How Sleep Helps with Weight Loss
For many busy women, we find that extra time in our day to workout or meal prep by getting up earlier or staying up later. But are we actually doing ourselves a favor when it comes at the cost of our sleep? In this blog post, I will uncover for you how sleep helps with weight loss. Why Sleep Matters Metabolic Magic: Your body regulates hormones that control hunger and fullness while you sleep at night. Inadequate sleep disrupts this delicate balance, leading to increased appetite and cravings for high-calorie, sugary foods. Energy Drain: Ever notice how sluggish you feel after a restless night of sleep? Sleep deprivation zaps your energy levels, making it challenging to stay active and motivated to exercise. You are also more likely to crave those foods that give you quick bursts of energy (i.e. simple carbs and sugary foods) but don’t offer much nutritional value. Stress Sabotage: Lack of sleep can trigger stress hormones like cortisol, which not only make you feel anxious but can also lead to fat storage, especially around the belly area. How to Improve Your Sleep Habits and Your Weight Loss Now that we’ve established how sleep helps with weight loss, let’s talk about some practical steps you can take to ensure you’re getting the sleep you need. 1. Set a Sleep Schedule: More than likely, you have a routine during the workweek but it’s also important to aim for consistency on weekends too. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, even on weekends. This routine in your sleep patterns helps you fall asleep faster and wake up more refreshed as your circadian rhythm remains consistent. 2. Create a Relaxing Bedtime Routine: Wind down before bed with calming activities like reading, gentle stretching, or a warm bath. These rituals signal to your body that it’s time to get ready for sleep. I enjoy reading fiction before bed as a way to get out of my own head and get enveloped in another storyline. It helps to detach from my perceived problems or to-dos. 3. Limit Screen Time: The blue light emitted by phones, tablets, and TVs can interfere with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. Try to avoid screens at least an hour before bedtime. This could be a great challenge to explore new hobbies such as Zentangles, knitting or yoga. 4. Cut the caffeine: Avoid caffeine too close to bedtime. This might take a little trial and error to find the cut-off time that’s right for you. I personally stop drinking caffeinated drinks at 5pm and have found that I go to sleep much easier now at my bedtime of 10:30pm. 5. Make Your Sleep Environment Cozy: Ensure your bedroom is conducive to sleep by keeping it dark, quiet, and cool. I set our thermostat to four degrees cooler than we keep it during the daytime as well as I use a ceiling fan at night for both cooling and white noise. I even ask Alexa to turn off her screen as we go to bed and put my phone face down to eliminate extra light. 6. Manage Stress: Practice relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or gentle yoga to calm your mind before bedtime. I like journaling in the evening to help take any racing thoughts and putting them down on paper. I often tell myself that my thoughts are now written down and I can come back to them tomorrow. Celebrating Your Progress Remember, the journey to better sleep habits is all about progress, not perfection. If you’ve struggled with sleep in the past, don’t be too hard on yourself. Celebrate the small wins along the way, like going to bed 15 minutes earlier or choosing to read rather than watch TV before bedtime. These victories are building blocks toward better sleep and achieving your weight loss goal. By prioritizing restful nights and making small changes to improve your sleep habits, you’ll be better equipped to achieve your weight loss goal with energy, focus, and a clearer mind. You’ve got this! Your Coach, Andrea
How to make weight loss easier
Who wants weight loss to feel easier? All of us. When you think of weight loss, do you envision calorie counting and working out for hours at a time? Maybe it’s cleaning out the pantry and swearing off your favorite foods? For so many of us, weight loss is a nasty list of to-do’s that feels hard. And when weight loss feels hard we convince ourselves that we need something magical like motivation or a special Monday to get started on it. But weight loss doesn’t have to be hard. Weight loss can feel a whole lot easier in just a few steps. Quit calling it hard Weight loss will feel infinitely easier if you stop calling it hard. Now before you write this off as ineffective, hear me out. Your brain has an amazing thing call the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS filters the information that comes through our brain as important or unimportant. So in a busy restaurant, it filters out all the conversations around you until you hear someone shout your name, then you turn and pay attention. The RAS is tuned into your name