Why can't I lose weight? Check out my top ten tips..

Do you remember a time when you embarked on a new dietary program for a month or so and felt amazing? You lost weight. You felt the fittest and healthiest you’d ever been and you’ve been trying to get back there ever since??

Do you have a constant voice in your head that keeps saying, “why can’t you just do it? What’s wrong with you? You’re such a failure. You never stick at anything!”

Sound familiar?

Yep I’ve been there.

But there’s a reason these dietary programs don’t work. In a nutshell, they’re designed to make you fail because they don’t allow for flexibility, variety and including your favourite food. They’re faddy, extreme and sold to you on the basis you’ll get great results super-quick with none of the long-term sustainability essential for life-long success.

Your self-esteem and self-confidence drops to an all-time low and your “I’m a failure” radar reaches an all-time high.

No wonder you’re having trouble feeling motivated!

So I want to proffer another suggestion.

One of the biggest mistakes we make is underestimating how long it’s taken to get to where we are health-wise and weight-wise. And what you’re probably unaware of are all the underlying factors - family history and our emotional triggers ( emotional baggage from our deep-seated past), not to mention the ones you probably do know like diet and lifestyle.

So what if you did 2 things:

1. Look at the WHOLE of your life, and how you want it to be - family, relationships, health, career, hobbies etc. and how your weight loss fits into that.

2. Create a much larger time frame to reach your goal and for long-term sustainabilty. Let me explain..

What if you started seriously DAY-DREAMING - I mean literally visualising your dream life and what it could be.

Research has shown when we make a goal like I want to lose weight, it’s much more effective if we imagine what it’s like when we’ve reached that goal, how it makes us feel and what it will give us ( looking at the impact on our WHOLE life).

Ask yourself some questions like, what will it give me to be my ideal weight? What will I be able to do?

So it’s about focusing on the person you want to become rather than looking down at your belly and simply wanting it gone.

Here are 10 tried and tested steps I use in my practice:

Look at the whole of your life and become aware of how you would like it to be different, for eg; health, relationships, career, work/life balance, me-time, hobbies, finances etc. A simple place to start is to factor in a time to do some day-dreaming without being judgemental or emotional, simply curious. If your life could be any which way, what would it be? Be prepared for emotions to arise possibly.
Fast forward to the future and picture an image which encapsulates your perfect weight and perfect life. Add some words to describe how you feel, for eg, free, peaceful, calm, happy, relaxed, joyful,etc.
Be prepared to look at your past so you can discover what limiting beliefs you hold from childhood, for eg, I’m unlovable, I’m a failure, I’m not good enough, I’m not safe etc. ( This is probably easier with a therapist).
Spend some time getting to know ‘little you’ - connect with your inner child. Picture him or her. What age are you? What’s the expression on your face? Are you happy or sad? Why might you be feeling like that? As adult you, reach out and connect to him or her in a loving way.
Start with small consistent changes with a long-term view.
Make a loose weekly meal plan.
Try the 80:20 ratio to include your favourite foods for long-term success.
Hydrate. Hydrate. Hydrate.
Add 50% vegetables per meal.
Avoid gluten.

Now I’m not saying any of this is easy. In fact, if you’re serious about wanting weight loss then I’d much prefer you bought a package and we do this work together. If you’re worried about cost, remember, it’s an investment for life.

You can’t unlearn what I teach you and with my revolutionary 3-pronged approach, you will discover all the tools you need to create your magnificent life.

Trying to lose weight whilst carrying emotional baggage is impossible because emotional baggage creates your thoughts which create your feelings which create your behaviours.
It doesn’t mean you have to spend copious amounts of time wading through torturous feelings of inadequacy or disapproval from your childhood but it does mean you have to spend some time acknowledging your past and how it’s formed your impression of yourself and others.
It does mean learning how to love and comfort yourself when someone or something has triggered you from the past so you can move through those difficult emotions without needing to block them with alcohol or chocolate etc.
It does mean you need to live consciously instead of floating through the day unaware. ( conscious awareness) Recognising when your feelings have been hurt for eg; and nurture and honour yourself in that moment.
It does mean by doing this, you’ll want to change some of your habits because you’ll recognise they’re not serving your dream to become happy and healthy.
And it does mean you’ll want to understand the health principles I teach about how to create the most optimum internal conditions for weight loss, for eg; if you’re dehydrated you’ll interfere with the liver’s ability to break down fats and your body won’t let go ( of toxins, excess weight etc.) until it has the reassurance to do so. This does require understanding the holistic way in which our bodies work and putting simple techniques in place.

So my 3-pronged approach is emotional work, creating a healthy mindset and understanding what your body needs physically, ie; nutritionally to lose weight and have loads of energy etc.

There’s lots of confusing misleading information out there.

Work with me and you’ll discover a holistic philosophy based on 30 years of training, knowledge and practice which will give you the tools to create your dream life.

This was a recent convo with a client ( on my program) struggling with weight..

ME: ” When you look at your belly look at it with compassion and love it deeply. It has served you well ( protected you). Thank it. Now you’re ready to let it go with love. It’s the only way. To truly accept yourself as you are whilst putting in place the tiny yet powerful changes towards creating your best health.”

CLIENT: “ Wow! Now that is a life changing approach.”

It sure is!

When you work with me you’ll get compassion and support, expert knowledge, motivation and accountability to become happy healthy and inspired.

Ready to get started? Get in touch here.

Much love

Sophie xox

Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash