I want to tell you a story about Sharon and what she thought was a big win.
Sharon is a 52-year-old client of mine who had been carrying around the same 25 pounds since her last child was born 20 years ago.
She had decided she was totally fed up with her weight. She had a beach vacation coming up and she was dreading getting into a bathing suit.
Her friend had been telling her about a diet program she was following so, Sharon said, OK… I’ll give a try.
Sharon was determined. She followed it to a “T” and rapidly lost 25 pounds. Sharon was elated. She went shopping, bought a bathing suit and a bunch of new clothes for her vacation.
The vacation came and Sharon thought she was bringing her “new healthy lifestyle” with her. The first few mornings she made her shake in the hotel room with her Nutribullet and let her husband take the family to breakfast.
All was good for the first two days and then the family wanted her to come with them to breakfast. She thought she would get a smoothie, but the blueberry pancakes the woman was eating at the table next to her looked so good. She ordered them and that started the slipper slide.
With a deep feeling of guilt, Sharon said “scr** it, I’m on vacation.” From that point on Sharon “ate” her way thru her vacation. She was devastated to find that she gained 6 pounds while on vacation.
If that wasn’t bad enough, when Sharon got back to work the poop hit the fan.
Her key employee told her that her she had to leave and move back to Minnesota to take care of her sick mother.
Not only was Sharon overwhelmed because she was coming back from vacation, but she was now going to have to do the job of her key employee and find time to interview and train a replacement.
She was stressed to the max and felt like she was going to have a melt-down.
By the time Sharon hired and trained a replacement it was months and Sharon had gained back the 25 pounds. Her periods were coming and going whenever they wanted and she was experiencing just about every menopause symptom known.
You see Sharon’s big win wasn’t a win at all.
And here’s why.
A diet where you have to follow strict rules that allows for rapid weight loss isn’t anything you can live with long-term. The the deprivation of restrictive diets leads to over-eating or bingeing. And since your body doesn’t want you to starve, it responds to overly restrictive diets by slowing your metabolism which of course makes it easier to gain weight once you go off that restrictive diet.
Also, all the stress from rapid weight loss, restrictive eating and Sharon’s problems at work brought on her menopause symptoms with avengence.
This story unfortunately repeats itself too many times.
So, what is Sharon doing now?
She is learning how to eat to accelerate her metabolism so she can lose weight naturally and lower her menopause symptoms.
She is beginning to have a more peaceful relationship with food. And guess what? She is finding that weight loss and fewer menopause symptoms are a natural byproduct.
She even has another vacation planned and feel’s pretty confident that she will be able to enjoy every moment without disciplining herself, feeling guilty or gaining weight.
Can we please be done with the days of “no pain, no gain.” In fact, the stress of a restrictive diet sets you up for a lifelong struggle with your weight.
That might be good for an industry that thrives on a woman’s lack of satisfaction with herself. But it’s not good for you.
If you would like to have begin to create a smarter strategy around weight loss, click here and download my guide to help you bring your body, mind and eating habits into harmony.
That’s it for today.
Thanks for following along,
P.S. If you would like to immerse yourself in a program that will help you learn the process that I’m teaching Sharon, click here and set up a time to chat about my 1-1 coaching program.