as an important piece of information so it can pick it out of a noisy restaurant. When you tell yourself over and over that weight loss is so hard, your RAS takes that as important information and goes to look for the supporting evidence that losing weight is hard. For instance, it will key in on how much you sweat during a workout or how deprived you feel when you can’t have a brownie. You think weight loss is hard and your RAS finds all of the evidence of hard for you. If you quit saying weight loss is hard, your RAS will stop looking for all the evidence that weight loss is hard. Start calling it easy The next step in making weight loss feel easier is to call it easy. Hold on…I can hear you now….. but it’s not easy! Ok. But are some parts of it easy? Be sure to point that out to yourself. Even if it is just filling up your water bottle, remind yourself that was easy. Driving to the gym? That was easy. Maybe you completed a workout and it didn’t kill you like you thought it would, tell yourself “That was easier than I thought it would be.” Give your RAS the challenge of finding easy things about weight loss and pretty soon you’ll be feeling that weight loss doesn’t feel as hard as it did before. Make it enjoyable Typically the things you enjoy in life are things you want to do more often. Enjoyable tasks are not difficult or hard. What can you do to make weight loss more enjoyable? Start thinking outside of the box. Weight loss doesn’t have to be cutting carbs and running long distances. Think about what you really enjoy eating and drinking. Is there a way to modify them to make them healthier? What exciting, healthier recipes are out there just waiting for you to try them? Another sure fire way to make weight loss feel easier is only moving your body in ways you actually enjoy. Running or the stair machine are not your only options. There are literally thousands of options out there. Walking, chair yoga, Zumba, water aerobics, pole dancing or Tai Chi to name a few. There are different speeds and flavors for everyone. When movement is enjoyable, it makes weight loss feel easier and you’re more likely to stick with it. Need more ideas? Check out this blog post. Recognize your accomplishment I find it so much easier to do things for my family when they give me a quick Thank You for my efforts. When was the last time you thanked yourself for making healthy choices? We all want to feel like what we do matters. Recognition does a long way in increasing the chance we repeat that action. Have you ever thought about why you can’t stop yourself from reaching for the potato chips or the chocolate? It’s because it feels good! They are tasty, the experience of eating it is fun and afterwards we get a dopamine hit. When you are losing weight we often have to resist those foods that we love and are so fun to eat. And what’s the reward?? Getting to resist it the next time we want it too. Giving yourself recognition when you make a healthy choice is paramount to making weight loss feel easier. When you recognize your efforts and give yourself a pat on the back, you want to do more of that activity in the future. And don’t just stop at the proverbial pat on the back. Find other ways to recognize yourself. Plan for rewards after a certain number of workouts completed or pounds lost. Give yourself a high five in a mirror and say “I’m proud of me!” So give yourself a Thank You. Even if it was just for reading this blog post and opening your mind to the possibility that weight loss can be easier. 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
Three steps to stop eating when not hungry
Eating when you are not hungry equals weight gain. And if you are on a weight loss journey that is a recipe for disaster! But how do you stop eating when you aren’t hungry? Follow these three steps to get back in tune with your body and stop eating when you aren’t hungry: Step One: Identify your hunger signs The first step to stop eating when you are not hungry is to figure out if you really are hungry. For many women this can actually be quite difficult. You’ve spent years eating by the clock, eating to relieve stress or eating because it simply feels good. To determine if you are physically hungry, drop into your body. What does that look like? Close your eyes. Ask yourself where do I feel hungry? For me, I know I am truly hungry when the middle of my abdomen feels a little tight. I also get slight growls in my stomach. If I have been truly hungry for a bit then the hunger starts appearing in the front of my head as a slight headache and I will feel my energy levels begin to dip. On the other hand, these physical sensations are not present when I am not hungry. Instead I will find myself “tasting” food in my mouth, like daydreaming about how good a Reese’s peanut butter cup would be right now. Sometimes when I am not hungry but WANT to eat, I will ask myself “Am I hungry?” and then soon enough I will feel a little tingle in my stomach. This is