the new recipes or exercises that you use along the way. Find your supporters Disney employees were out on the course with cowbells and clappers cheering us on. And boy, did I embrace it! I waved and said good morning. I whole heartedly thanked them for being out there. I told myself that they were there just for me. I completely ignored the fact that I was running with thousands of other people and that the employees were just clapping and cheering because Disney paid them to do it. You can do the same! Instead of thinking that your husband is “just saying” that he thinks you look thinner or your friend admires your dedication to your work outs, really take a moment to appreciate their support. Take none of it for granted. It all matters. Tell yourself it’s fun People in general can tend to focus on the negative. Our brains were designed to find problems so we could live another day. When you are running a half marathon, there are TONS of negative things to focus on. For instance, it rained on us while we waited 45-minutes before crossing the start line. Then it got hot for a couple miles while we ran on a boring stretch of highway. There were parts where the road was so narrow you couldn’t help but bump into other runners and walkers with every move you made. Plus the fact that we were running over 13 miles and your body starts chaffing, hurting, and pretty much dying. But what you focus on is always a choice. And what you focus on, you find more evidence for. I decided I was going to have fun during this race. It’s not every day you get to run a Disney race and I wanted to love every minute of it. I took selfies while characters posed with other people (I had NO time to stand in lines for my own pictures….otherwise the sag wagon would have swept me!) I looked around the parks in amazement as I ran through them. I reminded myself how lucky I was to have enough money and a loving husband to watch our four kids while I went and ran with Mickey. The more I told myself that I was having fun, the more fun I had. They told me there was magic in every mile but it was really up to me to find it. If you are having trouble finding magic on your weight loss journey, I can help. I help my clients find joy and happiness while losing weight and I can help you do the same. Sign up for a free session with me to find out how.
Five thoughts that kept me FAT
For all of my adult life, I felt stuck. It felt like my fate in life was to be overweight. I tried and failed so many diets that I figured I was just broken. In reality, the only thing that was broken was my thinking. Here are five thoughts that kept me FAT: I don’t feel like it This thought kept me waiting for the motivation fairy to drop in and fill me with motivation to do the things I didn’t feel like doing. In reality, feeling like doing something is never a requirement. We do so many things in our every day lives that we probably don’t feel like doing. For instance: paying bills, changing dirty diapers, following speed limits, chores around the house, attending meaningless work meetings, etc. You don’t feel like doing them but you get it done anyway. The motivation to do something doesn’t come from an outside source. Motivation is created by you. If you are still waiting around for motivation to strike, check out this blog post on “How to find your weight loss motivation in 3 easy steps.” Quit using “I don’t feel like it” as an excuse to remain the same. Instead tell yourself “I don’t have to feel like it to do what’s best for myself.” I deserve to eat whatever I want This kept me feeling entitled to eat indulgent foods all day, every day. ALL the diets I had been on before left me feeling restricted and deprived. And I hated it! I didn’t want to feel that way so I told myself “I deserve to eat whatever I want.” But the truth of the matter is I always have a choice in what I eat. Whether I am on a restrictive diet or eating everything in sight, it is because I am choosing to do so. Continuously telling myself that I deserved to eat whatever I wanted also left me feeling entitled to a party in my mouth each time I ate. I only thought about amazing and entertaining foods I wanted to eat. Foods that nourish my body and help it perform at its best were rarely considered. Once I changed by thought from “I deserve to eat whatever I want” to “I can eat whatever I want however I choose to eat healthier so I can achieve my health goals,” I finally found a balance between nourishing my body, eating foods that were entertaining AND losing weight. I don’t have any willpower Another thought that kept me fat. It reinforced that I was broken and there was no hope for change. The reality of willpower is that everyone has it. Some people use their willpower each day and therefore it’s stronger. Others have let it wither away like an atrophied muscle. If you want more willpower, then you have to start using it. Start small. Try leaving one bite behind after each meal. When that starts feeling easy, leave two or opt for half a plate of veggies. These small moments will help strengthen your willpower. The stronger it gets the more you are able to use it throughout your life. A great thought to think instead of “I don’t have any willpower” is “Willpower is a muscle that everyone has and I am working on making mine stronger each day.” I don’t want to miss out on life Oh man. This was a big one. It kept me believing the lie the food is the only source of connection and fun in life. Spoiler: it’s not. In fact, food can often