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The Only 3 Things You Need to Lose Fat

I used to think getting in shape was complicated.

After my initial success losing weight, I got swept up in several fitness fads. I believed that unless I fasted for exactly 8 hours per day and removed certain foods from my diet, I would never reach my ultimate fat loss goal. As you might expect, this created unnecessary stress and didn’t get me much closer to where I wanted to be.

Read more: Why popular diets don’t work (and what to do instead)

My perspective on this issue has changed tremendously over the last 7 years. Whereas I once believed there were “secrets” to losing weight and keeping it off, I now believe in the power of mastering the fundamentals.

The old me chased quick-fixes, present me is working to build sane and sustainable habits that truly matter for myself and my clients.

The fitness industry wants you to think fat loss is complicated. But in reality, you only need to do a few things to lose fat. My old coach Bryan Krahn calls these factors “big rocks.” If you want to experience success, focus on moving all the big rocks before getting caught up in the noise and unimportant details.

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Sustained caloric deficit

We need to consume fewer calories than we burn over the course of many weeks and months to lose fat. This is the most important factor in successful fat loss.

No special diet or meal plan (keto, intermittent fasting, paleo, vegan, etc.) can counteract the ultimate importance of caloric balance. These diets work because they help us cut back on calories, not because they provoke any magical changes in the body. The sooner we accept we will have to eat less to lose fat, the faster we steer ourselves onto the right path.

Many of us are clueless about the caloric content of our favorite foods or underestimate the total amount we are consuming. If you feel you are eating “healthy” but aren’t losing weight, try logging your food honestly. I have had many clients return to me shocked at all the sneaky ways they were actually eating more than they thought. Even if you only track your food for a few days, you may gain some useful insights on ways to cut back on calories.

If you’ve honestly tracked your food and you still aren’t satisfied with what you’ve found, you might want to talk with a doctor. Certain medical conditions can interfere with fat loss even in the presence of a caloric deficit. However, in my experience this only affects a small percentage of people struggling to lose weight.

Regular exercise

Exercise is often the first place people start when trying to lose weight. And although it’s not truly essential for fat loss, exercise has innumerable benefits and can make the process of changing your body much more rewarding.

Exercise is also a keystone health habit. This means if you start exercising regularly, you may also be inspired to clean up your eating and address other unhealthy habits. This cumulative effect of these changes makes it much more likely you will reach our fat loss goals.

A blend of cardio and strength training is most effective. Cardio promotes recovery and can help burn a few extra calories in the later stages of a diet. Strength training ensures you hold on to as much muscle as possible which keeps your metabolism revving. Muscle also helps create the toned, lean look most people want after shedding body fat. Prioritize strength training first and be careful not to overly rely on cardio.

Read more: I’m New to the Weight Room. Where Should I Start?

Be as active as you possibly can be outside the gym. The extra calories you burn walking instead of driving, taking the stairs, getting a standing desk at work, and participating in physical hobbies really add up. This is one of the easiest ways to influence the caloric balance equation without adding much extra time to your already busy schedule.

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Sleep and Stress Reduction

Dieting is stressful on the body. Your body can’t tell the difference between diet stress, work stress, home stress, or actual life-threatening stress like being chased by a lion.

For best results, reduce other stresses in your life. If you try to diet during your busiest time at work or when you have lots of travel planned, you are setting yourself up for failure. Too much stress can lead to a host of health problems in addition to making it nearly impossible to stick with your diet and training plan.

Read more: Stress, the silent results killer

Getting enough sleep makes everything else easier as you diet. Sleep is essential to help your body recover from training. It also helps reduce food cravings and provides energy for your workouts. If you can’t get uninterrupted sleep at night, try adding in a 20-minute power nap during the day.

Bonus: Patience, Consistency, and Time

Even if you do everything discussed above, you won’t make any progress unless you stick with it for many weeks and months. Those dramatic, rapid transformations you see online are the exception, not the rule. Unfortunately, it often takes much longer than anticipated to see the changes you want and many people simply give up when things get hard.

I encourage you to make a mindset shift regarding fat loss. Instead of viewing your goal weight as a destination you will arrive at, view fat loss as part of an ongoing process to transform your life in a healthy way. If you can learn to enjoy the day-to-day process (training, cooking, shopping, stress-reduction, etc.), you will enjoy much more long-term success.

Read more: 3 Mindset Shifts That Helped Me Lose 70lbs and Keep it Off

Aiming for perfection sets you up to fail. Instead, pick one or two big issues to tackle right away and execute them with ruthless consistency for 2 to 4 weeks before adding more to your plate.

These steps are simple, but not easy. Practice patience, embrace the process, and understand that changing your body often takes much longer than anticipated.

Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off despite your best efforts? Join me in a free webinar to learn how to avoid the common dieting mistakes that are standing in your way.

 

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How Taking Action Changed My Life (And How You Can Do the Same)

I spent at least five years of my life very overweight.

During that time, I experienced repeated emotional swings surrounding weight loss. I would have some experience which made me feel terrible about myself and would vow to do whatever it took to lose weight. I ate very little for a few days, and then without fail I went back to my old ways when I didn’t see an immediate drop in the scale.

Over time, this approach created the false belief that I was completely stuck and nothing I did would ever make a difference. I stopped trying to improve my health in any way.

When I was 19, I had a big health scare which made losing weight immediately very important to me. However, I approached this experience much differently than my past “attempts” to lose weight. Instead of trying to do everything at once and expecting immediate results, I picked just two things I felt would make the biggest impact: I started exercising almost every day and I started tracking my food.

After taking these two simple actions consistently for a month, I finally achieved the progress I had been unsuccessfully chasing for years. This small taste of success got me out of my rut and helped fuel me during the many months and years of change that followed. Taking a few small but important actions got me moving toward my goal, even though I didn’t have all the answers at the start or know where I was going to end up.

Action can bring you out of a slump.

We all go through periods in our lives when the world seems to be conspiring against us. We may be wrestling with overwhelm and uncertainty at work, grieving the loss of a loved one or a failed relationship, struggling with our finances, dealing with the impacts of health issues, or some combination of other stressors. Perhaps our lives are generally okay but we haven’t made much progress in the gym or with our weight loss goals. It’s tough to find the motivation or inspiration to change when we feel as if nothing is making much of a difference.

One of the best things we can do if we feel stuck is to take action. Action has a way of improving our mood and motivating us to do more than we thought we could. Taking the first step forward is usually the hardest part.

Think of the principle of inertia, which states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force. Doing something is the outside force which pushes us out of a stationary position. After the initial action, it’s much easier to keep moving.

If you’ve been feeling down in the dumps, your first step could simply be pulling yourself away from Netflix or social media and getting out of the house. Knock out some errands that have been piling up. Make plans to grab coffee with a friend. Do something fun you haven’t made time for in a while. Bonus points if this is something physical, like bowling or rock climbing, as physical activity has a powerful mood-boosting effect.

If you are feeling stuck in regards to your health and fitness goals, pick one thing you can do today you know would move you closer to your goal. This may mean dialing your efforts back if you have been trying to do everything at once and aren’t able to stick with it. Choose something you know with absolute certainty you can do, even if it seems ridiculously small or easy. I elaborate below.

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Action can combat information overload.

Sometimes we have too much information about how to move forward and it paralyzes us. We wonder which first step is the “best” and will get the fastest results, or we read too much conflicting information and are confused about how to move forward at all. Our fear of making mistakes keeps us stuck in place. This is especially true in health and fitness, where everyone has an opinion and contradictory information abounds.

Recognize there are many paths that will get you to your destination. Instead of wasting time looking for the best way, choose a way that seems clear and reasonable given what you know right now, and act on it. You will be much better off if you are farther down the path and have to make some changes than if you stay where you are and do nothing out of fear.

Another helpful action to take to limit information overload is to go on an information diet. Instead of reading anything you can get your hands on about your goal, choose a small group of thought leaders, coaches, and experts whose work really resonates with you and ignore everybody else.

Start with no more than 5 people. If you find the messages of these people conflict, cut some out until you have a core group whose work compliments each other and seems most relevant to you and your goals. It can be tough to ignore all of the noise and shiny objects floating around on the internet, but cutting down your information intake will give you much needed clarity on the actions that will have the most impact for you.

Action can be small.

The Japanese principle of “kaizen” values small, continuous improvement to foster positive growth and change. Adopting this mindset is one of the most powerful things we can do to grow as people. Rather than waiting for the big, life-changing moments to catapult us forward, we empower ourselves to grow a small percentage every day. In time, this continuous investment in ourselves adds up.

Focus on small daily actions. You don’t need big leaps forward to improve yourself or reach a goal. In fact, you will likely experience more success if you focus on small changes which compound over time. Learning to trust and love the process makes it more likely you will build long-term, sustainable healthy habits and won’t just go back to your old ways when you achieve your goal.

Set big, long-term goals and then break them down into stages, levels, or parts. Brainstorm all the little things you need to do to achieve each step. Then, take action. Start working on mastering the daily and weekly practices and “forget” about your bigger goal.

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A tactic you can use to take action today.

“Five, three, first” is a practice you can use to determine which action step to take right away. Here’s how it works:

  • Make a list of five actions you can take that will move you toward your goal. These should be specific – think “three strength training sessions per week” vs “exercise more.”
  • Next, narrow this list down to the three things you think would make the biggest difference for you right now.
  • Finally, pick the one item from this list you are most confident you can do right away. On a scale of 1-10, you should be at a 9-10 that you can handle this one thing. Get started as soon as you can. Focus on nailing just this one action step for a couple of weeks before adding more to your plate.

You will, of course, get to all five changes on your list (and more) eventually. Selecting one task doesn’t mean those other things aren’t important. Instead, you are simply choosing to narrow your focus and eliminate overwhelm so you can act right away. This builds positive momentum and makes it easier to take more action and make more changes down the road.

