Posts Tagged ‘willpower’
Guest Blog: The struggle is real… But why?
By Lisa Goldberg, Licensed Clinical Nutritionist
Why do you think sustainable weight loss eludes you? You’re smart, savvy and you know what healthy is and what it’s not. You’ve probably read a million books and articles on eating healthy for weight loss. You have all of the information. So how is it you know what to do but you just can’t do it??
Your struggle with weight just drains you. You wrack your brain wondering why the weight just won’t come off no matter what you do. You have tried every trick in the book. You lose weight but over time the weight slowly comes back on. Or maybe for you it quickly comes back.
What do you think that’s all about? Lack of motivation? Lack of willpower? Laziness?
I want to let you know its not any of those things. It’s about your self-defeating behaviors.
What exactly are self-defeating behaviors? Actions or attitudes stemming from faulty or limited beliefs that once worked to help us cope with hurtful experiences, but now they prevent us from responding to life in healthy ways.
These behaviors lead us to make choices in all aspects of our life, health, work, relationships etc that perpetuate cycles of failure. Samples of this include: My metabolism is broken so why should I try? Nothing works for me. I am destined to be overweight. No matter what I do the weight will come back. I’m afraid to fail again… Do any of these sound Familiar?
It is your self-defeating behaviors and faulty beliefs that keep you stuck in your struggle with food, weight loss, relationships and anything else you haven’t been able to sustainably change in your life.
This is why the weight always comes back. Because all you’ve done is focus on changing the food. You’ve haven’t yet addressed the “Why.”
You can continue to try every diet on the planet but unless you change what you believe about yourself and the behaviors that follow…the weight will always come back.
Close your eyes for a few seconds and imagine what it would feel like to continuously replace self-defeating behaviors with life-enhancing behaviors. You continuously make choices that make you feel good, happy and proud. Imagine how that would feel? Pretty darn good, right? Well, I want to let you know this is possible.
I want to let you know that by learning the right tools and strategies you can change your self-defeating behaviors to new, habitual life-enhancing behaviors so you can overcome your struggle with food and lose the weight for good.
After all, you know its never really about the food. It’s about changing the habits, behaviors and your old coping mechanism that causes you to eat to soothe your feelings with food. If you are done with the quick fixes and you are ready to address the root cause of your yo-yo dieting, don’t wait any longer to set up a call with me to see how I can support you.
Don’t let fear of change, fear of failure, indecision or caring what other people think stop you. Life is just too short to stay stuck in old patterns that no longer serve you. Over the last 16 years I have had hundreds of clients put their trust in me to help them change the behaviors that keep them stuck in their struggle with food and desirable weight loss. Here are some of their discoveries and Ah-ha moments:
“Thanks to you for the large part, I have not been bingeing even through all this! I haven’t lost anymore but I haven’t gained either. I already knew everything you taught me however you say it in a magical way that I truly get it!”
“I am a totally different in terms of how I eat and how I think about food. All the techniques we have discussed were extremely helpful in getting me to this point which I call “autopilot.” I have started focusing less on restricting my intake and more on eating healthy foods”
“Posting a few wins that happened this week. I received a few compliments that I have really “slimmed down” and it shows in my clothes. I think by not letting the number on the scale stress me out and dictate my mood for the day – I have been able lose more inches.”
“I’m really understanding now when you said it’s just food – it has NO magical powers. It might make me feel good for a few seconds but that is nothing compared to how long the great feeling for losing weight and being healthy lasts. I’m going to remember that at difficult or stressful times and in the heat of the moment when my mind thinks of nothing but food and I start reaching for the food that I think will “solve” my unpleasant feeling.”
Take the first step at this very moment to start to change your self-defeating behaviors and stop saying “What if I can’t?” and start saying “Yes, I can!”
About the Guest Blogger:
Lisa Goldberg is a nutritionist with a Masters degree in Clinical Nutrition from New York University. In addition, her certifications and Licenses include: Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Dietician/Nutritionist licensed by New York State, Certified in Adult Weight Management by the ADA. Lisa is also a personal trainer certified by the American Counsel on Exercise since 1994. She was the Nutritionist at the New York Stock Exchange from 2003-2007 and for 10 years served as the nutritionist to traders on Wall Street. Anyone who would like to discuss their weight loss goals with Lisa can schedule a free 30-minute weight loss consultation with her by clicking here. (Simply let Lisa know you found out about her on the Just Stop! blog.)