phantom hunger. It’s like a little ghost of hunger that comes pretty quickly after I get a craving for something. This isn’t true hunger. How do I know? Go to step two. Step Two: Take an inventory of your circumstance When I find myself wanting to eat when I’m not physically hungry, I take a moment to figure out what is going on in my life. One great way to do this is ask yourself “If I wasn’t going to eat right now, what would I be doing?” So often that 3pm hunger is actually being tired of work and not wanting to start another work task. In the evenings, I would be left alone with my thoughts about what I screwed up during the day, what’s left to be done tomorrow or thoughts of how I’m so exhausted and nothing really feels good in my life. Other times, I am just plain bored and want to be entertained! Once you figure out if you want to eat to avoid something in your life, then solve for that. If I am tired of work and don’t want to start another work task, then I take a 15-minute break and go for a walk, meditate or watch a couple silly tiktok videos (be sure to set a timer and don’t go beyond the 15 minutes!). If I’ve put the kids to bed and I don’t want to be left alone with my troubling thoughts, I break out my journal, jot down a quick to-do list for the next day, tell myself I’m a good wife and mother, then give myself permission to rest and relax. If I want to be entertained, then I snuggle in a blanket and watch my favorite show. Understanding what you truly need in that moment will help you understand and care for yourself better. When you start solving for what is actually bothering you, the less you will feel driven to eat at times when you are not hungry. If you’ve identified the non-food reason you want to eat when you aren’t hungry but still feel compelled to eat, continue to step three. Step Three: Do a hard reset Our brains present persistent thoughts of wanting to eat when we are not hungry simply because it is trying to avoid something in our life (see step two) AND there is not much else for it to do. On my weight loss journey, I found that continuing to push through and simply NOT eat was difficult. This was especially the case when I started working from home during COVID. I worked in the living room and thoughts about what was in the fridge started popping into my head. I’d ask myself “What would I be doing if I wasn’t eating” and the answer would generally be doing a work task. So I would acknowledge I didn’t want to do the work task, take a little break and then start the task anyway. But the thoughts kept coming. In those instances, I gave myself a protocol to help me reset. I would chug a giant glass of water, get outdoors for a five-minute walk and talk to myself. The magic in the reset is creating different sensations for yourself. The glass of water will help your body feel different on the inside (fuller and maybe colder). Getting outdoors will help you feel different on the outside (sun on your skin, wind on your face, maybe it’s warmer or cooler than your home). Finally talking to yourself. Be very specific in the things you say. This is a time to speak to yourself kindly and cheer yourself on. I often say “I’m so proud that I took this time to reset. I’m so glad that I am choosing my bigger goal over something I want in this moment. This is what self care looks like and I’m so happy I made this choice.” Final reminder: Even if you eat when you are not hungry, remember that it will never help to be unkind or berate yourself. Your weight loss journey will never be a straight line to your goal weight. Be open to learning when things don’t go as expected. If you are learning then you are always moving forward with better knowledge for the future. If you struggle with eating when you are not hungry, I can help. Schedule
Five things for successful weight loss
Millions of people try losing weight each year with the end goal in mind. A certain number of pounds lost, a particular pant size or a dress they are trying to wear for a special occasion. But it’s much more important to have the right start to your weight loss journey. Here are five things you need to be successful in weight loss: Belief that you can do it It’s essential for successful weight loss that you believe YOU can do it. This is different than thinking you found the right diet that will shed pounds quickly or the right exercise routine that will give you washboard abs. This is the belief that you can follow the plan and stick with it. This is the belief that you are willing and able to do the work. Fake it until you make it doesn’t apply here. That will only lead to success over a couple of months then inevitably quitting and undoing any progress you made. Don’t worry. If your belief is a little shaky, that’s OK. You don’t have to believe that you are able to do it for your ENTIRE weight loss journey. But can you start with the belief in you today? Can you stick to it today? Then ask yourself the same question for tomorrow….then the next day and the next…and before you know it you’ve grown your belief in your weight loss abilities. Acceptance that you won’t always be perfect Decide right from day one that you won’t always be perfect and that’s OK. I have lost over 90 pounds and I had many days that I ate off plan or overate. I decided that I wouldn’t let that be a reason to think I was broken or incapable of losing weight. I simply made that mean that I was a human that made a choice that didn’t align with my goal. I didn’t have to be perfect but I did need to get back on-track as soon as possible. You won’t always be perfect either. Accepting that from the beginning takes a lot of the drama out of it. Treat it as an event you knew was coming then get back on track as soon as possible. It’s like being on a car trip. You might get a flat tire at some point. It’s something that happens but isn’t a reason to quit going onto your destination and live on the side of the road for the rest of your life. You put your spare tire onto the car and get moving again. You have that choice on your weight loss journey as well. You can choose to eat on plan for the very next meal and keep on moving onto your weight loss goal. Be open to trying different things If you do the same things you have always done, you’ll get the very same results you already have. Being success in weight loss requires eating and drinking in ways that are different than what you’ve been doing. It doesn’t take a complete 180-degree turnaround to get different results but it does require small changes. The very first thing I ask my clients to do is to ask themselves before every meal “Am I hungry?” If the answer is yes, eat. If the answer is no, wait until you are hungry. They are amazed at what a difference it makes just asking themselves this small question. Really open your mind to all the possibilities for change. You could drink a few more sips of water, leave a couple bites behind at each meal, switch to whole grain bread or walk for fifteen minutes each day. Be careful not to think that these actions are too small to amount to any weight loss. Every small action adds up. Plus it makes your journey more enjoyable since you aren’t having to rely on Herculean willpower to muster through. Decide to figure it out Maybe the things you tried didn’t result in weight loss. Again, not a big deal. Change it up and see what DOES work. The problem with diets and exercise plans is that they don’t take into account the individual person. The way I teach weight loss is custom to YOU. You are the expert in your weight loss and I help you find that inner wisdom that defines weight loss on your own terms. Because when you define weight loss on your own terms, you lose all your weight without any fear of it ever returning. So get curious when you stop losing weight. Ask yourself what contributed to that. Find something new to try next that will give you a different result. Your weight loss journey will change along the way and willingness to figure it out is required to be successful. Love yourself no matter what Starting your weight loss journey with self-hate or loathing for your body is a recipe for disaster. You don’t have to go from hating yourself to loving yourself. Just stop the hateful comments. When I was 250-pounds and hated the way I looked, I simply made an agreement with myself to stop saying hateful things. I didn’t have to change it to something loving. I just said to myself “I don’t think that way anymore.” Then as my journey progressed and I gained for confidence and love for myself, I was able to say loving things instead. The amazing thing is that your brain cannot think two thoughts at the same time. As soon as you start thinking something new, the other thought is gone. Here’s why loving yourself is so important. Think about going in for a performance evaluation and your boss tells you how much he hates you and everything you do is wrong. Then he demands that you make huge changes. How likely is it that you will rise up to meet his demands? I don’t know about you but I’d be searching for a new job! Now imagine that a
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
What to do when you lose your weight loss motivation
Motivation is a fleeting thing. It seems to come and go as it pleases. Once motivation begins to wain so often do the healthy habits we put in place to lose weight. For many of us, this is a problem as we begin to put on weight and feel like we have failed. So what should you do? Here are five steps to take when you lose your weight loss motivation: Remind yourself this is normal It’s really easy to look at other people on social media on health and fitness journeys and believe that they are machines that never waiver in their motivation. But that’s simply not true. Social media is often a highlight reel of people’s lives. Everyone on this Earth has struggled with feeling unmotivated. It’s really beneficial to acknowledge to yourself that this is totally