If you’re feeling stuck, pick one thing to do today. Get out of the house, connect with other people, knock some things off your to-do list, or take the first step toward building healthier habits. There is tremendous power in taking action, and I guarantee taking this small step will help you feel at least a little bit of forward momentum.

If you need help figuring what the first steps toward your health and fitness goals are, please reach out to me here.

 

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Got New Year’s Resolutions? I’ve Got Resources

As 2017 comes to a close, I want to take some time to reflect on everything I’ve covered this year. Since launching this website in mid-April, I’ve written 37 articles covering a wide range of topics related to training, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle. It’s been such a joy for me to use my passion for writing as part of my fitness work, and I’m grateful to everyone who has read and shared my posts.

My two most popular posts this year told the stories of two different phases of my ongoing fitness journey. The first post, How I Lost 30lbs Without Counting Calories, revealed the habits that allowed me to lose weight with minimal stress while living in San Francisco in 2014 and 2015. The second post, 6 Things I Learned From a Year of Online Training With Bryan Krahn, explained some lessons I learned in 2016 and 2017 when I hired a coach to help me get in my best shape ever. I hope some of my experiences can provide insight and clarity on issues you may be dealing with as you chase your own goals.

My objective is to provide clear, simple, actionable tips and inspiration to help you navigate the confusing and contradictory world of health and fitness advice. With that in mind, this week I’ve put together a year-end guide for you. I reviewed my 2017 posts and organized them by topic. Many of you probably have New Year’s resolutions related to health and fitness. However, it’s likely that you aren’t 100% sure what steps you need to take to realize those goals. Skim through this post, look for the articles relevant to you, bookmark them for later, and share with others. I hope this guide can help answer some of your questions and give you the resources needed to take the first steps toward a fitter and healthier 2018.

Note – hyperlink text does not appear in another color. Hover over the text to find links to each post

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Healthy eating

Year after year, weight loss is the most common New Year’s resolution. If you want to lose weight, take control of your eating. Calories must be managed to create a deficit. This requires you to cook more, manage portions, choose more nutrient-dense foods, and combat destructive eating habits like emotional eating. These are all great skills to master even if you are happy with your physique.

  • Cooking more of your own meals is an important step in making healthier food choices. Check out these articles for tips on how to become a better home cook:
  • It’s not always possible to prepare your own food. This post provided strategies for eating out at restaurants when you are on a diet.
  • One of the easiest ways you can improve the quality of your diet, regardless of whether you want to lose weight, is to eat more vegetables. In this post, I explain how I overcame my dislike of vegetables and transformed them into a centerpiece of my diet.
  • Finally, for many people healthier eating means taking control of destructive eating habits such as emotional and stress eating. Check out these posts for tips on combating these challenging obstacles:

Training

It’s no secret that I think everyone should perform some kind of regular resistance training. Strength training builds strong muscles and bones and makes our bodies more efficient. However, it can be confusing, overwhelming, and intimidating to get started with lifting weights. Check out some of these resources if you want help establishing a new routine or improving your current routine.

  • If you want more information on how to train around pain and injuries:

Consistency and Routine

Many New Year’s resolutions fail because people are too ambitious right out of the gate. If you aren’t in the habit of coming to the gym every day or prepping all of your meals, you should set more realistic initial goals. First work to build better systems and develop consistent routines. Real change is made by developing sustainable healthy habits. Start where you are and take one small step forward every day.

  • If you struggle to have healthy food available when you need it:
  • This post on seasons of lifting provides ideas and inspirations for organizing a year’s worth of training. This is a great strategy to ensure your fitness goals mesh well with your life outside of the gym.

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Mindset and More

Mindset is the secret sauce to achievement. You can have all the practical knowledge in the world, but if you don’t surround yourself with good people, practice patience, believe in yourself, and choose goals that resonate with your values, you will never truly succeed.

That’s a wrap on 2017. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions or ideas for a future blog post. If you are interested in working with me, please fill out an application for my online training program here. Thank you all for your continued support!

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The Power of Accountability and Community

I have a friend who was never able to stick to an exercise routine. No matter what she tried, she always dreaded going to the gym. She constantly made excuses and skipped workouts. Naturally, she failed to make any noticeable progress toward her goals.

Fast forward a few years, and my friend has lost weight and competed in powerlifting meets. She talks up her gym to everyone she knows and looks forward to her workouts. What happened to create such a drastic change?

My friend found accountability and community. She joined a semi-private training gym where a couple coaches oversee a small group of gym members completing individual programs at the same time. The atmosphere at the gym was fun and low-pressure, which allowed my friend to shed her initial insecurities. The coaching provided her with some much-needed guidance. She was finally able to master basic movements and subsequently noticed big strength gains.

Most importantly, she built friendships with the staff and other members who trained at the same time. The more time she spent with these people, the more she felt part of the group. Rather than being something to dread, her workouts became a time to have fun and get some stress relief. This made all the difference in helping her establish an enjoyable and sustainable training regimen.

