Timing isn’t everything: How this client stopped waiting for Monday!

The most difficult excuse to overcome when trying to lose weight or simply get healthy is TIMING. The reason is simple. There are a million and one excuses in this category, anything really!

I don’t care if you have a work function, birthday party, vacation or simply a dinner at a friend’s house.

Break-ups, divorce, pregnant, moving? Nope, don’t care about those events either.

IT DOESN’T MATTER!

You simply have to give up the crazy idea that there is some fantasy world out there where one day life will be “perfect” and all the obstacles that make eating healthy and losing weight so difficult for so many of you, will cease to exist.

Being successful at weight loss is not just about losing weight. The hard part is maintaining your losses. The key word here is maintain. Maintaining something means you have to continue working on it. Period. I hate to break it to you, it will always be work, but it can be easy and you can feel amazing doing it!

I want to tell you about one of my Innovative Fitness client’s whom I’ve been working with for 6mths now. She is someone whom I have only ever spoken to on the phone. However, I could tell on our first call, she wasn’t smiling much of the time. As is the case for so many, she had tried multiple times to lose weight with various different programs, only to hit a plateau or gain it back when all was said and done. Bernstein, U Weight Loss, Weight Watchers. Yes, she had tried them all. So to say she was a little apprehensive, is an understatement. That being said, Yoshia (owner, Innovative Fitness Abbotsford, BC) sent her my way and his faith in my abilities helped her make the commitment to give working with me a try for at least 3 months.

This is someone who had regularly been training with IF and also led an active life of hiking and golfing (even walking the full course). But she still couldn’t manage to drop the weight. A common frustration for so many, because at the end of the day, you just can’t out-train a bad diet PERIOD. We started mid April at which point she was 203lbs with the goal of reaching 185.

This is a woman in her 50’s who gets up early to train multiple days a week, works a demanding high-stress position and puts in a lot of over-time. On a typical weekday, she may not get home until 8pm. There are many challenges in her life, lunch meetings, dinner meetings, retreats, working late, social activities and travel. On any given day, she is faced with making the best choices she can in an imperfect world. Week to week, she made small changes that enabled her to lose the weight steadily. There were however times that she maintained week over week, and even gained two pounds one week about a month and a half in, when her motivation started to dissipate. But here is the thing. Although we made significant changes that helped regulate her appetite, balance her hormones and put her in the driver’s seat.   I also made sure we only made the smallest adjustments necessary for her to keep progressing. We were not looking for massive losses in a short period. We were working together to establish a knowledge of nutrition and a relationship with her own body that nobody could take away from her. This was not an inflexible plan. She was social, ate out, vacationed and even spent time away with family. There was even some fish and chips in her food diary, but we STILL managed to keep her on track. The key to making sustainable long lasting changes isn’t about getting to the finish line first. It is about making healthier choices consistently day by day that just start to become “normal” to you. Your nutrition plan should make you FEEL amazing and fit your everyday life. That is what creating a new normal is about. She never feels hungry or deprived; the difference is that she just enjoys eating healthy food now.

I’m happy to report that her smile now shines through over the phone.   The warmth and energy she exudes is contagious. She feels amazing, has more energy, is sleeping better, and she has learned major life skills for coping with difficult situations. As is normal in life, she has faced a few situations in the last few months that historically would have sent her to high sugar processed foods to feel good. Just last week was one of those situations and instead of it derailing her, she chose to FEEL good. She made plans with friends, kept active and ate food that made her feel good so she could weather the storm and stay strong both physically and mentally. I can’t even tell you how happy I was to hear that. There is nothing better than seeing your client thrive instead of just survive no matter what life throws their way!

I’m happy to report that we have already surpassed her original goal, and we are now in the 170’s, a place she hasn’t been for more than a decade. She has committed to working with me for another 6mths, and there is no doubt in my mind that she has “got it.” She has changed her mind, her relationship with food, and herself. No more waiting for Monday to start a new “diet” for her. She knows how to roll with the imperfection of life and just keeping making choices that make her FEEL GOOD!

If you feel like you are running to stand still. Stop making excuses and pretending to be “easy” on yourself! Putting your health on the back burner is NOT showing yourself care and love, not even close! If you really want to “treat” yourself, do what you need to do to help your mind, and your body best deal with the situation at hand. NOURISH YOURSELF!

There will NEVER be a “perfect time” in your life to make YOU and your health a priority!

I promise you…..IT WILL NEVER COME! Life is imperfect, period!

Today is the DAY! (even though it’s not Monday)

Commit to making the BEST CHOICE you can NOW!

Remember it is ALWAYS YOUR CHOICE!

If you have been working hard towards your goals and still feel frustrated with your progress, I’m here to help!

xo

Ciara

*Originally posted on www.innovativefitness.com