Over the years hundreds of women have shared their overeating struggles with me. Want to know what the most common question and the biggest fear is?
It’s not, “Can I succeed?”
In fact, I talk to many, many women who have complete confidence in their ability to start losing weight tomorrow. Of course, not everyone feels this way, but many women I speak with know exactly how to drop pounds.
Their fear, and the experience that has burnt up so much confidence and energy and hope, is that any results won’t last.
Their experience is one of being on an endless hamster wheel where results are good for a while, then eating falls off track, and back around through the vicious cycle they go. And as you probably know, each time through the cycle often translates to more extra weight to lose, or more stress eating, or an extra dose of overwhelm.
There are lots of weight loss plans that “work” – but only for the next six weeks.
Stop using success as your metric
Creating freedom from overeating and peace with food is possible if you stop using “success” as your metric. Instead of asking yourself how you can lose weight, consider what you have in place in your life that will allow you to live at your ideal weight for the rest of your life.
What do you have that feeds you instead of food?
What systems do you have in place that let you know you’re feeling tired, or burnt out, or are in danger of falling off track with the things that create the results you want?
What reminds you to do the things that work, when you are busy thinking about a million other parts of your life and your to-do list?
When you think of what you believe is required to be your ideal weight – how do you feel about doing this forever?
Instead of measuring success, start measuring what you do that sustains great results (however you define them)
Did you know that some productivity experts have given up on goals? They’ll tell you that you’ll get better results if, instead of focusing on where you want to go, you build the systems and behaviors that will cause you to get there.
If you have a working, life-time path to thin (or to peace with food), it will keep moving you in the right direction – and when you arrive, you’ll stay there.
What are the systems and the reminders that work for you? What does your “rest of your life” approach look like? Are you in for the long haul?
Talk soon,