Humans are hardwired to be social. Although we all like to think we can do everything ourselves, the reality is we perform best when surrounded by supportive people.

This week, I want to explore two of the most powerful ways you can use the support of others to help you be more successful with your individual goals. Accountability and community are related but independent factors that could be the missing link in your fitness journey.

Accountability

Having accountability means being responsible to something other than yourself. In the context of health and fitness, it means someone else shares expectations for your success. It’s easy for life to get in the way when you are the only person who’s figuring out the best way to move toward your goals. It’s much harder to drop the ball when someone else shows you the way or walks along the path with you.

Hire a coach

Hiring a coach or trainer is one of the best ways to hold yourself accountable. A good coach can help you achieve your goal faster using their extensive knowledge of program design and experience coaching people through challenging lifestyle changes. Trainers help you manage expectations and establish realistic plans, reducing the risk of frustration or burnout.

If you can’t afford or don’t have access to an in-person trainer, there are many great coaches currently offering online training programs. These programs are often much cheaper than in-person training and aren’t restricted by location or scheduling. Many online trainers can also write programs for people who train exclusively at home or on the road with more limited equipment.

If you want to learn more about online training or work with me, fill out an application at this link.

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Find a workout buddy

An easy way to build in accountability is to find a workout buddy. Your partner, a trusted friend, or a coworker with similar goals are all good choices depending on where and when you train. It’s much harder to bail on a planned workout when you know someone else expects you and counts on you to show up.

I’ve used this system myself with great success. Over the past year, I was supposed to do one session of interval training each week. For a while, I was trying to do this at the end of a weight training session. I found I was so mentally and physically tired after lifting that I rarely got around to actually doing the intervals. I knew my boyfriend liked to do intervals on Thursday nights at his gym, so I changed my training schedule and started going with him. This extra boost of accountability was tremendously helpful. Even if neither of us really wanted to do intervals, we both went anyway.

Use technology

These days, there are several apps you can use to help keep you accountable. If you are financially motivated, use apps like Healthywage to inspire you to make changes. These kinds of apps vary from awarding cash prizes to charge you if you fail to you to stick with your eating or exercise plan.

You can also download apps to provide training programs and track your progress. Following a program will get you much better results than simply showing up at the gym and doing random workouts. A training log keeps you honest and allows you to assess whether you are truly progressing over time.

Looking for a done-for-you training program? Grab your copy of Full45 here.

Making a public announcement or commitment can also help keep you accountable. Once your goals are out in the open, it’s much harder to give up or make excuses. Status is a very powerful motivator, and nobody wants to look bad in front of their friends. Take advantage of this internal wiring and put yourself out there for all of your social network to see. Schedule regular check-ins to keep your friends and family in the loop. To make this even more powerful, find a digital accountability buddy and use social media to keep tabs on each other’s progress.

Community

Community is formed when you are part of a group that shares your values, interests, goals, and attitudes. You are part of a community when you feel like a member of a group or part of something bigger than yourself. When you start to look forward to just being at the gym and seeing your friends there, you’ll know you’ve found a great community.

Finding the right gym environment

One of the reasons why Crossfit has become such a widespread phenomenon is the tightnit sense of community fostered at its “boxes.” People keep coming back not only for the workouts, but also because they feel at home. They build relationships with coaches and members and identify with the culture. Over time, they invite other like-minded friends and the community continues to grow and evolve.

If you want to join a private gym, shop around for the place which feels the best to you. Visit the facility, soak up the atmosphere, and take a trial class or session if you can. Get to know the owner and any staff you will be interacting with. Talk to the other members and ask them what they like and don’t like. If something about the environment feels off, or if you just don’t click with the people, it’s best to keep looking elsewhere.

If you train at a big-box, commercial gym, you can still create a sense of community. Befriend the other regulars who train at the same time as you. Learn the names of all the staff members. Get involved with charity events or competitions run through the gym. Every gym, no matter how big, has a group of regular members and employees who are always around. If you can get to know and like these people, you will be more excited to come to the gym.

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Find a virtual community

Not everyone has access to a great in-person community. Some people train at home or on the road, others live in isolated communities, and still others simply can’t find supportive, friendly environments where they live. Fortunately, the internet has made it incredibly easy to find groups of like-minded people.

A quick Facebook search will likely turn up numerous groups of people who share your goals and interests. Join the groups that jump out at you and become an active member. Ask questions and contribute answers to others where you can. Get to know the other members of the group. Share your successes with the group and celebrate those of others.

Over time, you may be surprised at the rich relationships you can build within a great online community. You may even eventually meet up with these people in person and form lifelong friendships.

If you are struggling to achieve a goal or find motivation, look for ways to involve other people in your process. Find a coach, friend, or tool to help keep you accountable and make it harder to succumb to excuses. Seek out a rich community of like-minded people to support and encourage you along the way.

