For the past month or so, this subject came up in training sessions with at least 10 of my 20+ clients. Fantastic people that often put me in awe for their commitment with their lives, work, family and also, fitness life. People who have reached strong goals with fat loss, impressed the heck out of their families and friends. They look better, sleep better, feel better, stopped meds they had been taking for years, bought new clothes, celebrated, and now smile more often.
But something came across their new lifestyle
and for some reason, they feel they stopped their progress, or regressed away from their goals. I’m sure you will agree with me that this is the most common problem you come across related to fat loss, happening to you or to anybody else you know (or train). The rebound. Some were worried and some, really depressed.
and for some reason, they feel they stopped their progress, or regressed away from their goals. I’m sure you will agree with me that this is the most common problem you come across related to fat loss, happening to you or to anybody else you know (or train). The rebound. Some were worried and some, really depressed.
There are always obvious things to blame, but what has been really deep inside getting in the way of their accomplishments?
Time to reassess!
These amazing people dedicate 2-3 hours per week to training with me, so there is just so much I can reach, but I believe I can help them at least to formulate the right questions, then to find their own right answers!
To their surprise, I brought a new character to the story: me, the trainer. WHAAAAT? Shame on you, Ty!! You’re the trainer, you don’t have those problems! Did you just catch yourself asking that? Well, I did and well, as a simple mortal, I do have those problems, and thanks to that sooo-not-perfect me, I’ve been searching and learning so much for the past few years. The learning journey is endless, along with sharing the ins and outs.
I’ve never been an athlete, had little or no incentive to exercise until my late teenage years. My battle with fat is a long, “springy” story, going up and down. So guess what? Maybe you don’t know that I could be the hottest stuff one day, and the flabbiest “behind” 2 months later. Talk about self-image issues. Being a TV reporter for several years, being “on the spot” brought up panic and paranoia to a level that just made things worse. Moving to a different country, pregnancy (200+lbs! woot!) and changing careers always made it hard to control my “weight” issues. Do you see the pattern here? Reality is that life will always bring something to the table and we need to be prepared to stick to our purpose.
About 2 years ago, I learned about the Metabolic Effect Fat Loss lifestyle and dove deep. It was worth the diving to find what has changed my way to choose the information I feed my body with. Literally, I learned that food is information. Last year, inspired by the ME peeps, specially Jade Teta and Jill Coleman, I lost a lot of fat, looked awesome, felt like a rockstar and then, suddenly… BOOM! I started falling out the wagon. Free falling I should say. I didn’t know how to stop it! I was angry at myself for having all the information I needed, knowing what worked for me. It was a painful shape hiatus, with a tough to carry embarrassment in front of my clients (how could I disappoint them like this?). I couldn’t hide and I’m glad I didn’t. I got up and fell back down again a few times. It’s been a long process, but I asked for help and am working to stop that train wreck.
I felt so guilty that when I went to NC to get my ME-PT certification in September, I even mentioned to Dr. Jade Teta (what a great teacher, doctor, and friend) during a nice walk that I felt almost like my fat loss problems were starting to cause problems to my clients!!! What? Yes, my guilt trip was that bad.
Fast forward through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s resolution, IDEA Conference… Then talks to my husband (he’s a saint!), long conversations with friends like Ellen Heidel and Benny Dorsey who helped me think and believe in how much I know and how powerful I should feel to take charge of my stress, my sleep, my food, my purpose!
And because I’m not perfect and am quite the journey far from my ideal body, and specially because I brought that to their table, my clients told me it felt much easier to believe it is possible to get where they wanted to be. We're working on it! :)
So what happens to “don’t ever show your weakness!”. In this case, my “weakness” has been helping me encourage my clients to fight for this change and embrace the fat loss lifestyle.
We talked about the victim role. Then we talked about the excuses, or reasons. If your reason is an excuse, well, than it needs to be worked on. Get rid of it taking charge, specially when you hear yourself saying: “But I’ve been under so much stress I couldn’t follow my eating plan”, “Work gets in the way”, and the fairly common “I’ve had such touch day that when I got home I DESERVED some comfort food”. How much more comfortable did you feel about yourself after eating it? Really.
Each person will find their own arguments and answers. There is no absolute truth.
Today, a long walk around the lake and an answer I read in the Metabolic Effect FB page made me want to share this. Somebody who had stumbled, asked for help, and here is the reply by ME:
“This is unfortunately the way it works. Life is life and there will always be ups and downs. We view these as good things because it gives us the opportunity to sit back, reflect and learn. Right now... you should be gentle with yourself and ask a few questions 1) What happened in my life the made my new habits less important to me? 2) Ask yourself what am I still doing well 3) Ask yourself what you are no longer doing well and then ask why. Explore why it was hard 4) Really sit and think about the mindset that might be getting in the way. Treat this like any other thing you have done in life that you had to learn practice and master overtime. You are never going to be perfect but these "failures/setbacks" are the catalyst to the most powerful changes. But you have to really sit back and take stock of your challenges and who or what got in the way. Then map out a plan to get back on track. It will take some activation energy to get rolling again so here is what we suggest
1) Take the rest of the week off & commit to start on Monday. Keep doing all the things you have been doing right
2) Take the rest of the week and weekend to write down what you have struggled with and how you are going to handle it different this time
3) Go shopping and get and prepare all your food
4) Sunday night do some visualization to prime the mind for success”
What a fantastic input! I am hopeful and thankful. If you’re there, get out of the limbo. Jump right back in the game!
Cocoa drink cheers! :)
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