A Note from Gregg:
As some of you Just Stoppers might remember, I have been lucky enough to be a guest in nutrition rockstar Lisa Goldberg’s recent weight loss summits not once, but twice. I love Lisa’s total approach to wellness, which not only includes getting to a healthy weight, but also enjoying life and learning to love and appreciate yourself in the process. Lisa is about to begin her exclusive 6 month online group weight loss program (for the body, mind and soul) – during which you can discover how to break old habits and behavior patterns that keep you from losing weight once and for all.
Any Just Stopper who wants to find out more information (without any obligation), can click here to schedule a free 30-minute Discovery Session with Lisa herself to find out more about the upcoming 6 month online group weight loss program.
Photo Source: Simpatico
3 obstacles, 3 solutions (part 1 of 2)
Guest Post by Nutritionist & Health Coach Lisa Goldberg, host of the upcoming (and free!) Right Mind, Right Weight Online Summit
Weight loss. Why is it so hard? The never-ending desire to lose weight no matter how much or how little. It seems so elusive and difficult for so many. No matter who I speak with, when I mention that I am a nutritionist, someone will always say, “I need to lose weight”. What I find so interesting that most people know what they need to do to lose weight. The problem is they just can’t do it. Here are 3 obstacles that usually keep people stuck and 3 solutions on how to move past them.
OBSTACLE #1: Mindless Eating
I find that most people lack an awareness of their habits and behaviors around food. Think about it. Do you know how many times you walk into the kitchen and open the pantry or refrigerator and grab something to eat, especially after dinner when you are no longer hungry? How about how many times you eat what’s left on your kid’s plate after you’ve finished your meal? Or how many times you walk by your co-workers desk and grab a handful of M & M’s, pretzels or whatever happens to be in the jar? These mindless acts of eating are often the stuff that people don’t even pay attention to and can’t understand why the weight is either coming on or not coming off.
Solution: Pay attention to whether you are experiencing HEAD HUNGER or STOMACH HUNGER. Do you think you are hungry or are you hungry? We all know what hunger feels like. Create an awareness of what goes in your mouth during the course of the day when its not an actual meal or planned snack. Once you start to become aware of how much extra goes in on a daily basis it will be easier to change this behavior and eliminate potentially hundreds of extra calories by the end of the week.
OBSTACLE #2: Restrictive Dieting
Going on a restrictive diet is the worst thing you can do to try to lose weight. Just thinking about possibly feeling deprived sends most people running for the nearest buffet table. These diets usually involve low fat or worse, fat-free processed foods. Restrictive diets are not maintainable long-term. This is a huge reason why people fail to stay on a diet plan and yo-yo diet. Low calorie diets or diets that remove food groups will, no doubt, set you up for an eating disaster because at some point you will go off the diet plan that you went on to lose weight.
Solution: Eat! Eat whole, unprocessed foods. Eat 3 meals and 1-2 snacks a day depending on how long your day is. Find good-tasting, healthy whole foods that you like and make you feel good both physically and mentally since our brain plays a huge part in our satiety. Be sure not to wait longer than 4-6 hours between meals and snacks. Buy a great cookbook and find ways to make your favorite foods healthy and delicious!
OBSTACLE #3: You Think it’s About Willpower
I hear over and over again “I have no willower” or “I wish I had willpower. If I did I would be able to stick to a diet and lose weight.” I am here to tell you that weight loss has little or nothing to do with willpower. Willpower, even if you did have it is short-term. It doesn’t last the rest of your life.
Solution: Change your way of thinking about food and eating. Focus on creating maintainable healthy habit changes that you can incorporate into your everyday life. The definition of a habit is: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. Once you adopt healthier habits you will never have to worry about having willpower.
[Lisa will share 3 more obstacles and 3 more solutions in a future post]
About the guest columnist: Lisa Goldberg is a nutritionist and weight loss coach with a Masters in Clinical Nutrition from NYU. You can register for Lisa’s FREE Right Mind, Right Weight Online Summit by clicking here. Lisa is a Certified Nutrition Specialist and a Certified Dietician/Nutritionist licensed by New York State since 2001. Lisa specializes in personalized weight loss coaching, emotional eating, mindful eating, lifestyle and habit/behavior change. She helps her clients create the changes they desire so they can lose weight for good. Lisa also counsels clients on overall wellness, restoring health from chronic disease states, sports nutrition, and vitamin supplementation. Lisa has her private practice in New York City.
Main Photo Source: Diets In Review
Guest Columnist Photo Source: Health Coach Lisa
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