Messages that convey weight loss & health transformation are ubiquitous! Everywhere you look, marketing messages on billboards, television and radio commercials, magazines, friends with “breakthrough products,” and social media are trying to sell us on their “solution” or “formula” for the perfect, healthy body.
I want to share my weight loss & health transformation story with you, with all the twists and turns and stuff that I learned along the way! You can scroll down to skip right to the story and pictures, or read the entire article…
In my 5 years of coaching hundreds of clients in nutrition, most of which have focused on some degree of weight loss or body recomposition, I have learned one solid scientific truth to be certain: Mastering healthy habits and achieving sustainable weight loss & health is not something you can accomplish in a hurry.
Sure, you can reach a short-term weight loss & health goal. I help people accomplish this all the time. But ultimate happiness lies in your ability to live in your body with joy and satisfaction, at a weight you can feel good about, without the side effects of negative body image, feelings of deprivation, or developing orthorexia or other diet and body-related disorders.
This ABC News article gives some good insights on how social media and other messages in the media can have an adverse effect on our mental health, how we view ourselves, and how we perceive our bodies and the physiological realities that make us human. And this Psychology Today article explores the elevated risk of disordered eating in fitness professionals.
The point is that many of us want to become some version of a perfectly fit, healthy person. And that is usually based on an image in our minds, learned from what we see in the media, or hammered into us from a lifetime of commentary from parents or other people we look up to.
In reality, we don’t really know what our bodies are capable of looking like, or feeling like, until our bodies are given the chance to get to that very place and show us what is possible.
Weight Loss and Health Practices Can Get Crazy
I recently wanted to try some “advanced” diet and fitness practices in order to see how low I could get my body fat percentage. The plan was to see how lean I could get, then document the results with a fun, body photo shoot—one of those “bucket list” things. Some of the practices were quite extreme, more commonly used by models and physique competitors to “lean out” before a photo shoot or competition.
The photo shoot itself was awesome! But getting there was not easy, and not fast! Even on the day of the shoot, I found myself feeling not quite “satisfied” with how far I had gotten. I had pictured more of a “six pack” in my abs, but despite a lot of hard work and extremely disciplined eating, my abs just didn’t quite look the way I expected them to. How could they? Since I had never been that lean before, I had no real evidence or proof of what my abs should look like at all.
By the end of the shoot, I gave up trying to “make my abs pop” for the camera, and just enjoyed being in my healthy body. I decided to just start having fun being in front of the camera, with the body I had in that moment. It was a really fun and rewarding way to celebrate how far I had come. The photos turned out great! But it was a HUGE lesson in how vulnerable I was in the process.
I recognize the same tendency in many clients. I openly call it the “crazy threshold.” When someone moves out of a productive, healthy, happy mindset of self-care, and into a place of starving, pushing too hard, excessive exercise, and overall dissatisfaction with themselves and their progress—even though they ARE making progress! When this comes up, I immediately start addressing it, candidly, with empathy and compassion. Sometimes we need to step back and take inventory of our goals and expectations, and adjust if the healthy endeavor starts to become an unhealthy obsession.
If you look at the health and fitness world, over-obsession is a big conundrum. Just put #sixpackabs or #leanbody into your Instagram search bar and scroll away! How many of those posts actually offer real solutions for lifelong health and happiness? My guess—not many.
I’m not here to judge or criticize. I want to use my experience to ask the right questions of myself and others, to hold us all accountable for what a truly “healthy” society should look like.
So, with all of this experience and observation, I thought it would be helpful for a “super fit” person like me to give an honest account of what it has really taken to get to this point. I’m sharing my journey here, from the day I decided that feeling like crap was no longer acceptable, to the current version of myself.
It has been roughly 12 years of weight loss & health transformation in the making! And the funny thing is, the journey hasn’t stopped. Sure, I could have stopped any number of times along the way and been considered perfectly healthy and fit. But that’s not human nature. We’re wired to do more, achieve more, be better. The key is to enjoy the journey and be kind to yourself along the way. Weigh the costs against the benefits, and keep it sane! Try not to cross the “crazy threshold.”
12 Years of Personal Transformation—My Journey
Takeaways in 2021
I believe we can all enjoy the experience of pushing our bodies to see what can be achieved. But this can only be done effectively if the body and mind—the whole person—are completely supported. If you are mentally not happy with yourself, forcing your body to change is not going to be a pleasant, or even a healthy, experience.
Now I teach my clients how to live in their best-version body, at a happy, realistic weight and state of health, while also being able to move into phases of challenge when desired. I help many people achieve what I achieved, in far less time, because I can leverage my training and experience to help them reach their goals more efficiently. But it still takes willingness for self-exploration and a little experimentation.
For the athletes and supermodel enthusiasts out there: Extreme practices are perfectly appropriate in the right circumstances—with experienced help, the right mindset, and emotional maturity. Even the most ambitious athletes do better with strong basics: good nutrition, hydration, rest, and joyful movement.
If you’ve enjoyed reading my story and see yourself anywhere in this discussion, maybe now would be a great time to hop on a Complimentary Coaching Call with me. We can discuss your weight loss & health journey, where you want to go, and how we can help you get there! You can schedule that here! I look forward to helping you.
You can learn more about my nutrition coaching practice by heading back to my home page.
