New Year's Resolution to Lose Weight? 4 Steps to Ensure Success (for real this time!!)

Hey Mama Boss.

In this post I am going to talk to you about your New Year’s Resolution to lose weight.

How do I know you’ve made that New Year’s Resolution?

Because you always make that New Year’s Resolution.

Every year.

Am I wrong?

Didn’t think so.

Even those years that you make it in secret and don’t tell anybody, instead saying “I hate New Year’s Resolutions… I’m not making any this year...They’re stupid.”

You don’t tell anybody because you don’t want them to see you fail.

If you just don’t make the goal, then you can’t fail, right?

Well I got news for you, sister.

2019 is going to be different.

2019 is going to be your year.

2019 is the year you can, and will, lose the weight-- if you choose it.

In this post I am going to tell you how to make and reach your weight loss goals in 2019.

Ready?

Let’s go.

In years past, and maybe already even this year, you’ve set your weight loss goals for the coming year and then followed these steps:

1. Googled weight loss (maybe that’s how you found me!)
2. Decided to do Keto or Paleo or some other diet
3. Felt hopeful and motivated
4. Printed out the “shopping list” you found online
5. Went to the store and bought everything on it
6. Went home and prepared a meal or several meals according to your new plan

Time passes… maybe a day, maybe a week, maybe a month… and then you come home to find your spouse has brought home your favorite pizza and you decide to “cheat”.

And then you fall completely off the wagon, eating all kinds of foods that are forbidden on your new diet.

And your brain starts to criticize your diet.

It tells you all the reasons it wasn’t working.

You tell yourself you’ll get back on the wagon tomorrow…

or that you will try something else, something better (Keto if you were on Paleo, or vice versa… maybe Weight Watchers???).

These thoughts swamp your brain along with your dear old dieting companion: self-loathing.

It is almost guaranteed.

This has been me, my life, for 30 years.

I started dieting at the age of 9 and never stopped.

I would have successes, only to be followed close behind by failures.

Until I learned to stop eating my feelings.

Once I learned how my thinking was fueling my desire for food, I was able to do something about it.

And the best part about that is that I know, for sure, that I will never be fat again.

Because I don’t use willpower to maintain my natural weight now.

I don’t diet.

I’ve changed my thinking to change my eating, and lost nearly 30 pounds in the process.

And I will live this way for the rest of my life.

It is completely sustainable.

And you can do it, too.

Here’s how.
 

step 1: stop eating all sugar and flour

I've written a few posts on this so check them out starting with Quickstart Your Weight Loss.
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step 2: stop eating your emotions

Learn the difference between physical and emotional hunger and only eat when you are physically hungry.

We have a fear of hunger in our culture.

We believe that any little twinge of hunger will make us fall apart, stop functioning, and even faint.

So we carry around snacks in our purses “just in case”.

Stop doing that.

Learn what real hunger feels like so you can respond to it.

And then eat only to the point of feeling sated. 

Nothing more. 

My coach, Brooke Castillo, calls this eating “2:2”.

Imagine a scale that goes from -10 to +10, with -10 being famished, starving and +10 being so stuffed you want to explode.

Eat as soon as you feel that whisper of hunger at -2, and then stop when you get to just sated at +2.

Do this for a few weeks, or for as long as it serves you, to get to know your hunger signals. 

This is how I started my weight loss journey and I found it critical for ending overeating.

step 3: sleep

Get 7 hours of sleep each night.

When you are rested you are better able to tell the difference between physical and emotional hunger.

And when you have trouble sleeping for this reason or that, don’t freak out.

This is a part of being human-- interrupted sleep. 

Don’t let it throw you off your game. 

Just go to sleep at your usual time then next night.
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Step 4: Hydrate

Drink half your weight in water, ounces that is.

So if you weigh 200 pounds be sure to drink 100 ounces of water every day.

Again, when you are hydrated you are less likely to confuse hunger for something else.
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summary

1. 1. Stop eating all sugar and all flour.
2. 2. Learn the difference between physical and emotional hunger: eat 2:2 on the hunger scale.
3. 3. Sleep 7 hours each night, minimum.
4. 4. Stay hydrated: drink half your weight in ounces, daily.
5. ​

So those are the four steps.

Now, some of you have read this far and are maybe noticing that familiar anxiety that is nagging at you.

The one that is saying “You’ve done this a hundred times… it never works… what makes you think this time will be different??”

Here’s what’s different: you’ve likely never committed to manage your thinking before.

And managing your thinking is simple.

But not easy.

And I’m here to support you along the way.
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This work goes far, far deeper than what is on this page, but this is only the beginning.

There is no rush.

You get to be at your natural weight for the rest of your life.

So start here, one step at a time, and then once you’ve got those down, come back for more.

This is the entry level. 

The starter kit.

I’ve got lots more for you as you go.

After all, we are all in this together.

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