normal. It’s likely not the first time you’ve felt unmotivated and it won’t be the last. Acknowledging that this is normal is really important. When you believe you are the only one who feels unmotivated, it creates a feeling of shame. Often times when you feel shame, you hide. You start hiding from your goals and ignore the reasons why you are doing this. You start making excuses how just skipping a workout this one time won’t matter or you deserve to eat this chocolate cake. Before you know it, you are feeling shame for “falling off the wagon” on top of the original shame of not feeling like working out and now you’re in a shame spiral. Shame has never been a good motivator. It’s important to exit that shame spiral by acknowledging that this is a normal part of all health journeys. This is something to be expected. It may not feel great and you might not love it, but it’s also something that won’t last forever. Acknowledge that motivation isn’t a requirement The second step to getting your motivation back is to acknowledge that it’s not required to do the things that result in weight loss. Yep, I said it. Motivation is not required to work out, eat a vegetable or stop eating at enough. Don’t believe me? Think about all the things you do when you simply don’t feel like it. Paying any bills at all would probably qualify. Going to meaningless meetings at work. Taking your car in for emissions testing. Flossing your teeth. You get the point. Motivation is a great thing to have but at the end of the day, you don’t have to feel motivated to take action. What is far better than feeling motivated is feeling committed. Commitment to your health goals is much like your commitment in marriage. It is for better or worse, through thick and thin, and until death do you part. To strengthen your commitment, remind yourself of the consequences of not taking action, which is the next step to getting your weight loss motivation back. Consider the consequences Every action has a consequence, whether good or bad. When you lose your weight loss motivation, your ability to consider the consequences seems to go out the window too. You justify skipping the workout without considering the new sedentary habit you are creating. You eat the chocolate cake without acknowledging that this choice means you won’t lose weight this week. Considering the consequences is not telling yourself that you’ll never lose weight because your undisciplined and a failure for skipping a workout or eating the cake. It’s just a reminder to yourself that your actions have an effect on the results you see on your journey. It is a moment of loving responsibility, not condemnation. Taking the moment to consider what you want right now in this unmotivated moment versus what you want most (meeting your weight loss goal) can be enough to motivate you to make the choice that brings long term success. Count your wins After acknowledging that feeling unmotivated is normal, reminding yourself that motivation is not required to take action and you consider the consequences, it’s time to start counting your wins. Everyone enjoys winning. When you are winning, you want to continue to play the game. When you are losing, you want to pack up your bat and ball and go home. One great way to get your motivation back is to count your wins. No matter big or small, it all counts! Start listing all the things actions you’ve taken on your weight loss journey, the non-scale victories as well as scale victories and you’re on your way to feeling more motivated in no time. Take action As discussed before, you don’t have to feel motivated to take action. So just get started. You don’t have to commit to never missing a workout but what about just doing five minutes right now? You don’t have to write an entire food plan, but what about just filling in what you’ll eat for breakfast. Don’t want to journal? Just write down how you feel today in a couple sentences. Something is always better than nothing and you’ll probably find that when you get the ball rolling, it is easier to convince yourself to just go ahead and finish what you started. In fact, most of us don’t want to take action because we think it will be difficult or require a lot of work. But the reality is once you start doing it, you realize it wasn’t that big of a deal to begin with and will often find it easier to commit to completing the task. And of course, when you take the action, celebrate it. Cue the confetti and tell yourself how amazing you are for doing it when you didn’t feel like it. You put what you want most over what you wanted right now and that is a huge accomplishment! Your Coach, Andrea
How to create a successful weight loss plan in 5 easy steps
