As director of Body Now! and a Health Advisor, I have the privilege of meeting many women and hearing their concerns. The topic of weight loss comes up so often I must share my findings. The first is when I ask an individual about health goals, and the answer I get 90% of the time is “lose weight.”  Most often, there is deadline. Examples include weddings, vacation, etc. Events can prompt one toward their goals and also brings a personal opportunity to review where the individual is going with her focus. This can be a great start to long lasting success. I cannot express the joy that myself and my team feels when we see women take charge of their wellness and have— Lasting Success.

At Body Now!, our staff is trained to educate our cliental on how to build their metabolic health. We say fat loss–instead of weight loss. We all want to look and feel our best. For real results, this requires a different approach than what many are conditioned to believe. The No Diet–Live Strong—- is our mantra.

It’s so simple. Eat well and exercise. If you are not nutritionally supported you will not have the ability to exercise properly. We hear the word diet and put faith in the end result, not considering that when you get to the gym to have trainers give instruction, the energy and recovery will not be available to make your workouts count. The very word “diet” is punishment. Most give up and enter back into the world of unconscious eating while carrying negative feelings toward themselves and feeling like a failure.

In a world filled with experts trying to sell you something, remember this—Healthy living is NOT some special, complicated, magical process. This is perhaps one of the longest standing dogmas in the world of “weight loss.” I have seen countless diets confuse people, cost them time and money and they end up sacrificing their fitness and health. I have also witnessed what works.

As a Health and Fitness professional, it is my responsibility to represent the industry of health and guide my clients and the general public to legitimate sources that will empower every individual with knowledge that is in alignment with science and medical research. Acknowledging many need help getting started in developing healthy habits, most  will need to go on an eating “Program”.  With many companies now offering incentives, I endorse Weight Watchers as one program that continues to work. It is a relatively inexpensive program to get started, and many employers as well as insurance providers are also covering the costs. We all need to be on track, and this is one way that works in making lasting changes.

The Dangerous Yo-Yo Diet Cycle

We all have seen celebrity spokespersons for expensive weight loss programs that require you to purchase their products. We see them months or years later… they gain all the weight back plus more. The rule is—- If you can’t sustain it, it’s not going to work. Go for lifestyle changes, It’s the only way!

A good nutrition program should tell you what is best to eat for optimum health.  Creating a consistent calorie deficit is challenging and it’s important to know the facts. Not all foods are created equally. A calorie of protein and a calorie of sugar will have a different impact. Weight Watchers has recognized this and changed their points system to reflect the greater impact of sugar and starchy foods. Say NO!!! to the Yo-yo diet cycle of losing weight and gaining it all back. It is stressful to our mind, body and spirit. This behavior pattern will weaken your immune system and your self-esteem.

Diets focus on the outcome rather than the journey.

If one is going on a “diet,”  they are missing the key ingredient from this personal journey toward health and self-nurturing. Pick a sensible eating plan that you can live with for the rest of your life. Crazy–Questionable—and Wacky— don’t work!!!   Following plans that are far removed from one’s lifetime desires of wellness make it easy to fall back to old habits when stress and frustration take over!

An effective healthy journey should ensure the following:

•Learning real ways to get and stay in shape

•Apply skills into a long-term lifestyle that you enjoy.

•Learn to appreciate the impact eating certain foods has on your body (both positively and negatively).

•Learn how to exercise effectively.

Learn how to fuel and move your body to encourages optimum health and reduces body fat! By making lifestyle changes, you can lose fat without feeling deprived.

It is impossible to put extreme limits on the food you eat long term. You can eat well, lose fat, and feel great. This is accomplished by MODIFYING your food intake and lowering fat and sugar consumption—-and—-exercising frequently makes healthier food choices easier.

Weight management is about avoiding the harmful diet entrapment. It’s about being healthy. Successful weight management includes physical activity with managing your ‘calories in versus calories out’. Eating healthy is achieved through better awareness of nutrition and changing your behavior and attitudes about your body and your relationship with food.

Diets Slow Your Metabolism

Not eating a variety of healthy foods or enough, prevents you from getting nutrients for health and your immune system suffers. Dieting causes loss of valuable bone mineral and muscle tissue. Remember–We want FAT LOSS—A happy woman is energetic, healthy and strong! Depriving oneself of essential nutrients saps your energy. Without getting enough ‘fuel’ to keep you going there will be no way you can stick with an effective exercise program. Your body reacts to fewer calories by slowing down your metabolism — burning fewer calories each day just to maintain your body functions. If you don’t add real exercise you will lose lean muscle and your metabolism is slowed even further. Even worse, the weight will come back on as fat rather than as the muscle you lost. Your body will look and feel flabby, weak, and less healthy. Your body responds by slowing your metabolic rate and you lose lean muscle, bone mineral, energy, and focus.

It takes a conscious approach to increase exercise and eat well.

The goal is to eat more nutrient-dense foods and keep you fueled so you can feel happy and exercise. This lifestyle change will help you maintaining lean muscle while losing fat, and will be gradual rather than dramatic. You will notice clothes fitting looser, your waistline shrinking, and your energy level higher.

“Successful eaters” eat high quality foods, plan and prepare meals, and regulate their food intake. The key factors that increase the likelihood someone will have success with weight management lifestyle include being flexible. Following diet rules to an extreme is insane. The all or nothing mindset makes misery.  Research proves those with “rigid control” gain more weight over time than those with “flexible control.”
Be smart and select a better fit for real life.

Rather than gaining a few pounds each year like most adults, you will be losing body fat and building your metabolism. Friends who haven’t seen you will be impressed by the difference. Best of all, you will not have abused your body with a diet, but instead have been feeding it appropriate amounts of better food while giving it the exercise it needs for overall health.

The clients who have been the most successful are the ones who make peace with themselves, have a high desire to maintain health habits, and understand the difference between restriction and setting limits. They eat in moderation, savor life, enjoy all foods, and exercise regularly.

May you feel peace, joy and have the energy to celebrate every precious moment of this life!   With love, Deborah