By Lauren Minkoff & Ty Hammett
Research suggests that roughly 80%of people who shed a significant portion of their body fat will not maintain that degree of weight loss for 12 months; and, according to one meta-analysis4 of intervention studies, dieters regain, on average, more than half of what they lose within two years.
In short, we’ve known for quite some time that while it’s hard to lose weight, it’s even harder to keep it off.
This is exactly what I found in my own attempts to lose stubborn fat and keep it off for good.
I was so “good” when I was restricting my food and calories to dangerously low levels.
Even though I had no energy, no period, and a deeply ffed up relationship with food, it didn’t matter to me because at least I was skinny.
But when I got to the point where I could no longer sustain my life on such little food, the binging started.
I was on a never-ending cycle of restriction and then overeating and I my weight loss stopped.
Then, once I finally ‘gave up” on my overly restrictive diet, I found myself gaining all the weight back that I had lost.
Exhausted, frustrated, and feeling like a failure, I was SURE that there was something wrong with me.
Oh, how wrong I was!
When C*vid ran amuck and forced us all to stay at home for weeks on end, my fiance Ty and I decided that it was time for us to slow down with our nutrition and fitness in lieu of another approach.
Instead of JUST focusing on calories in versus calories out, we decided to work on our mindset around food, exercise, and self care.
WOW was there a lot to unpack there.
When we switched our focus to include working on our mindset as much as we worked on our nutrition and fitness, we finally saw sustainable success with our weight loss, wellness, and vitality.
Now, we teach 100’s of ladies each year how to do the exact same thing by coupling our Metabolic Reset System with tried and tested Mindset Boosts that will help you lose the weight AND keep it off.
Here are 5 Mindset Shifts That Will Help You Have Sustainable Weight Loss Success:
- Having a Health Mindset.
A health mindset means that you make choices because you know that they will help you be your healthiest self. So many ladies are trying to lose weight the quickest way possible and are willing to go to extremes to do so. But this is where most women fail. If you focus on being your healthiest and most energized self, you will lose weight as a by-product instead of by forcing it.
To bring out your health mindset, focus on positive affirmations that will help you feel powerful, energized, and healthy as you work toward your goals.
- Having a Grateful Mindset.
Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools for your mind. Instead of focusing your precious mental energy on what is unfair or out of your control, focus on what you are thankful to currently have and appreciate those things MORE. Shifting into gratitude will help show you that the only thing truly in our control is the way in which we perceive things happening to us and our thoughts about those things change our response.
For example, a study published by Body Image in 2018 found that writing down gratitude for your body specifically actually increases our well-being, improves our self-perception, and increases healthy choices versus the controlled groups.
Take 5 minutes at least once a day to give thanks to your body and specific body parts by writing it down or saying it out loud- it seriously helps!!!
- Having a Growth Mindset.
We all want to be the girl who starts something new and is naturally gifted (please tell me this isn’t just MY fantasy lol). I don’t normally like to do things that I’m not good at but I also know that staying in my comfort zone is holding me back.
Instead of expecting perfection out of myself and putting pressure on myself to be amazing at things I have never done or tried before, I take on a growth mindset. A growth mindset believes that you can ALWAYS get better at something, even if it’s really challenging at the beginning.
Practicing this mindset reminds me that we are all beginners at something and that I can always look for ways to get better and improve at the hard stuff.
Whenever I start feeling defeated or like I’m expecting perfection out of myself, I always remind myself that I’m learning and doing the best I can with the knowledge and skills that I have. It’s okay to be a beginner. It’s okay to fail.
It’s all about learning along the way and not giving up!!
- Having a Coachable Mindset.
I can really only speak for myself here but I was raised middle class and have this middle-class mindset of “I can do it all on my own” because that’s how my parents were and that’s essentially how they taught me to be.
But the number one thing we see all the time is ladies who come to us struggling and only get support for short periods of time or feel like investing in support is a waste of money. These ladies think that they should know what to do and how to do it even though they’re not experts and haven’t ever experienced long-term success.
So, thinking they know the answers plus a lack of accountability and support quickly manifests into a lack of confidence about what you should be doing and ultimately means you lose motivation and fall back into old habits and lose all your progress.
The key here is to get trustworthy and reliable help that focuses on long-term results as much as short-term habit changes. Ty and I are always here to help you but it’s important to find coaches that you trust and believe in 100% who can help point out your blind spots and meet you where you’re at instead of thinking you can do it alone (even though you’ve never been able to).
- Having a Confident Mindset.
I used to think that confidence was a “fake it till you make it” sort of thing, which is only partially true.
A confident mindset helps ladies be more resourceful in the face of challenges and take things head-on with courage and enthusiasm. Because confidence doesn’t come from never making mistakes or always being perfect, it means knowing that you can handle anything because you’re smart and skilled and have already made it this far!!!
Confidence doesn’t come from having an easy life with no challenges. It comes from doing hard things and making it to the other side. It’s being able to look back and think “Hell yeah, I DID that!” even if it wasn’t graceful.
I’m sure you’ve done hard things like finish school, birth a child, built a business, left a toxic relationship, or gone through tough times. But you made it through!! By doing hard things you prove to yourself just how capable you are in the face of challenges which gives you even more confidence!!
For the ultimate confidence boost, write down 5 hard things you are proud of yourself for overcoming and watch how good you feel the rest of the day no matter what comes your way!
If you liked this blog post and want to listen to the sister podcast episode, CLICK HERE to listen!!
Sometimes on your weight loss journey, you can feel lost and alone and want to give up. If you’re anything like I was before working on my mindset, being on this journey can be both confusing and isolating.
But, it doesn’t need to be that way and you CAN lose weight in a fun and stress-free way when you work on all aspects of who you are as a person- including your mindset!
If you want to learn more about what we teach in the Metabolism & Mindset Reboot System, CLICK HERE to book a FREE call with Ty, the CEO of Nourish and creator of the MMRS to see if you’d be a good fit!!!
Love you, and keep crushing your goals!!!