be a distraction to true connection and fun. Food is an activity that many people enjoy doing together however it isn’t a requirement. I am not missing out on life if I choose not to eat or choose to eat differently than people around me. Instead, think of all the ways that being healthier allows you to enjoy your life MORE. This was a game changer for me. I had never considered that my life could actually be better and I could be more engaged if I was losing weight and getting healthier. I could be more intentional in my conversations and interactions with others at parties. I could run and play with my sons. Bucket list items I was sure I could never do become possibilities again….hello standup paddle boarding, indoor skydiving and boudoir photoshoot! Not to mention that getting healthier also means living longer. And not just living longer to be bedridden but living longer with a functioning body. Try thinking “Being overweight taxes my body and shortens my lifespan which truly results in missing out on life.” I’ve failed too many times before. By the time I reached 250 pounds, I had tried and failed at least a dozen diets. I felt like there was nothing left to try that would work for me. I felt so hopeless. Thinking “I’ve failed too many times before” was simply an excuse to stop trying at all. This thought kept me fat because it reminded me how much failure sucked before. It was my way of protecting myself from future pain and humiliation of failing yet another diet. However failure is a natural part of the human experience. If we all stopped doing anything the moment we failed, then none of us would learn to walk. The first time we fell down, we would stay on the ground. But for some reason failing a diet (or multiple ones), seems like a real reason to never try to get healthier again. Maybe I just found dozens of ways that didn’t work for me and that’s OK. That’s actually perfect! Every way that doesn’t work is actually a step closer to finding what DOES work. So instead of the thought “I’ve failed too many times before” that kept me fat, I chose to think “I want to figure out how to live my healthiest life on MY terms.” You can figure out weight loss on
Powerful YOU – Being powerful in YOUR weight loss
The New Year is rapidly approaching. For a lot of us it is a time for setting new goals and new beginnings. For as long as I can remember, losing weight has always been one of my New Year’s goals. In the past, I would listen to testimonials of friends and what helped them lose weight. I would consider the ads plastered on TV, Facebook and Google. I would get lost for hours in ‘before and after’ pictures on Instagram in hopes that their results could one day be mine too. Many a New Years I cracked open a fresh new planner with tons of excitement as I penciled in the action plan that I was sure would help me lose the weight for good. I would set up reward systems for myself to keep me motivated and interested when things got tough. I was ready to do the damn thing. Then after a couple of weeks of being religiously devoted to my action plans, something would happen… I would get discouraged, bored, or *gasp* unmotivated. Just a little quit here or there. I just didn’t want to do the workout. I couldn’t bring myself to cook another chicken breast. I just didn’t want to do any of it. So my zealous religious devotion eventually turned into an Easter/Christmas type situation. So this brings us to maybe February….March if I was lucky. And the rest of my year would follow suit as every year before that. Starting out strong, fizzling out and then wondering why I could never make the change that I desired to see in my life. I just seemed to be the type of person who couldn’t seem to follow through. Many of us want to believe that losing weight is just so hard and that food just tastes too good but here’s the truth: the secret it YOU. Even if you have great success on a particular diet plan, it comes down to you CHOOSING to follow the plan. You choosing to workout. You choosing to skip the cookies. Likewise when you get discouraged because you didn’t see the loss on the scale you were hoping for, it is still YOU that decides to screw it all and eat the cookies because obviously the diet isn’t working. It is you that decides to skip the workout because you just don’t feel up for it. It is YOU that decides to throw in the towel. The most powerful agent for change in your life is YOU. This statement is both thrilling and terrifying all in one. It just depends on how you want to think about it. I choose to be thrilled. I WANT to be the most powerful being in my world. I want to be able to enact change in my life. In fact, on my 100-pound weight loss journey the acceptance of my power has been the most game changing realization. I decided that no matter what, I wasn’t going to quit until I reached my 100-pound weight loss. I was committed to continue until I figured it out and reached my goal. You don’t have to be perfect. In fact, you won’t be perfect. The perfect thing is that you just keep going. You have the power. I hope you believe you are capable of your weight loss goals. I know it is hard and you might be where I was believing that weight loss is just hard and you are just not the type of person that sees things through to the end. But you ARE. You just need to CHOOSE to be. What choice can you make right this moment to take one step closer to your health goal? I challenge you to do that thing right now. Go be POWERFUL. -Andrea, Journey 100 Coaching