We often have a picture in our heads of what successful weight loss looks like.

It might go like this:

New Diet + Short Period of Time = Skinny Me

We convince ourselves this is how it works and, when it doesn’t work, we blame ourselves.  Or the diet.  But usually ourselves – as if any diet EVER worked!

With a 99% fail rate and a 108% regain rate, diets are so not the way to go.

Once we realize this, some really big opportunities open up!  As one of my clients recently said, “There really are 50 ways to leave your lover!”

With her permission, let’s use that theme:

50 Ways to Lose Weight Permanently!

1.      Use food for fuel only.

2.      Manage stress.

3.      Eat for health only.

4.      Get to know your inner 4-year-old and NEVER let her run your life.

5.      Eat mindfully.

6.      Learn your unique body cues that signal  “stop eating.”

7.      Discern the difference between reactions and responses.

8.     Understand the bigger picture of your life (it’s more than weight).

9.    Set appropriate boundaries everywhere in life; suddenly they’ll show up in your food boundaries too.

10.  Address unresolved resentments and regrets.

11.  Discover and grow your inner adult to solve emotional problems.

12.  Understand the difference between an emotion and an emotional reaction.

13.  Explore your limiting beliefs (these run everything!).

14. Clean your house of “friends” who don’t support you fully.

15. Learn when to take things personally.

16. Change the mental patterns that sabotage you.

17. Discover and learn to appreciate your true self.

18. Come out of hiding.

19. Develop emotional intelligence – Hone the ability to naturally feel, process and express emotions.

20. Live close to your values, and discover how values play out in the food struggle.

21. Manage your blood sugar levels for even energy.

22. End diet mentality.

23. Acknowledge your deeper needs.

24. Work through fears.

25. Know why you eat.

26. Stop being a victim in life.

27. Discover your personal energy drains.

28. Run sexual energy in a positive way.

29. Develop your life purpose.

30. Understand your unconscious desires.

31. End the “stories” that negatively impact you.

32. Discover true deliciousness.

33. Listen to your body’s reactions.

34. Explore activity that works for your lifestyle.

35. End shame.

36. Acknowledge your “fat inheritance” – attitudes, modes of operation, and habits your family designed and taught you.

37. Understand and renegotiate your relationship with food.

38. Stop medicating/numbing with food.

39. Develop positive self image.

40. See the false promise of food.

41. Cure the hungry heart.

42. Learn to self care techniques that reinforce the body.

43. Switch from a fat focused life to a thin focused life.

44. Take responsibility on every level.

45. Learn to “program” powerful emotional states.

46. Forgive.  Yourself and others.

47. Develop an abundance mentality and end scarcity thinking.

48. Grow yourself up.

49. Stop pretending it doesn’t matter.

50. Take charge.

This list is hardly comprehensive but it’s a start.

What else has been instrumental in helping you lose weight?

What do you see preventing you from going further?

These are just some of the myriad of amazing things we do in the enLIGHTen Your Life! Mastermind Course for Permanent Weight Loss.  If you want to forge ahead, grow/stretch yourself personally, and lose weight from the inside out so you don’t have to do it over and over again, join me to find sustainable weight loss success!  Find all the details here.