Do you find weight loss confusing?

We hear a thousand new messages every year about how to lose weight – new diets, new approaches, new “bad” foods, new fads, new “don’ts”, and new research, which is almost always paid for by an interested Diet World company.

We hear very little about how to lose weight and maintain weight loss all the way to a permanent state.

Permanent weight loss is my entire focus. The last time I lost weight was my last. It didn’t just happen that way. I had that determination going into it. And minus 92 pounds and holding steady at 17 years (on March 13, 2017) is damned well permanent in my book.

Does it have to be confusing?

No. Let’s get clear right now. Losing weight is not hard, complicated or impossible.

Getting yourself to do it might be.

In order to end our negative habits, we need to take charge of our psychology and get powerful in our decision-making. That is all. What it takes is different for each individual.

“Taking charge of psychology” means ending self-sabotage and self-destructive tendencies. Within each of us, there is a complicated interweaving of learned behaviors, food triggers, emotional eating, poor beliefs, negative thoughts, overthinking, protectiveness, and maybe even neurosis.

Wrestling with dieting can make anyone neurotic, needy and just plain defensive. Doing it for years can engrain poor habits and lock them in place.

That’s why I teach folks how to take charge.

Why are so many people talking about weight loss?

There’s only one reason for the constant stream of talk and written words about weight loss.

It’s important.

Carrying too much weight feels terrible, and makes life more difficult. I remember the huge effort it took to drag myself out of the driver’s seat of my car. I used to shop drooped over the shopping cart, because it helped me move my bulk around the store. I couldn’t hold my body straight for very long. I faced the end of every day and the beginning of most exhausted.

We were meant to inhabit and enjoy our bodies, to experience great pleasure in the feelings of movement, touch, sensation. The angels, it is said, envy us because we have bodies. Do you feel the envy of angels?

The other reason it’s often discussed is it’s one of the biggest money-makers on the planet. The diet industry, or Diet World, as I call them, will say and do anything to make money. Since (see above) it’s important to people, they are easy to manipulate.

Diet World makes around $60-70 BILLION a year, with no tangible long-term results.

NONE.

That’s a pretty good gig, if you have no conscience. The internet has made it even easier to “mark” those interested in weight loss and manipulate them.

Every time we buy into a Diet World program or product, we support them, and get more failure and confusion. We are PAYING them for this debilitation.

They win when we are confused.

Diet World wins when we are confused, because we are vulnerable. We can’t trust ourselves, or see beyond all the data and miracle products, so we’ll plunk down the credit card.

We also never get sustainable results when we are confused. We are just playing victim in Diet World.

So many overweight people seem to be saying “just accept and love yourself even though you are fat” – isn’t that easier?

In the short term, maybe, if you truly believe and practice it. In the long term, no.

That’s because, if you carry enough extra weight ( around 50+ pounds) to seriously impact health, you’ll come face-to-face with the result of excess weight eventually, in the form of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, incurable fatty liver disease (which is growing astronomically in the U.S.), and reduced energy, resilience and immune function.

Don’t misunderstand me. I believe in loving yourself. And I focus on that with my clients. And I’m the first to say I had to learn how to do that.

But I didn’t learn to love myself by insisting I had the right to stay fat. I learned to love myself by staying close to myself during a transformative learning process which got me healthier. I learned to love and respect my determination, my vulnerability, my insistence I was important enough to be receive excellent self-care.