I recently had a lovely chat with Sophie about weight loss. She told me that during her mid-40s, she’d decided that she needed to lose weight fast. She had come out of a divorce, re-started her life, her children were grown.
She made the fabulous decision that Now was Her Time. So she did what almost everyone does first for weight loss and simply cut down her calories quite significantly. This resulted in a fantastic weight loss of 15kg.
She then wanted to do more fitness-wise, so she took on a Personal Trainer. And that’s where it all started to unravel.
“You’ve done it all wrong”.
Her new Trainer told her she had “done it all wrong”. Instead of empowering her with praise for making such a great start to build upon, she made her feel terrible by almost scolding her for not (yet) exercising.
“Yeah, this young woman aged about 24 told me I’d done it all wrong, and from that point on my brain kind of rebelled and I started to gain weight again. I got fit,
but the weight came back.
but the weight came back.
It threw me. I felt really lost after that and it was a turning point in my weight loss. It stopped there. I regained 15lb and now I just can’t lose it however fit I get”
The moral of this tale?
Be careful who you listen to.
Not all fitness professionals are the same. It’s very important to find one who “gets” you and totally understands your issues. They should know exactly that every weight loss issue will be wrapped up in emotion. That can be very complex. They should acknowledge that no 2 people are the same.
A brilliant personal trainer should have a whole history of getting great results for people like you. All weight-loss coaches should be keen to show you their success stories – and you should see people with similar issues to your own in the pictures they give you.
“I cannot eat any less”.
Then there was Caron. Her weight loss story was very different from Sophie’s. Caron told me when we first met that she
“Couldn’t eat any less”.
She’d been on diets for years … tried them all …. and couldn’t imagine getting weight loss success without literally starving herself.
It was those words that made me 100% determined to show her that diets never work long term for weight loss. They can get you started brilliantly .. as Sophie found …. and doctors recommend diets as an obesity treatment.
But long-term it’s important to find a new healthier way of eating which enables you to stay stable, balanced, and healthy without counting every single calorie.
None of us wants to feel like a weight-loss failure if we one day have a piece of birthday cake, or enjoy a regular Friday night celebratory glass of wine right?
My own story…
Life’s way too short to feel you have to limit all calories and deprive yourself of food to stay thin.
I tried that way myself once, as a late teen into my early 20’s after a chance comment from my Grandmother who said I was “Well covered”.
Well covered??
Made me sound like a Chesterfield sofa.
I’m not having that I thought.
Made me sound like a Chesterfield sofa.
I’m not having that I thought.
So I cut calories dramatically. It was hell. I was on around 1200 calories a day – living on lettuce – occasionally binging as I was starving all the time. I became very slim it’s true. But I had zero social life, no friends, hideous chronic fatigue, and a cold that controlled my every thought.
I remember being at College standing by the radiator once cold dark December and wondering how I’d find the energy to walk to the bus.
At that point, I could never have done what I do now.
Thankfully for me and my health that didn’t last for long. I was in a damaging relationship that was causal. I dealt with that stress by finding my amazing (now) husband Dave. And I found a far better way of eating which gave me the energy to exercise. You see my results every day!
I can help YOU to lose weight and feel truly fabulous. I understand the weight loss and fitness needs for women over 40 better than any young woman of 25, or I’d wager, better than any male personal trainer too.
Contact me here if you’d like to break free from your own weight loss horror story.
Start looking the way that you want.
Start wearing the clothes that make you feel fantastic.
Start living the life you know you can.
Start getting those small weight losses…they are the best.