Have you had this happen to you?
I had a coaching call with a FULLER member recently.
He reported he had been doing more exercise, drinking less alcohol and eating better than he had for a long time.
“That’s great!” I encouraged.
He was excited to get on the scales and see the effect that all that effort had on his weight.
The result….
His weight went up!!!
He was gutted and with a drink in his hand said he may as well “go back to the booze!”
This was after just one week of trying!
I have had this happen so many times to my clients over the years.
It is times like these that a coach is really helpful.
They can save you from falling off the wagon.
I remind my clients and members that you do not have complete control over the scales.
Now, last week I encouraged you to get on the scales.
Now it sounds like I am telling you to get off them!
Please let me explain…
It can be tempting to let the scales be your guide to whether or not you have been successful in the period since you last weighed yourself.
But that is like looking in the bank account to know whether you had a good day at work or not.
We can jump on the scales and feel fantastic because we got the result we were seeking - a reduction in our weight!
Alternatively we can feel devastated when the scale does not reflect the error we have put in and shows that our weight has stayed the same or even more perplexing…it has gone up!!
As a lightweight rower I experienced this many times while being under an immense amount of pressure. I know the havoc it can play on your mind.
We need to remember there are many things that can influence your weight. To learn what these are you can read this blog post
It is very important to focus on what you have 100% control over; what you eat, drink, exercise, activity and sleep.
You should be recording your performance on those variables and focusing 100% on achieving the targets that you have set for yourself.
If you can do that the weight has no choice but to follow your effort. It may not happen as quickly or as regularly as you think it should but it will happen.
If after 2 weeks your weight has not decreased then it is time to adjust your game plan.
Your daily and weekly judgement of success needs to be reserved for what you have control over. Specifically what you said you would do and did you do it. i.e. your strategy.
In my coaching sessions your analysis would look something like this:
- Nutrition record; frequency of eating, regular meals, number of serves of fruits and vegetables, how many days out of 7 did you have breakfast, higher fat foods, lower carb meals, how much alcohol
- Exercise record; how long, how many, how hard
- Sleep; how many hours each night
Then you would set goals each week for what you wanted to work on.
If your strategy was not working or was working and then slows you just need to change the targets within your strategy.
Overtime you can change your strategy completely depending on what is working for you and your lifestyle.
This is THE most important aspect of any weight loss program.
The strategy must align with your lifestyle.
Don’t fall into the trap of blaming yourself, anyone else or anything else (genetics!).
Blame your targets, your effort, your strategy, just not you.
You can adapt and change your strategy but blaming yourself or things you have no control over only serve to decrease your confidence.
Your confidence is all you have to make YOU successful in this change.
Be a positive coach to yourself.
Be as kind, supportive and encouraging as you would if you were helping a friend.
Lastly, remember the scales are NOT the outcome. They are an indicator of progress over a period of time that you DO NOT have complete control over.
Focus on your task related behavior and let the judgement fall on your effort not a number.
Dane FULLER For Longer
P.S. For a more task oriented approach to weight loss use these tools at the FULLER Facebook Community Group to know your Nutrition and Exercise scorecard result