Cathy Wilson is a certified life coach specializing in weight loss. Cathy lost 147 pounds seven years ago. Her passion is to help clients achieve weight loss and life goals. Cathy works with clients to create a weight loss life plan custom to each client. Cathy is a member of the International Coaching Federation, International Association of Coaches, and Obesity Action Coalition.
Visit Cathy's website:
http://www.LoseWeightFindLife.com
Do you think you have to be perfect in your diet and exercise goals? Try this experiment: Being rigid is similar to holding your breath, keep holding it, don't blow it out yet, hold it, okay, now blow it out. You probably blew it out with a lot of force because you held it for longer than you felt comfortable. Rigid dieting and exercise are like a tightly wound spring that eventually has to release. It's very important that you begin your healthier lifestyle with an understanding that there will be days when you will stray from healthy eating and exercising. You will not be perfect in your diet and exercise program, nor should you be.
Before you begin a diet and exercise program, tell yourself that no matter what happens, rather than abandoning your new lifestyle, you'll resume your healthy habits as soon as you can. Don't want until Monday, the first day of next month or even January 1st. Don't want until the next day; start again with your next meal. You always have an opportunity for a fresh start to get right back on track with your healthy habits continuing to move to your weight loss goals.
It is equally important that you feel confident, not guilty, about doing so. Whatever the temptation or obstacle is, keep in mind that it's not wrong or bad to eat fattening foods once in a while or to miss a workout. Just remember to resume your healthy lifestyle as soon as possible afterwards. If you keep moving forward and you don't let guilt and discouragement stop your program all together, you'll eventually have improved eating and exercise habits - with great results and success in your weight loss and health goals.
With this approach, there is no such thing as "cheating." When we feel we are cheating, we often punish ourselves; we will feel guilt, frustration and as though we've failed. We also get into the perfectionist thinking. We can't have this or that ever again and if we stray, then we've blown it. Replacing the negative concept of cheating with the idea of "straying temporarily from healthy habits" takes away the all-or-nothing emphasis of right and wrong. If you treat every deviation from your plan as a failure, you won't get very far. Substituting the idea of a brief straying away from your plan instead of feeling guilty, and learning to return more and more quickly to healthier habits, is more realistic. It's also easier and more enjoyable - today and in the long-run.
If you don't allow any opportunity to vary your eating and exercise and go into all or nothing thinking, you don't practice moderation and balance. Healthy habits of diet and fitness are most success when you don't think of them as success or failure. It is progress and not perfection. Practice healthy habits more times than you don't. Think in terms of the 80/20 guidelines. 80% of the time, you eat according to your healthy nutritional program and are active; 20% of the time, you relax your guidelines. This allows for balance and living your life in a healthy, easier mode of moderation.
Before you begin a diet and exercise program, tell yourself that no matter what happens, rather than abandoning your new lifestyle, you'll resume your healthy habits as soon as you can. Don't want until Monday, the first day of next month or even January 1st. Don't want until the next day; start again with your next meal. You always have an opportunity for a fresh start to get right back on track with your healthy habits continuing to move to your weight loss goals.
It is equally important that you feel confident, not guilty, about doing so. Whatever the temptation or obstacle is, keep in mind that it's not wrong or bad to eat fattening foods once in a while or to miss a workout. Just remember to resume your healthy lifestyle as soon as possible afterwards. If you keep moving forward and you don't let guilt and discouragement stop your program all together, you'll eventually have improved eating and exercise habits - with great results and success in your weight loss and health goals.
With this approach, there is no such thing as "cheating." When we feel we are cheating, we often punish ourselves; we will feel guilt, frustration and as though we've failed. We also get into the perfectionist thinking. We can't have this or that ever again and if we stray, then we've blown it. Replacing the negative concept of cheating with the idea of "straying temporarily from healthy habits" takes away the all-or-nothing emphasis of right and wrong. If you treat every deviation from your plan as a failure, you won't get very far. Substituting the idea of a brief straying away from your plan instead of feeling guilty, and learning to return more and more quickly to healthier habits, is more realistic. It's also easier and more enjoyable - today and in the long-run.
If you don't allow any opportunity to vary your eating and exercise and go into all or nothing thinking, you don't practice moderation and balance. Healthy habits of diet and fitness are most success when you don't think of them as success or failure. It is progress and not perfection. Practice healthy habits more times than you don't. Think in terms of the 80/20 guidelines. 80% of the time, you eat according to your healthy nutritional program and are active; 20% of the time, you relax your guidelines. This allows for balance and living your life in a healthy, easier mode of moderation.
- Related Videos
- Related Articles
- Ask / Related Q&A
- How Healthy Is Zone Diet Weight Loss Program
- Diet Weight Loss and Its Merits and Demerits
- Can I Lose Weight With a Raw Diet Weight Loss Method?
- Healthy Diet Weight Loss – a Way to Lose Weight Without Dieting!
- Cabbage Soup Diet Weight Loss That Really Works so Fast
- Liquid Diet Weight Loss Tips
- The Truth About The Cookie Diet Weight Loss Plan
- A Deeper Perspective about Liquid Diet Weight Loss
Women's Health and Fitness - Weight Training To Lose Weight
By: shannon spoon | 01/01/2010Weight training is one of the most important elements to losing weight. It does not matter what age you are, you should take it up. It will help imrove your health, your balance and your strength.
Women's Health and Weight Loss Tip #1: Lose Weight to Fight Osteoporosis
By: shannon spoon | 01/01/2010There's more to fighting bone disease than just getting enough calcium. Find out how your weight and exercise program can play a factor.
