“I can’t believe I gained almost all of the weight I lost back!”
When Jackie first started working with me, it was following the advice of her fiance Abe who had already been seeing great weight loss results with us.
Jackie had reached a point with her body weight that she could no longer accept and was ready to get things moving in the right direction again.
As I do with all of my clients, we dive into what life looks like currently from a diet perspective.
There’s never any judgment.
Things are what they are and we discuss what it takes to change them.
Like a lot of my clients, there were several fits and starts with Jackie’s weight loss journey. Things would be moving at a good clip and then fall by the wayside.
Another start would take place, more progress would come and then the brakes would be on again.
I consider this more the norm in weight loss behavior than the exception.
And then of course, life likes to get in the way of our best laid plans.
Between raising a teenage daughter and planning her wedding to Abe, things just got off track with Jackie’s weight loss.
Which is why recently she came in proclaiming the statement I started with:
“I can’t believe I gained almost all of the weight I lost back!”
For the record, Jackie lost 16 lbs with me. She regained 12.
And I could tell, she was not remotely happy about it.
One thing I’d like to highlight about Jackie (and Abe) is that like me, they are recovering addicts.
And if there’s one thing I have intimate understanding about is how addicts can view progress. Typically, it’s all or nothing. You’re either winning or you’re losing. There is no in between.
So, I told Jackie: Don’t worry about the weight gain. You need to focus on your momentum.
Time and again, you will hear me talk about the importance of caloric intake. And yes, it absolutely matters. But sometimes, you can just do enough and get the needle moving the right direction again.
And this principle works whether you have Jackie’s 12 lbs to lose or you have substantially more.
The number doesn’t matter.
The momentum does.
For Jackie, I told her to get control back of the things she knew she could do: stop eating out as frequently, drink more water, and make a reduction in fat/carb combinations.
Two days later, she was down two pounds.
Two days after that, she was down another two pounds.
Yes, I know it was mostly water weight. But it doesn’t matter.
Because for someone like Jackie, who legitimately worked hard to lose those 16 lbs, to regain 3/4 of it back can be devastating ESPECIALLY when you’re just over two months away from your wedding day.
So, I told Jackie to look ahead and get focused. She has only so many weeks to get her body where she wants it for her wedding day. Rather than white-knuckle her way to the finish line it would be prudent to do the work now and rest easy as the stress of the big day gets closer.
I told her she could reasonably be at a new low before October (the month of her wedding) comes. I also told her to be slightly forgiving if the weight doesn’t plummet. She still has to ride the trends.
And with four days of focus on her diet, her food choices and her water intake, she is now only 8 pounds from her low, NOT 12.
Now that she has received the “gift” of the water weight loss, she can focus on the smaller details: appropriate protein, fibrous carbs, and some healthy fats. She also has to minimize eating out at restaurants so she can stay the course.
For many clients, they are so wrapped up in the numbers and weight gain/regain or whatever degree of weight loss that they miss the forest for the trees.
And it’s this circumstance that makes people give up on their goals. It would have been easy for Jackie to throw in the towel. But she needed a pep talk and it was the kick in the ass that she needed to move the needle again.
So, whether your weight loss journey is just starting and it looks daunting or you’ve stalled because of some inherent plateau, it’s not a catastrophe.
Everything can be positively influenced to get you in a good place with your weight again.
Because it’s not as much about the weight you have to lose as it is the distractions you’re allowing to stand in your way. MOVE THEM.
The only thing you need now is momentum.
(Below is our beloved Jackie and Abe. Their special day is October 19.)
“We Make Great People Greater”