As I mentioned above, hiring a coach is one of the best ways to hold yourself accountable. There are two main ways you can work with me:

Sign up for online coaching. I design 100% customized, structured, long-term workout plans based on your unique needs. I also offer nutrition and lifestyle coaching and accountability check-ins to support you with your goals. 

Purchase Full45, a done-for-you three month training program designed for busy professionals who want to get stronger and leaner. Train your entire body twice a week for 45 minutes using these client-tested workouts.

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Better Health and Fitness Through Gratitude

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, the day Americans set aside to celebrate all the things we are grateful for in our lives. For many people this means gatherings with friends, family, and other loved ones. Some people may spend the holiday alone due to work or other reasons. Regardless of how we spend the day, most of us will spend at least a bit of time reflecting and giving thanks.

Although gratitude is an overused word these days, it can still be a powerful tool to help live a more positive, fulfilling life. Practicing gratitude enables us to see the positive in any situation. It teaches us to celebrate the things that enrich our lives even in the face of struggle and hardship. The perpetual optimist who always tries to appreciate the things they do have will be much happier than the person who constantly dwells on the negative, thinking only about the unfair burdens they’ve had to bear or what is lacking in their life.

As you give thanks this week, consider your attitude toward your health and fitness. Are you someone who looks forward to daily movement and loves the way you feel after filling your body with nutritious food? Or are you someone who dreads the gym, eats junk regularly, and constantly feels run-down or lethargic? Do you take ownership of your choices or do you feel like eating right and exercising are impositions placed on you by someone else? If you are struggling to make exercise and healthy eating a regular part of your life, take a step back and use gratitude to reframe your situation. Getting in shape is tough, but being thankful for the things you are able to do goes a long way in helping you push through challenges.

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Exercise as a celebration of movement and life

I know how hard it can be to find the motivation to work out. After a long day at work, a poor night’s sleep, or unexpected family stress, putting on your gym clothes to get your sweat on is often the last thing on your mind. Compounding this problem may be a toxic attitude toward exercise. For many people, exercise is a form of punishment for eating poorly, looking a certain way, or feeling lazy and apathetic. There is no joy in their workouts and they dread coming to the gym.

To change this, reframe exercise in a positive light. See exercise as a celebration of all the things your body can do. The human body is an amazingly complex, versatile, and resilient machine. Be thankful for the gift of movement and recognize that if you don’t use it, you lose it.

The human brain and body evolved to be intimately connected. Engaging in regular exercise and physical play enables you to feel more connected to your body, encourages mental sharpness and focus, and improves your mood. This is one reason why mental health practitioners always recommend exercise as a part of a well rounded treatment for mental health issues.

One way to get motivated is to find physical activities you actually enjoy. Too many people force themselves into conventional exercise modalities because they think it’s what they’re supposed to do. The reality is that movement comes in many shapes and sizes: walk, run, climb, throw, jump, kick, crawl, lift, swim, pose, stretch, carry, dance, play, and more. Find a handful of activities you enjoy and engage in them regularly. Ensure you have a good foundation of strength and conditioning so you can safely and effectively perform these other activities.

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Another way to make exercise more enjoyable is to find a community of likeminded people to support you along the way. This could be as small as one other person or as large as a group of 100 people or more. If you don’t have access to such a group in person, there are numerous online communities designed to provide support, accountability, and encouragement to people of all ability levels chasing every kind of physical goal. Humans are social animals. Going through challenges with others helps you appreciate your own skills and keeps negativity in check by providing some perspective as to what other people are experiencing.

It only takes one accident or serious ailment to rob you of your ability to move. Don’t take this amazing gift for granted or let it slip away as you age. Be grateful for your good mobility and engage in whatever kinds of movement feel best to you.

Healthy eating as a gift to your body and brain

Dieting is inherently challenging. You have to push your body to an uncomfortable place in order to see changes. Experiencing hunger, practicing self-restraint, resisting temptation, and dealing with pressure from friends and family are all par for the course when you go on a diet. These uncomfortable sensations can compound to make you miserable if you let them.

Instead of getting caught up in negativity or self-pity, reframe dieting as a temporary discomfort that ultimately allows you to live a healthier life. Think of healthy eating as a gift to your body and brain. When you fill your body with nourishing foods, you look, feel, think, and perform better. This makes everything in your life more enjoyable.

Be grateful you live in a place where you are privileged enough to restrict food intake or make healthier choices in order to improve your wellbeing. Many people around the world don’t have access to fresh, healthy foods and still others are suffering from various malnutrition related ailments. If you have the resources to make these changes, you are doing much better than most. Sometimes thinking globally helps put your individual discomfort into perspective.

Another food related reframe centers around holiday eating. Many people experience a great deal of food anxiety over the holidays when they find themselves surrounded by less-than-ideal food choices at parties, gatherings, and family meals. Stress over weight gain can put a huge damper on a time that should otherwise be relaxing and joyous.

