There’s More to it Than Losing Weight

When you make the effort to exercise and live a healthier lifestyle, is your goal just to lose weight? If so, this may be a double-edged sword. While wanting to lose weight is a great catalyst for getting you moving and eating better, it can also derail your efforts if you don’t see results quickly enough to keep you motivated. Have you ever given up because you got frustrated by the lack of results or how slow the results seemed to occur?

It is easy to give up too soon, but what you may not realize is that a lot of things are actually happening in your body to help you lose the weight that you just can’t see or feel. If you have been struggling with your weight or been dieting for years and years, then it takes time for the body to respond to new behaviors. It can take many months of healthy changes for the body chemistry to adjust and begin to balance your hormones and reset your metabolism. The more out of shape you are, the more you have dieted and the more years you have been over weight, the longer this process takes.

For me, it took five months to see any change in my weight after I started exercising and eating well. Then I hit a plateau at my new weight and didn’t see another change for 4 more months. That happened 4 times. What if I had given up? I would not be the success story I am today. What if all the people that are featured in the current (January 2007 special issue) of People magazine had given up? Most of them took a couple of years to reach the weight they now maintain. Sure, some of them had faster results than I had, but that doesn’t happen for everyone.

It isn’t just about losing weight. There are lots of benefits of a healthier lifestyle, and that is what you want to focus on so you don’t just focus on your weight. For me, during those first five months, it was feeling more energetic, positive and in control. I felt more alive, stronger and proud of myself for following through. Even though I didn’t lose that much weight that first year, I was toning up and I felt stronger, more capable and more attractive. After three years of staying committed and sticking with it, I had surpassed my goals and I was glad I had not focused on trying to reach a number. I might have stopped when I reached it, but instead I came to love the feeling of being fit and the more I did the more I wanted to do. I discovered a passion for being active and fit, and it led me to change my career. What is shocking about this is that I had spent my teens, 20s and 30s hating exercise and using dieting techniques to stay slim.

Consider for yourself, what else besides losing a specific amount of weight matters to you. Maybe you want more stamina and energy, to easily get up a flight of stairs, to keep up with your kids, to avoid medication or minimize the risk of diabetes, to feel less pain, or just to feel proud, positive and invigorated. These are results you can get long before you see changes on the scale. If you can focus on these and let your body do what it has to on the inside, you will eventually see long lasting results on the outside. The trick is to be patient, change your expectations and avoid the instant gratification lure of dieting that takes you for a ride. I also advise people not to get on the scale, because of the emotional highs and lows that can derail the process.

Successful weight loss is seldom achieved quickly, although it is for some. For the majority, especially those that have years of weight issues or women dealing with hormonal imbalances, it is a process of creating and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits that lead to feeling great and in time becoming slimmer.

As you make new lifestyle changes in the weeks and months ahead, pay attention to all the ways you are feeling better and the benefits you are experiencing from taking good care of yourself.

Alice Greene is president of Feel Your Personal Best, a healthy lifestyle coaching company located in Newburyport, MA. For her Free The 9 Life Changing Secrets Every Woman (and Man) Must Knowvisit www.feelyourpersonalbest.com. Contact her at agreene@feelyourpersonalbest.com or 978-465-3555×5.