*The title of this post was taken from the Judybats song of the same name*
I have a client who I will refer to as Jane.
When we did our initial consultation, Jane requested that she not know or see what her scale weight was. Historically, I have not seen great results occur when clients prefer to go this route.
In my opinion, it removes a degree of accountability from the equation and can foster a certain sense of denial. Weight loss tends to succeed when we can face the obstacles head on and say “Ok, this is my starting point. Now I know what I’m up against.”
However, Jane did not want to know so I kept a log of her weigh-ins as a reference point. At certain points, she was comfortable discussing whether weight was up or down in relation to the previous weigh in but the door wasn’t always open for this either.
Along the way, we kept the conversation open to what was happening with food. Jane would be forthcoming and say whether she felt that she ate well over the weekend or not and sometimes she would mention that she had been more consistent with making better food choices.
We kept talking about strategies for eating appropriately for the goal and ways to navigate the weekend when the diet has greater potential to get messy.
Since weight loss has been moving at a slower pace than I think either of us wanted, it gave us time to just talk about habits, dietary patterns and maneuvering through life without letting guilt or shame dictate the end result.
Jane would frequently comment that she felt she had a terrible metabolism and poor genetics for weight loss. I would routinely push back against this notion and kindly say that neither of those would win in a battle against the right caloric intake.
And a few weeks ago, we started talking about food in a different way. Jane had not really been tracking or using a journal but she started to develop a different mindset to her diet. You could see that something was starting to click.
We even started simplifying what a meal could look like so that she could focus on 3 meals set at an approximate amount. She could then change out meals that met the same caloric goal. She opted for some smoothie options for breakfast and started finding places where she could eat smaller portions in her other meals to hit the same numbers also.
She hasn’t been punishing herself with ruthless bouts of cardio and we rarely have a discussion about how much weight she’s lifting, how much she should be sweating, or how many calories she needs to burn in a given workout.
Jane has just been carefully nudging the needle across the spectrum and hit a new low in weight loss last week.
Many people make weight loss more complicated than it needs to be. While Jane’s path looks different than I would have wanted it to look, this was ultimately about what works for Jane, NOT what works for Jason. Jane is married with a family and a job. Her path needs to only make sense to her.
So, while the road has been unorthodox, Jane has found a simple path to success. One that won’t be hindered by the thought of poor genetics or a sluggish metabolism.
She has also found success despite not gluing herself to a treadmill or agonizing over fad supplements and diet trends. Her road to success has been paved through a non-judgmental look at meals, a consistent workout regimen that doesn’t beat her body up and a fresh perspective on what the end game can look like.
Are you ready to simplify your road to success?