Instead of fretting about your diet, take a step back and reconnect with what the holidays are truly about. Take some time to show your appreciation for friends and family. Be grateful for the opportunity to rest, celebrate, and reflect with loved ones. If food is an important part of your holidays, go ahead and relax a bit. Eating has always been a central part of human celebration and you won’t ruin a whole year of hard work with a couple of feasts.

Use gratitude to help you appreciate life more

Nothing worth having comes easily. In all areas of your life – professional, personal, health, and more – you must push yourself through challenges and make sacrifices to move forward and grow. Taking time to be thankful for the gifts we’ve been given goes a long way in making these struggles more bearable. Don’t dwell on the negatives; look for ways to practice gratitude this week and beyond.

If gratitude has you feeling inspired to recommit to your exercise routine, you should check out my 4C System. It’s a totally free five day email course teaching you to become a more consistent exerciser. Sign up using the box below.

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3 Mindset Shifts That Helped Me Lose 70+ Pounds and Keep it Off

Statistics about weight loss success are very sobering. Newspapers and magazines claim “diets don’t work” and many people think success is out of reach. We all know someone who has lost a lot of weight only to gain it all back and then some; in fact, it’s often cited that 95-97% of people who successfully lose weight regain it within 3 years. Even more common is the person who always appears to be on a diet but never seems to lose any weight.

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Me at my heaviest, shortly before I decided to lose weight.

My personal story bucks this trend. After struggling with my weight for at least 6 years, my heaviest BMI placed me in the obese category. It took me six months to lose the first 60 lbs and several years longer to lose another 10-15 lbs. Although I still experience weight fluctuations, I have for the most part successfully kept off these 70+ lbs for 6 years and counting.

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Me 70lbs lighter, 5 years later.

What has been the secret to my success? Although I totally changed my eating habits and got serious about exercise, I ultimately don’t believe the specifics of my diet or training plan were most important. Rather, a few key mindset shifts helped me overcome obstacles, stay the course, and ultimately change my entire lifestyle for good. I want to share three of these mindset shifts with you this week in the hopes that you may find inspiration for your own weight loss journey.

Accept that you’re in it for the long haul.

I’ll never forget the first week of my initial journey to lose around 60 lbs. I had a sobering annual checkup with my doctor during which she informed me I was prediabetic and would need to make some serious changes to avoid a descent into full-blown Type-II diabetes. As a 19 year old, this scared the shit out of me. I had my whole life ahead of me and had no interest in managing a chronic condition that was totally avoidable.

It was just after this appointment when a friend of mine shared her aunt’s cooking blog on Facebook. The blog is unfortunately no longer running, but the thing that stuck out to me was a post from the author detailing the 10 steps she used during her own weight loss journey. These steps included things like managing calories, tracking food intake, cooking your own food, combining strength training and cardio, and reducing consumption of refined and packaged foods. For whatever reason, the simple steps on this list (most of which were things I already knew I should probably be doing) clicked for me in the moment. I finally felt I had a concrete, realistic plan I could follow that would almost certainly result in weight loss if I stuck with it.

Most importantly, I fully understood it would take me a long time to lose the weight I needed and wanted to lose. This acceptance did not feel overwhelming; on the contrary, I felt liberated from the pressure to see dramatic success right away. Something inside of me recognized if I just kept doing the right things, I would ultimately get where I wanted to go. Accepting that I was in it for the long haul gave me the courage to take the first steps forward.

Takeaway: Practice patience. Changing your physique often takes way longer than you expect. You can’t give up if you don’t see immediate results within the first few weeks. Remember that regardless of whether you make any changes, time is going to pass anyway. Wouldn’t you rather be slightly leaner and healthier after a year than to remain where you are or gain more weight?

You don’t have to change everything at once. Small, incremental changes maintained consistently will have big payoffs in the long run. Determine what your biggest problem areas are and attack those first. Once you master those changes or if progress slows, look for further changes you can make.

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Be nice to yourself.

Like many people who have struggled with their weight, I used to have severe body image issues and terribly low self-confidence. I was constantly comparing myself to my (I thought) thinner, prettier friends. I told myself I was fat and ugly and would always be that way no matter what I did. Of course none of this ever helped me make positive changes. Contrary to what some believe, shaming others or yourself is not an effective way to motivate long-term change. Rather than feeling bad about themselves or their decisions, people need to believe they have the fundamental capacity for change.

As I lost weight, I developed a new kind of negative self-talk. Each time I “screwed up” on my diet, I felt powerful feelings of guilt and self-loathing. I would beat myself up for days about my poor decisions. I would force myself to dramatically reduce calories in the following days, sometimes even fasting for extended periods of time. Other times I would punish myself with grueling workouts and extra cardio. All of this extra work only fueled a negative cycle that ultimately pushed me into problems with disordered eating.

Read more: 3 Strategies to Combat All-or-Nothing Eating

Takeaway: If you fall off the wagon, be nice to yourself. Remember your success is based on the sum of many weeks and months of decisions. One bad meal, bad day, or even a bad week does not mean you are doomed to failure assuming you make good choices most of the time.