Writing For Your Weight Loss Success
By: shannon spoon | 01/01/2010Motivation is one of the key variables for the equation that yields long term weight loss success. The question is how do you maintain the motivation to attain the ultimate goal? Regardless if your weight loss goal is 20 pounds or 100 pounds you must change your thinking to change your behavior and writing makes that happen. Weight loss really does begin in your head. Every successful athlete understands that his thinking process is either working for him or against him. T...
Yoga for Weight Loss: What you need know to succeed (part 2)
By: shannon spoon | 01/01/2010Can Yoga work for weight loss? From the ‘Breath of Fire’ exercise to the sun exercises, to the specific poses, learn how to execute each Yoga exercise when seeking to lose weight through this ancient, yet effective, form of physical culture
Yoga for Weight Loss: What you need know to succeed (part 1)
By: shannon spoon | 01/01/2010Think Yoga for weight loss is impractical? Well, your opinion on that might change after you read this. When used right (and incorporating all its limbs just as in conventional exercise) Yoga DEFINITELY can help you lose weight…and did I mention the positive effects on your mental and spiritual health? I just did my friend!
You Are Not Doomed To Be Fat Forever
By: shannon spoon | 01/01/2010Once you stop dieting and start listening to your body it is easy and natural to live at your own perfect, normal weight.
You Too Can Control Cholesterol Through Your Diet
By: shannon spoon | 01/01/2010Do you love to eat fatty foods? If so, then you could be a candidate for certain heart related problems. According to medical studies, the incidence of heart attacks and coronary artery disease is a result of an escalation of blood cholesterol levels. For that reason, people with cholesterol levels that are above the norm should protect themselves from suffering any form of degenerative disease by lowering their blood cholesterol. This can be realized by observing a low chole...
Pilates For Back Pain: The Answer You Need
By: Michael Tasker | 01/01/2010As appears more common nowadays, there is a high chance that a majority of people will experience a degree of back pain whether as a one off occurrence or on a regular basis. If the problem is not resolved quickly, the pain can become ever present and more difficult to treat. Discovering how to do Pilates, back pain sufferers have an easily implemented exercise method not just to relieve pain but also to cure the problem.
Being Perfect on Your Diet as Set Up for Failure
By: Cathy Wilson | 19/08/2008 | HealthIt's very important that you begin your healthier lifestyle with an understanding that there will be days when you will stray from healthy eating and exercising. You will not be perfect in your diet and exercise program, nor should you be. Success doesn't come from being perfect. Success comes to you from a balance and moderation of healthy habits.
Your Weight Isn't About Food
By: Cathy Wilson | 15/08/2008 | HealthYour weight and body issues don't have anything to do with food. It isn't what you eat but why you eat. One of the problems with weight loss surgery and diet programs is our belief that they hold the answer. If only we can follow them, they will work for us. Unfortunately for many of us, we didn't experience long-term weight loss success. Did we fail? No. Absolutely not! The diets failed because they are not the answer.
Committed or Wishing?
By: Cathy Wilson | 09/07/2008 | HealthDo you want to lose weight? Are you hoping for a way of life that includes losing weight, feeling good in your body, wearing a smaller size, and have strong sense of confidence? You can have it. To reach any goal, you need to be committed. To lose weight requires persistence and consistency. It requires saying no to food choices when you'd rather indulge. It requires a commitment to your diet and along with a promise to yourself.
Your Personal Independence Day
By: Cathy Wilson | 03/07/2008 | HealthAs we celebrate our country's independence, celebrate your own. Independence Day is one day a year; your own personal Independence Day can be any day of the year and every day. From changing our lifestyle and our habits, we have changed our relationship with food. Rather than living as a slave and victim to food, we are now free and independent of the limitations of emotional eating. You are free! You are independent!
Emotional Medication of Food
By: Cathy Wilson | 01/05/2008 | FitnessWhen you have a headache, you take an over-the-counter pain relief medication. If you have an uncomfortable emotion, do you take the relief self-medication of emotional eating? For many of us that have weight issues, emotional eating is the result from attempting to change the way we feel. When we feel an uncomfortable or undesirable emotion, we provide relief by emotional eating. Medication has its proper place just as food does too.
Weight Loss Success Without the Scale
By: Cathy Wilson | 22/04/2008 | HealthDo you wake up and weigh yourself? That's fine but does it determine what mood you're in and set the pace for your day? Are you in a good mood or bad mood depending on the scale? Is the tone of your day based on the number reflected on the scale? Break the ties that bind you from being a slave to the scale. Celebrate your success and changes you're making in your life in ways other than the scale.
Impossible to Regain Weight After Weight Loss Surgery?
By: Cathy Wilson | 20/04/2008 | HealthWith weight loss surgery, are your worries about your weight are over? Do you need to think about weight issues? Weight loss surgery is not a cure for your weight woes. The surgery does not do all of the work for you. As we know, weight loss surgery is a tool. Weight regain can occur. It is a tool that WE choose to use. If you want to lose ' choose to use your surgery.
Avoid Weight Regain From Bariatric Surgery
By: Cathy Wilson | 05/04/2008 | HealthWhen having weight loss surgery, you commit yourself to certain nutrition and dietary requirements. You become dedicated to a healthy lifestyle with habits that support your weight loss. Weight loss surgery is a tool to use but you must choose to use that tool. Unfortunately, weight regain or a stalled weight loss can occur. If you want to avoid the dreaded return of pounds, become aware of the pitfalls on your journey to weight loss success.