Secrets of Permanent Fat Loss Revealed
What are the secrets to permanent fat loss? I always go back to three powerful things that I find are vital for my clients to understand about the journey to their goal weight: Sacrifice, self-discipline and hard work.
The Problem Isn’t Lack of Knowledge
What do we need to know about losing weight? That is the question that is driving the multi-million dollar “Diet” industry. There are about as many weight loss programs and schemes out there as there are stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach.
Ten foods never to eat again
Twenty supplements to boost your metabolism
Thirty days to washboard abs.
Forty ways to hack your health
Forty-two- the answer to life the universe and everything. (Sorry, I digress…)
Fifty drinks that burn fat
Sixty ice water diets
Seventy beans to avoid
Eighty blah, blah, blah…
And it goes on and on and on. The reality is, we know what we need to do to lose the unwanted fat! Instead, we want the quick and easy miracle fix that won’t require sacrifice, self-discipline and good old fashion work. I get an an amazing amount of phone calls and emails asking
if I have pills, shots and or miracle shakes. In the past I would, and probably should begin again, avoid the question and ask a few questions of my own; what are their goals for weight loss? How long do you expect it to take to lose that weight? Then, I try to find out their “why”. What is it that is pushing them at this point in their life to try a new weight loss program? Most people at this point begin to realize that I am avoiding their initial question and hang up. There are very few that stay on the line through out this process.
Sacrifice aka Embrace the Suck
Yes, sacrifice is hard, it means we have to give up, abandon, surrender, relinquish, etc… Well, that principle does not sit well with our instant gratification society. We want what we want and we want a lot of it now!! The item or items that each person needs to sacrifice is different. No one sacrifice will work for each person. What some consider a sacrifice to others is no big deal to give up. The good news here is that we may not need to sacrifice the item permanently or completely. For instance Ben & Jerry’s
Phish Food is a comfort for for me. It is some thing that when I began my journey I had to give up completely for several years. You see I couldn’t eat just one serving and be fine, I ate the whole pint each time I had it. If it was a particularly stressful week I may eat several pints (I would keep spoons in my glove box in case such an emergency arose).
Self Discipline
Unfortunately, our North American does not do a very good job of instilling the concept of self-discipline. Lets be honest most of the time we just don’t want to restrain ourselves. Its just so limiting. As noted above I had to sacrifice the Phish Food because when it came to that particular comfort food I lack the self-discipline to stop at one serving. We see the negative side of self discipline and forget to look at the positive sides. You see self-discipline can also be seen as persistence, determination and full of grit. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, these men were determined, persistent, full of grit and doggedness. Don’t you want to see yourself as them? It takes the same kind of self-discipline to gain control over yourself. But, to do so we have to become uncomfortable, and everything within us wants to be comfortable.
Hard Work, Say It Ain’t So
Sacrifice and self-discipline can cause pain as does our third requirement, hard work! In my opinion neither sacrifice nor self-discipline are easy, they take work on our
part. As mentioned above, the way our society influences our view of both sacrifice and self-discipline can make us feel that they are a drudgery, toil or slog. We must put in considerable effort and be industrious if we are going to make long term gains on our on our weight loss goals. As the saying goes, “if it were easy everyone would do it”. The reality of the effort we must put in causes many of us to give up when we do not progress as quickly as we would like. But, every ounce adds up to pounds and lead us to our desired goal. I have a friend that trusted the process even though her weekly losses were small. Her average loss per week was usually less than one-half pound. She lost 110 pounds! That my friends is significant! She lost one-half her body weight, but it took her nearly two years of slow methodical work!
Trust the Process