After a screw up, I encourage you to take a “clean slate” approach and get right back to your normal plan as soon as possible. Don’t worry about doing penance for your mistakes – simply focus on nailing the good habits you have been working on.

Accept that failure and screw ups are an inevitable and necessary part of change. Always look for ways to learn from your mistakes so you can handle similar situations differently in the future. Reframe failure as success – you are now a bit wiser and farther along the path than you were before. The people who experience the most success long-term are those who keep picking themselves up and continuing on after they make mistakes.

Read More: Chasing Perfection? Do This Instead.

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Embrace the Process

When I think about my life now compared to when I was obese, I see a lot of big changes:

  • I used to exercise rarely, now I do some kind of activity 5-6 days per week.
  • I used to eat until I was stuffed at every single meal, now I monitor my portion sizes to ensure I’m eating only the amount of food I really need.
  • I used to binge on junk food all the time, now I center most of my eating around protein, vegetables, fruits, and healthy carbs and fats. I am absolutely not perfect and struggle just like everyone else, but the majority of the time I make healthy choices.

These changes have allowed me to keep off the weight I lost while still enjoying life for many years.

I did not make all of these changes at once; I took things one step at a time. I tried to take a big-picture view and didn’t let myself get caught up in the daily scale fluctuations or the larger fluctuations caused by periods of upheaval and periods of calm and focus. I was not always successful with this, but over time I learned to love the process of taking care of myself. I love to train and cook. I love the way my body feels when I treat it well versus when I make poor choices. I am fully invested in the day-to-day practices that got me to this point. This is the biggest secret to my lasting success.

Takeaway: The secret to maintaining physique changes is to continue doing many of the things you did in order to lose weight. This is the hardest part for many people because they think about dieting all wrong. For some people, as soon as they get to their goal weight they celebrate with junk food and missed workouts because they “earned it.” Over time, returning to these old habits takes you back to the same old overweight you.  

Long-term success requires you to embrace systems of healthy eating, training, and stress management which you can sustain on a daily basis once the diet is over. These need to be flexible enough to provide some freedom but rigid enough to keep you on track most of the time.

One more note on embracing the process: I encourage you to separate yourself from hard goals centered around losing x amount of lbs by y date. The unfortunate reality is you cannot control specific outcomes. Instead, focus on what you can control – the daily habits and practices which compound to ultimately create a leaner, healthier body. Instead of thinking of your goal weight as a destination, think of the rest of your life as a long arch moving toward better health. You have plenty of time and will never truly arrive, so relax and enjoy each step of the journey.

If you want help finally losing weight and keeping it off for good, please reach out to me here to find out more about my online training program.

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3 Strategies to Successfully Navigate Holiday Eating

Today is Halloween, which I consider the unofficial start of another holiday season. This time of year is filled with celebrations and gatherings. Along with this comes an endless supply of rich, sweet, and savory foods. All of the year-end holidays center around some kind of feasting and most people have many weekends in a row filled with parties and events for work, family, and friends.

For many people, the joy of this time of year is overshadowed by anxiety surrounding food. This is especially true for anyone who has been working hard to build healthy eating habits or who has recently lost a lot of weight.

You may be asking yourself:

  • How can I navigate the next few months when I am constantly bombarded with less-than-healthy foods?
  • Will I gain tons of weight and cancel out the hard work I’ve been putting in the rest of the year?
  • Will holiday feasts trigger dormant disordered eating habits like bingeing?

I know my clients and I struggle with these questions year after year.

This week, I want to share 3 strategies for dealing with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and all the other upcoming holidays. After reading this post, I hope you will be able to arm yourself with the mindset tools you need to enjoy a stress-free holiday season.

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Option 1: Stick with the plan and don’t indulge.

How it works

This option requires you to refrain from indulging in treats during the holiday season. Essentially, you will continue with your current eating plan. This means no Halloween candy from the break room, no pumpkin pie, and no extra drinking at office Christmas parties.

At big holiday feasts, you will need to stick with protein, vegetables, and carbs and fats that fit within your macros or meal plan. In the most extreme cases, you may need to bring your own food to certain functions when you know you won’t have options available to fit your plan.

Who it works for

This is the best option for anyone who needs to stay in great shape this time of year for upcoming events including physique competitions, photo shoots, weddings, beach vacations, etc.

It may also be the best option for people who have struggled with severe disordered eating. Sometimes the best course of option is total abstinence from trigger foods. If you chose to abstain from certain foods year round, the holidays may not be the best time to reintroduce them to your diet.

Problems

I don’t recommend this option for several reasons.

If you bring your own food to family gatherings, you may be mocked or receive disgruntled looks from other guests. Expect to deal with lots of stress and difficult decisions about which events to attend and which you may need to skip.

