It’s the start of a new month and with tomorrow being Monday, many people will be starting a diet to lose weight, perhaps in time for Christmas. Unfortunately, most people won’t achieve their target. It’s not their fault though, it will be the strategy. Here’s why your diet won’t work and here’s what you can do instead to get the results you really want.

Why your diet won’t work.

There is nothing wrong with anyone wanting to lose weight. I encourage anyone who wants to make a positive change to their lives.

The problem is trying to reach a certain weight.

When people come to see me to get help in losing weight, they always say they want to lose x stone as they were able to do more, all their clothes fitted nicely and they felt really happy and confident.

Your weight is a reflection of a moment in time and has no emotional connection.

This is slightly misleading. It’s not that they were able to do more, wear whatever they wanted and felt this way when they were at that weight. They just happened to be that weight when they were doing that. This is different.

I have a client I’m working with just now who told me that she wanted to lose at least a stone so she could ride her horse. I helped her create some positive habits in her life and she came in the following week telling me that she had ridden the horse and it felt so good, she was going back the next day to ride him again.

She had no idea if she’d lost any weight at all. It was only a week so it’s unlikely she’d lost much more than a few pounds but the difference to her was huge. I knew this from the big smile she had on her face when she told me. She also told me that she’d turned down a piece of cake, not because she was denying herself it but because she didn’t feel she needed it.

That is very powerful.

The other thing is that your target weight is seen as a peak point. It can’t be. Everything doesn’t stop when you reach that weight. If anything, that’s when the real work begins. In most cases, reaching target weight is slightly underwhelming as people realise they don’t feel the things they thought they might when they get there.

Essentially, you could be at your target weight and not able to do anything any better than you do right now.

What you can do instead

1. Pick a positive goal – moving towards something you really want is easier than trying to move away from something you don’t want. Think of the things you want to be able to do, the clothes you want to wear, how you want to feel instead. My client has done this and has achieved a lot more on the back of her new-found confidence from riding her horse.
2. Create a list of positive changes – losing weight isn’t solely related to diet and exercise. Think of trying to improve the quality of your sleep, manage stress better and fit in time for you in your schedule. All of these will have an affect on your goal. After all, how often do you crave a salad when you’re feeling tired or stressed? Try  making one or two changes at a time and practice them until they become habit then make another couple of changes and so on.
3. Focus on the journey – it’s all about the journey, not the destination. You will learn new things and perhaps enjoy some new things that you might want to explore that are completely different from what you had planned. It’s all about discovering new things you can do that give you the greatest pleasure. 

The main thing is to be consistent with everything you do as that’s where the results come from. Going walking everyday could potentially get you better results than the HIIT class you do 2-3 times a week.

When you do things consistently every day, you will start to see improvements and feel them getting easier and also that you’re doing them without giving them a second thought.

Are you thinking of starting a diet?

What are the things you’d like to be doing, clothes you’d like to be wearing that you can’t fit into right now?

How would you like to feel instead?

Get in touch and maybe I can help you.