Healthy food on a heart-shaped wooden cutting board and a muscular arm

Hats off to you if you are taking your health seriously enough to want to make some changes! Making that decision is a good first step, so you’re on the right track! Specifically when it comes to weight loss, choosing your action steps can be overwhelming to say the least. In fact, most people tend to succumb to the overwhelm and retreat back into the safe zone of doing nothing. When you can commit to this journey, you have to be willing to do the hard work more than you are willing to stay stuck. It’s a fork in the road right away in order for you to move forward. That being said, here are 3 key ways to sift through the overwhelm of weight loss to find support.

#1: Learn About Your Options

There are more diets than you can imagine, so I’m happy to tell you that one size does not fit all. What might work for another person might not work for you. For example, if your best friend is doing Keto and has dropped a bunch of weight, that does not guarantee that you would do the same with it. There are many factors to consider and so many variables that it is impossible for everyone to get the same results. If you compare, you will despair. This will also create a discouraged attitude and could stall your progress. Instead, learn about your options and choose something that best suits you. For instance, if you are willing to follow an elimination diet, then research the pros and cons of Whole 30. Be sure to pick a plan, diet, or eating pattern that best reflects your interests and your level of commitment. Weed through your options and educate yourself on what you want to follow to shed the weight. Find reputable resources, consult with a coach or other professional, and plan the steps to carry you to success. In other words, you do you and do your research diligently and thoroughly. I call this the “grow to learn” strategy of educating yourself in detail before plunging into a direction so that you can find the right fit at the right pace.

 

#2: Use Social Media Sources In A Constructive Way

It is super easy to get sucked down the rabbit hole of social media, says the person guilty of such things herself. If you become enthralled in what you see and hear, precious time can easily melt away before you know it. It does feel like falling into a trance of sorts as you keep scrolling mindlessly while blocking out what is going on around you. It sort of feels like when you drive to work and wonder how you got there because it was so automatic that you may not have been paying as close attention as you should have, for example. Not advised! I’d like to offer honing in on social media posts as resources that can be filtered in order to avoid becoming time sucks. While searching for uplifting posts, podcasts, blogs, and gurus, it is a good idea to set a timer and take notes so that your search is intentional and focused to save you wasted time and to give you the information that you need.

 

For example, if you are looking for experts in the field of the effects of sugar, quickly narrow it down to 2-3 sources that you like and move on. Otherwise, you could spend too much time doing too much searching.

Also, when I know, like, and trust someone on social media, I look at who they follow and what resources they offer to their followers. This can be a big timesaver in the end. Again, the “less is more” approach will help you to protect your time so that you can get started on your weight loss. Being informed is a responsible way to be successful in a healthy lifestyle.

#3: Join A Community

This key to success will make all the difference in the world, so navigate through your options carefully. Very few people can go it alone when it comes to flipping their health and losing weight. It’s human nature to want to belong and losing weight can be a lonely experience, so put this strategy at the top of your list.

Again, what works for you…one on one coaching, FaceBook groups, in-person small groups, large virtual group weekly meetings, etc.? Gravitate to the community that makes you feel comfortable and that will enhance your experience. There are more communities available nowadays than ever before, especially since virtual connections became essential for connection during the pandemic. We’ll call that one of the silver linings of the unprecedented experience that the world had over the last 3 years. Used in a positive way, virtual communities offer diversity of people, ideas, and locations around the globe. It does make the world seem smaller in a sense when people with a common goal can come together to belong and support one another, no matter where they are.

So, customize your health journey in ways that work with your preferences and your strengths to find success that will lead to a long-term healthy lifestyle. You are worth the effort and energy to grow to learn so that you can learn to grow. Take your first small action step today to get your health turned around; you are worth the work!

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Read more from Georgette!

Georgette LePage, Senior Level Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

Georgette LePage is a certified Health and Life Coach who empowers women all around the world to lose their mental weight first in order to then lose their physical weight. Her approach is honest, real, clear, and genuine with transformational habit change and mindset reset methods. Georgette’s energy and enthusiasm are contagious. Her focus on a healthy lifestyle inspires her clients to leave behind old diet culture thoughts and patterns in order to embrace fresh and simple ways to live their best lives without diet drama. Empowerment, self-confidence, and self-care are cornerstones of the programs that she offers. She helps her clients to get the results that they want with realistic, real-life strategies. She lives her own life the way she coaches others. She listens to what her clients want and guides them with compassion and accountability as they achieve their goals. She works with people of all ages (teens to seniors and every age in between) who are ready to live a healthier, more joyful life. Georgette also hosts the talk radio show WHY WEIGHT? with Dr. Pat Baccili on Transformational Talk Radio. In addition to speaking English, she also is fluent in French and Spanish. Georgette has 32 years of experience as a World Language Teacher, as well. Her coaching motto is: Feel better. Look better. Be your best self!

 

 

Happy Tuesday! One of my favorite holidays is right around the corner: Easter. To me, Easter means renewing, rejoicing, and refreshing. The weather is slowly becoming more pleasant, plants and flowers are starting to poke through the ground, the sun is out more often, leaves are bursting in color, and there is hope for leaving winter behind and seeing brighter days…literally.

 

It’s also a time to once again be overloaded with sweets and treats, which means doubling down on your tactics for avoiding overindulging and canceling out your healthy lifestyle changes. It’s easy to wolf down a bag of jellybeans without even noticing or to face plant into a bowl of pastel colored M & Ms without being present. Let’s be truthful here…it’s easy to do and we’ve all done it before. What happens when we let our guard down is my “ONE JELLYBEAN AWAY” concept. That means that I personally can go from 0-100 very fast and consume far more jellybeans than I need to without even realizing it. If I’m not aware of what I’m eating, it can be so easy to plow through a bag (or two) of jellybeans and begin the downward spiral into overeating and reversing my weight loss efforts. 

 

Sometimes I promise myself to eat only a handful of jellybeans and I honor that and move on. However, it’s very easy for me to go on a jellybean binge after eating one jelly bean. Insulin spikes are often very difficult to fight off once you start intaking sugar. Actually, it can happen to anyone with any particular food. Pick your poison: cookies, chips, ice cream, candy, chocolate, etc. It’s different for everyone, so it’s good to be aware of your “trigger” food so that you can be ready to handle those moments when it can all skid out of control very quickly without much thought.

 

First of all, who really eats only one jelly bean? Let’s be honest here! Who really knows when to stop and push the sweets away from you? Most of the time, I do but other times I just keep going. I call it the tornado because it can start small and spiral out of control in seconds. Can you relate? Step #1 is being aware. Step #2 is to have a response ready when it does happen. Talk to yourself out loud and acknowledge what is happening. Ask yourself why you are on the verge of overeating? What feelings are you having….sadness, boredom, anger, stress, etc.? If so, stop and get curious about what you are feeling and why. Step #3 is to walk yourself through a few questions and decide that the unhealthy food you are tempted to devour will not satisfy that feeling. In fact, it will only make matters worse. Or are you actually physically hungry? Meaning, does your body need fuel? If so, stop and feed yourself something healthy. By the way, I’ve never known anyone to binge on carrots and celery during one of these moments. Go figure!

 

So, be kind to yourself, get curious about why you are about to overeat, and take a step in the healthy direction. You will never regret making that choice, but you will regret giving in to that “one jellybean away” path of destruction. Stay on track and move forward! 

 

You’ve got this!

Georgette

 

Ready for your own personal health & life coach to get the weight loss results you want? Contact me at glepage7@me.com to get started!