Telling yourself you will abstain also sets you up for failure because it is very difficult to follow this course of action. When you inevitably do decide to treat yourself, it is much more likely you will succumb to the all-or-nothing mindset and slide into an episode of binge eating.

Read More: 3 Strategies to Combat All-or-Nothing Eating

The reality is this level of discipline is impractical and totally unnecessary for most people. Holidays are about celebrating and food has always been an important part of celebrating. Removing yourself from the festivities creates unnecessary stress and tension between you and loved ones.

Option 2: Choose your indulgences and set clear guidelines

How it works

With this option, you need to plan and make decisions regarding how you will handle the holiday season. Think about the holiday foods you most enjoy and those you can do without. Honestly evaluate your own tendencies with food and set guidelines that will allow you to enjoy yourself while still preventing you from eating everything in sight.

Here are a few example guidelines you could use:

  • Limit yourself to one plate of food. Take a little bit of everything you want to try rather than loading up your first plate and having to return for seconds.
  • 50% of your plate veggies, 25% protein, 25% other carbs and fats. This ensures you are eating a well-balanced meal while still getting to sample whatever you want.
  • Be picky with your indulgences. Only eat foods that taste amazing. Your grandma’s pecan pie, an unusual cocktail at a fancy party, or a favorite hometown speciality you rarely eat would be good choices. Grocery store sheet cake, Halloween candy in the break room, and other generic treats you can have anytime are not worthy indulgences.
  • Follow the “law of first bites.” Stop eating a food when it ceases to taste just as amazing as it did when you started. You don’t have to finish everything on your plate.
  • Choose to indulge in some types of foods but not others. For example, if you don’t really have a problem with alcohol but you always overeat sweets, set some guidelines for desert but allow yourself to drink whatever you want. You may choose to totally abstain from certain trigger foods but freely eat other foods.
  • Eat slowly. Enjoy your food. Take a sip of water in between bites. When food is in your mouth, your fork should be on your plate.

Who it works for

This is the best option for people who have been working hard to change their bodies and improve their eating habits. It allows you to relax the reins a bit and enjoy a well-deserved mental break without totally losing control or diving into a mountain of deserts.

If you want to relax a bit this holiday season but don’t have a long history of making good food choices, establishing some guidelines to prevent things from getting out of hand is the best plan of action.

Problems

There aren’t any obvious drawbacks to this option, but it can take a lot of work and requires constant self-evaluation. As you are moving through the season, check-in with yourself periodically to see how you are doing.

Questions for self-evaluation include:

  • How is this plan working for me?
  • Am I feeling myself start to lose control?
  • What am I handling well?
  • Where do I need to tweak or modify my plan?
  • If I messed up, how can I learn and do better at the next holiday meal?

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Option 3: Eat whatever you want, but let go of guilt

How it works

With this option, you release yourself from all rules surrounding food for a while. You can truly eat whatever you want, whenever you want it. What I’ve found is although people who follow this approach eat a lot of junk at first, those who have truly adopted a healthy lifestyle will still make good choices most of the time.

The most important caveat to this option is you must let go of all guilt and shame surrounding your food choices during the holiday season. Indulging in lots of less-than ideal food and then beating yourself up about it afterwards is terrible for your mental health and peace of mind. If you want to indulge, indulge. But tell yourself you won’t tolerate any negative self-talk after the fact.

Who it works for

This option works for people who have a rock-solid relationship with food. If you are the kind of person who can eat one serving from a bag of chips or a candy bar and then put it away, this option could work well for you.

If you don’t think you can handle this, I recommend following option 2 and establishing some guidelines to help when you are most vulnerable.

Problems

If you haven’t done the work to develop a healthy relationship with food, this option can lead to disaster. I learned this the hard way.

Last year, I decided I would treat the week of Thanksgiving as a total diet break. Over the course of five days, I went completely overboard with my eating. Every night I went to bed so stuffed I was in physical pain. I ate everything I possibly could just because I told myself it was ok. Often times, I didn’t even truly enjoy what I was eating.

After the week ended, I had an emotional breakdown. I felt totally disgusted with how out of control I had gotten during the week. After a lot of back and forth texting with my coach and a few weeks of normal eating, I returned to my pre-Thanksgiving weight with some important lessons learned.

One good thing to come out of this experience was the realization that feeling guilt and beating myself up over my “screw-ups” was counterproductive and ultimately detrimental to my progress. These days, if I make poor food choices I rarely engage in negative self-talk. Instead, I give myself a clean slate the next day and get right back to plan.

Read More: 6 Things I Learned from a Year of Online Training with Bryan Krahn

Reduce holiday stress

As with most things in your health and fitness journey, successfully navigating the holiday season requires preparation and planning. Remember that you don’t need to be 100% on plan year-round in order to look and feel great. Scheduling some relaxed periods that coincide with other events in your life (such as holidays and vacations) gives you a much needed mental break and may actually help your progress long-term. Be honest with yourself about what you need to put yourself in the best position for success.

If you want help navigating the holiday season this year, please fill out an application for my online training program here.