Are you getting scammed?
About a 4-Minute Read
Summer is here, and that means the annual tradition of new diets and “get thin quick” schemes are everywhere.
If you’re like most dieters, every failed attempt to reach your goal and keep the weight off not only erodes your self-confidence, but it also keeps you up late at night, binge-eating whole packages of junk food and saying things to yourself that you wouldn’t dare utter to your best friend.
When it comes to all the new, incredible diets and miracle supplements, the “shiny object syndrome” definitely applies. You might catch yourself thinking that you haven’t lost weight yet because you lack the willpower, and that this new diet or product will be THE ONE that gets you back into your skinny jeans.
There’s just one problem with this. All these new diets and supplements are based on a fundamental scam that will keep you fat forever. People keep telling you that if only you have this outside thing, this special plan and secret, you’ll lose weight.
The scam is that they try to convince you that there is something outside of you that can make you lose weight. The reality? There is NO solution “out there in the world” to effortlessly change the way your body looks. If you want to lose weight or get into shape, you need to fundamentally shift your mindset and the way you feel about yourself.
The weight loss and diet industries make billions of dollars each year by churning and burning through this mis-perception of how weight loss works. And we have bought into it – we’ve been scamming ourselves – for years!
Once you realize that the answers will come from within, you can put structures and tools into place to facilitate this new shift. Start with these three steps (which, by the way, are just a few of the steps to long-term weight loss and fitness that we focus on in my new 60-Day program, BEGIN).
Step 1: Assess Yourself
I can guarantee that skipping this step will ensure failure. This is because you can’t begin without knowing where you’re starting. Get your scared butt on the scale. Take your measurements. Take photos from the front, side and back. I know it's painful - I recall the despair I felt when I started my own weight loss journey. I wouldn’t tell you to take this step if it wasn't critical to your success. Remember, it’s just data. Don’t judge.
Next, record what you’re eating. Notice the thoughts you have about your body and your self-worth as you make food choices. Write them down. You have to address how you feel about food and what needs are being met by your current choices. It's not just about the food. It's about how you are using food to meet your needs. Trust me, you will be shocked when you look back over the results.
Step 2: Design Your Plan
Now that you have a starting point and you have collected the right data, it’s time to design a plan and make a commitment to better health and happiness. This is about the logistics, and you have to be really honest with yourself when you envision your journey. What steps are you actually willing to take consistently? If you try to lose weight in a manner that doesn’t feel sustainable in the long run, you will fail miserably and you will probably gain back all the weight you lost and then some. YIKES! Ditch the idea that there is a quick fix out there that will work for you.
The all-or-nothing approach will always lead to nothing. Diets and dieters fail because they set their standards too high. They white knuckle through the all until they fall into nothing. You're too smart for that trap!
When designing your plan, you need to know how many calories your body requires to operate properly in weight loss mode. Do you know your target number? Besides eating the correct number of calories, you need to exercise, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines, "If the horse hasn't run the track in four years, it's not going to win the Kentucky Derby!" Moderation and baby steps are required when designing your exercise plan, too. Don't think you can go from couch to 5 hours of intense workouts per week. You'll get injured, burned out, or both. Baby steps!
Step 3: Re-frame Your Thoughts
Change your mind, change your body.
This is the single most important element to make a practical, achievable, and sustainable change. It’s also the antidote to the #1 weight loss scam I told you about at the beginning of this blog post! If you skip this step, you might as well go buy a box of cookies right now and start bingeing. Go ahead. I’ll even give you the $5.
Here’s a few examples of how you can re-frame common unhelpful thoughts:
“Dieting is when you give up all the food you love” turns into “I love enjoying healthy foods that keep my body nourished!”
“I have to exercise to burn off what I ate” becomes, “I feel strong and energized when I lift weights.”
“I’ll be happy when I reach my goal weight,” becomes, “I’m so proud of myself for working so hard to lose weight and get fit; it makes me really happy to see all the small successes along the way.”
Practice re-framing your thoughts.
Are you ready to really do the mental work it takes to change your life?
“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done,
you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.”
-W. L. Bateman
Becoming fit and healthy isn’t a one-time affair, it’s a lifelong passion. And the good news is that it doesn’t need to be complicated. The simpler, the better, in fact.
Need help getting started? My FREE 5-Day Challenge, Nix The Quick Fix will help you kick things off to a strong start! The Challenge starts on August 3, 2020. Just click HERE , or go to www.nixthequickfix.com to register!
Remember, change has to start on the inside. None of the quick fix programs is going to help you build a body you love living in, or the lifestyle to maintain it. But you can do it, one small step at a time.
I’m here for you.
Have a health of a day,
Juli