Weight loss can be very overwhelming especially when you have over 100 pounds to lose. You may get confused on where to start or which food and exercise plan is the best. There are thousands of options out there and it can seem impossible to know which one is right for you. Here are five easy steps to creating a successful weight loss plan especially made for YOU: 1. Figure out where you are beginning When you get directions to a new place you’ve never been, you have to plug in the starting address first. To begin your weight loss journey, you have to do the same. Start by asking yourself the following questions: What is my current weight? If I had to guess what brought me to this weight, I would say it’s because…. What is my routine eating schedule? What are the foods I eat in a normal day? How much am I routinely moving my body? Do I believe I am capable of making the changes to lose my excess weight? These questions are great ways to determine where you are starting with your diet, exercise and mindset. Be careful not to get too overwhelmed or upset about how far you are from your ultimate goal. Don’t let this be a time where you plan for incredible acts of willpower or drastic measures that will get you to your goal the fastest. Remember when you are getting directions somewhere, they are given in multiple steps. If you were traveling across the country, you wouldn’t get upset because there are multiple roads and highways you have to take so don’t let that be a reason to be upset on your weight loss journey either. Especially when you have a lot of weight to lose, it helps to accept that the process is going to take time. Taking things slower ensures you don’t burn out and quit. 2. Make a list of what you are willing to do to lose weight Remember to start where you are! It’s very easy to look for a diet and exercise plan that promises the results you want. Just remember that every diet out there works if YOU continue to work it. You have probably lost weight before on these other plans but ultimately failed because you stopped following it. You weren’t willing to continue to follow the diet rules. This time around you need to figure out what you are willing to do for the rest of your life to maintain a healthier weight. If you are currently eating McDonald’s three times a day, changing to eating only salads that you make at home isn’t realistic and will feel terrible. Instead look for the small things that you are willing to do. Maybe it is ordering a smaller size fry or a regular hamburger instead of the Big Mac. You could also order your same meal and leave a few bites behind each time. Just make a list of all the ways you are willing to eat a little less, move a little more and explore why you are overeating in the first place. Once you have a giant list (don’t stop until you have at least 20 things on it), figure out which ones are going to be the easiest to do and start with one of them. Yep, just one. Do one thing until you get really good at doing it and then layer in the next easiest thing. Small quick wins are a great way to start changing your habits, getting the weight loss ball rolling and not feeling like your life was turned upside down. Those quick wins will add up and before you know it you will be doing many of these new habits and it won’t feel difficult at all. 3. Create an action plan for when you fail You are human. You will make mistakes. You will not do it right ALL the time. And that’s OK. The problem is that when you make a mistake, you ruminate on how terrible you are and how you’ll never make the changes needed to lose your weight. It becomes a catastrophe rather than a moment in time. That’s why it is important to create a plan for getting back on track as quickly possible. Having this plan in place ahead of time makes it so much easier to follow when you are in the thick of things and shortens the amount of time it takes to “get back on the wagon.” First, create a list of thoughts that help get you get your mind in the right place to take your next best action. This was just a moment in time. I can learn from this and move on stronger and better equipped. No matter what happened, I can always make my next best decision. It’s not the mistake I made but how I respond to it that determines my success in weight loss. Then create a list of the small decisions that you can make to get your weight loss ball rolling again. Keep these really simple and something you can do in under five minutes. Some ideas are drink a glass of water, go for a five minute walk, write in your journal or listen to a motivational podcast. Finally and most importantly after completing one of these actions remind yourself that you are doing what it takes to lose weight again. Tell yourself how proud you are for getting right back at it! 4. Decide on how you will measure your progress Please don’t just say the scale! The scale will not accurately reflect all of your efforts. You cannot control the scale. You can only control your actions so using a habit tracker is a much better way to measure progress. A habit tracker can show you that you worked out twice last week but you completed three workouts this week. That’s progress! You can also track sleep, adherence to food plans, overeats