You have decided you are finally ready to lose weight as a way of improving your overall health. Whether your motivation to due so stems from your doctor warning you about a lifelong relationship with Type 2 diabetes, or you decided to take this step as a way of living a full, vital life. Either way, Congratulations! I know this can be a very scary time for many of you. Insecurity, fear of failing, and feelings of overwhelm are often what leave people in the same spot year after year. The risk of change is riskier than living the same life they already know. Seriously, this is a huge reason many folks do not take that first step toward a healthier lifestyle. People must finally get to a point in which their motivation to change is stronger than their motivation to stay the same.
In order to make this time of transition easier for my clients, I focus on one lifestyle area at a time. These areas are:
Commitment
Healthier Eating Habits
Stress Management
Exercise
I spend a week on each area of focus as a way to allow my client to discover ownership of healthier behaviors, and with that comes feelings of capability! Lead someone to believe they are capable and that is the day you will see their life change. Trust me! I have seen this work with young female gymnasts as a gymnastics coach for 25 years, and when I carried over this philosophy into my lifestyle coaching, I saw the same results!
Also, research has shown that it takes on average, 21 days to establish a new habit. I decided to add a week in order to increase the odds that my clients are more likely to stay on the right path rather than falling back into their old, unhealthy ways of living. There is no guarantee, but research has shown that after 21 days, people have cemented some new daily habits such as eating more greens and exercising just like they have when it comes to brushing their teeth and making the bed each morning.
You may find it interesting that I focus on exercise last. There is a reason behind this. I am going to address each area as a way to provide you with a bit more insight behind my steps toward living a healthier lifestyle.
1. Commitment- The first step toward change is to commit. As I stated above, your motivation to change has to be stronger than your desire to stay the same. You know that statement that often floats around the wellness world "I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired." This is an example of a powerful "why," or the reason for committing to a health coaching program. This is a very crucial step when it comes to staying the course through the ups and downs, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
You will have moments when you want to quit just as an athlete training for an Olympic dream wants to quit on days when they are being challenged and stretched beyond their comfort zone. But you know what keeps that athlete going? Their goal of one day becoming an Olympian! You must have a concrete reason for taking on this lifestyle change. It has to be very powerful. When you tie a strong why to your goal, then you will likely "soldier on" and experience how the goal feels when you finally achieve it.
It is my job as a health coach to help you think out loud and uncover your personal motivation to make a change. I often will ask my clients this simple question, "How will your life be different if you achieve this one goal?"
2. Healthier Eating Habits- Once a client determines a motivation to change that is strong enough to stay the course, the focus will shift to creating healthier eating habits. As the saying goes, you are what you eat!
I have a huge mission to change people's relationship with food. Just as when you help a person discover capability, when you help a person change his or her relationship with food, you empower them to take their health back into their own hands, or mouths, however, you want to see it. We all know that we should eat more plants, drink more water, and eat less sugar. But, years of social conditioning have created unhealthy relationships with food for many people. Food is so often seen as a reward or a punishment. How many times have you seen people celebrate with cakes, cookies, and cheeseburgers all while viewing a salad as a prison sentence? Or stuffing their emotions with a pint of ice cream in movies and TV shows? We have sadly been taught that the wrong foods can help us feel better, even if only for that brief two minutes it takes to eat it.
This is where a health coach, such as me, comes in to save the day. We allow clients to discover which foods will REALLY make them feel better while recognizing which foods leave them feeling exhausted, bloated, swollen, irritable, and unmotivated. I help clients crowd out unhealthy food with a healthier option in a step-by-step manner. If someone feels they must stop eating their favorite foods all at once, I can assure they won't even sign up for a program! It is not about massive, temporary change but rather small, long-term change!
Introducing foods that will naturally balance hormones and detoxify the body, leaving clients feeling energetic and optimistic, is the agenda. Done are the days of restrictive dieting, weigh-ins, and the "eat this not that" mentality. Learning how to eat to fuel your body and brain so that you have the energy and focus to live a happy, fulfilling life is the goal. Sure, you will see the weight drop but that won't be the focus. Establishing eating habits that promote health is what we aim to achieve. Let's face it, are we really going to be more active if we feel exhausted and malnourished?
3. Stress Management- Why is stress management so important when it comes to weight loss goals? There are many ways stress affects the body, physically and emotionally. Sugar cravings, poor sleep, digestive issues, and food sensitivities are all very common issues associated with high levels of stress. When the body is under constant day in and day out stress, also known as chronic stress, the hormone cortisol becomes imbalanced. Cortisol is the hormone produced by the adrenal glands in response to a stressor. In everyday normal life, cortisol aids the body in producing enough energy and focus to deal with an acute stressor such as a car pulling out in front of you as you are driving. The body signals the liver to release more glucose into the bloodstream for energy, and insulin is then released to transport the glucose to the cells for use. When the body is under chronic stress, cortisol is being released so much that it throws these other hormones out of whack as well.
How does this relate to weight loss? One, hormonal imbalances are often a root cause of weight gain. Insulin is your fat-storing hormone. Cortisol raises one's blood sugar and, therefore, increases the insulin floating around in the bloodstream. Long story short, high cortisol levels can result in increased belly fat and weight gain, regardless of how healthy you eat or how much you exercise. So, learning how to manage stress is a key factor in any health program, including weight loss. There are so many ways you can practice stress management without breaking the bank. I help my clients explore various ways to de-stress and allow them to decide which one(s) they can see themselves sticking with each day.
4. Exercise-It is not until the fourth and final week of a month-long program that I introduce exercise as part of the plan. I place exercising as the last area of focus for the primary reason that I truly feel one needs to naturally increase their nutrient intake in order to have the energy it takes to not just exercise but to be able to recover from workouts. If one is trying to eat healthier and increase exercise at the same time, they may be left fatigued, too sore, and seeing the changes as too much and, therefore, quit!
Once the client has the eating part a bit more under control and stress levels managed, then he or she may actually be excited to add-in the next thing that will amp up their health and fitness goals. Instead of finding it dreadful, clients are often more excited and motivated because they are now starting to notice improvements in energy and focus and are feeling better overall! I do want to emphasize that I encourage clients to include a daily walk for the first three weeks. Moving the body, even if it is only a leisurely walk, is good for one's health journey. However, in week 4 I work on establishing an exercise routine that will get the heart rate up and is one a client will enjoy and stick with for quite some time. Not everyone is going to be a runner or bootcamp enthusiast. Discovering something that adds to your life and makes you feel happy is key!
There you have it, folks! These are the four steps I have found to be most successful when clients approach me with goals to lose weight and improve their overall wellbeing. I am going to let you in on a little secret of mine. I sought out the help of a health coach myself WHILE I was going through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition's health coach certification course. I, like many of you, needed support and accountability. Even health fanatics such as myself still needed guidance! Never be afraid or intimidated when it comes to reaching out to someone for a little help. Ultimately, we all just want to feel better and live a more fulfilling life.
So, let me end this post with one last question to you again, "if you achieved your goal, how would your life be different?"