Written by Peter Horsfield
Every day we are bombarded with media, work colleagues, strangers, families and friends judgments about our body shapes.
Our feelings of self-worth, twisted and magnified by our own expectations, past experiences and the physical changes due to our hormones and the foods and drinks we consume.
The good news is that we are not our past and each day we have the opportunity to live, believe in and do the activities to bring us closer to experiencing our ideal lives.
In life I’ve learnt that success is simple, but not easy. You simply need to know specifically what you want, know how much it will cost and pay for it.
I also know that change can happen in a moment, however coming to the decision to change can take years if not decades.
Recently I decided to change my relationship with food and myself and pay the price to achieve my goal.
While early days i.e. six weeks in. I am now back to my preferred weight of 78 kg (shedding 13kg/ 28.5 pounds) and more importantly comfortably maintaining it. I feel physically, emotionally and mentally stronger and in doing so feel more energized and having greater clarity to make better choices than reactive and emotionally poor ones.
What did this success cost me? Financially nothing. In fact I’ve saved money, over $1,000. However the cost of withdrawal symptoms in addition to the effort to create better habits was both an emotional and physical hefty price to pay and to a lesser amount the ongoing price for success.
Healthy food and appropriate exercise are vital to us experiencing a higher quality of life. Better still by engaging in more in activates aligned to our core values, we are more empowered to do more while also enriching the lives of others, simply by interact in a more positive way; further increasing our chances of success.
Here's what the experts say: The Price of Success
Nic Makim is a health coach [holistic nutritionist + naturopath} and wellness blogger. Nic’s primary focus is helping fellow busy working Mum’s look and feel their best with solutions for weight loss, vitality and stress. Deliciously healthy food, superfood smoothies, yoga and good vibes are her jam.
Nutritional cleansing is my number one tool for achieving incredible results for weight loss, vitality and energy levels. Once all those three goals have been reached with the help of nutritional cleansing self-confidence and body shape skyrockets. The cleansing component of weight loss is incredible important as this addresses toxicity and inflammation and integral part of optimal wellness and feeling fabulous.
Exercising every day with a mixture of cardio and resistance training. I find vinyasa yoga is great for stress management and resistance training.
Managing stress is really important part of weight loss, moving past the weight loss plateau, boosting energy levels and for self-confidence. There are an enormous variety to styles of yoga to suit everyone especially great for runners.
Shari Ware is a Weight Loss Mindset Mentor and a qualified Personal Trainer. She has personally lost 100kg and is keeping it off.
It’s all about Mindset. If your head is not in the right place, then you won’t succeed long term.
The very first thing I address is the client’s why and why not’s. Overcoming the why nots are quite often the most important part of the process. “We all know HOW to lose weight, so why don’t we? It’s not until the scales tip in favour of the reasons why, that we will be successful.
My clients who have had long term success, shows up in their mindset. Anyone can make changes for a short period of time, but if you have a weight problem it is usually a long term issue, so changes need to also be long term in order to not only lose the weight but to keep it off.
There are lots of other things that help successful clients to keep going along the way, such as education, planning and preparation and a good support system. However, the long and short of it is, if they have what I call their “Why Power” sorted, they will be successful no matter what. When their “Why Power” is strong enough, it doesn’t matter what obstacle is thrown in their way, they will eventually overcome it and keep moving in the right direction.
If I were to make a list, of really important for successful long term weight loss it would be as follows:
- Mindset
- Nutrition
- Support
- Exercise
Jonathan Cawte is a Sydney-based sports scientist who is best known for teaching executives how to lose 20 kilograms or more within time poor or high-pressure environments.
The following are Seven Common Mistakes that Executives Don’t Know They Are Making (The Price of Success)
- Thinking sleep is negotiable
- Using caffeine to wake up and alcohol to go to sleep
- Keeping temptation within arm’s length
- Solving the same problem every week
- Exercising with a bad attitude
- Refusing to ask for or accept help
- Losing faith (fixed mindset)
These are what cause people to lose control of their weight management and burnout leading to
- Fatigue - when all you crave is rest reducing your ability to solve complex problems.
- Stress/Disengaged - often executives/individuals just don’t have the energy to spare.
- Physical Pain - when even the most basic movements become painful, life is miserable and their state of mind leads to depression
- Shame that comes with the struggle to control weight keeping us on the sidelines of life.
The solution
- W - Work & Rest Management
- E - Exercise
- N - Nutrition
- S - Stress Management
By applying the WENS approach first you will support yourself on your journey by minimising uncontrolled eating - fatigue, stress and physical pain. It’s about creating the conditions in which success is possible.
Lorinda Stutterd (APD) has a particular interest in food allergies/intolerances, bariatrics, eating disorders, chronic illnesses and paediatrics. Lorinda is a lover of all food and doesn’t believe in ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods. She’d rather determine the healthiness of a diet by the amount and frequency in which we consume each of these foods.
The key nutrient I encourage is protein. However, it’s not solely the amount of protein each day, we also need to consider the timing and ensuring our choice of protein is from lean low-fat sources. Protein stimulates the metabolism and keeps us feeling fuller for longer meaning we’re less likely to reach for the lolly jar come 3pm.
A personalised initial meal plan works really well as it gives clients structure and confidence in their food choices. There is no one set diet for success and our plans focus on the goals, food preferences, health status, lifestyle and time which is going to be different for each of us. Practical advice is where we make a real difference in supporting clients achieve their weight loss goals. There are reasons why we at times make poor food choices and the goal is to create personal and effective strategies that minimise these occasions.
The all or nothing approach never works well if you’re looking for long-term results. Those who have changed their lives into healthier/leaner versions of themselves are those who have balance. They tend to know it’s ok to say yes to the occasional tempting sweet they actually desire to eat at that particular time rather than placing certain foods on banned lists or eating simply because it has been offered. Other attributes of those who do well include:
- Eating slowly and being in better tune with their appetite through knowing when they are comfortably full or experiencing true hunger.
- Understand planning is half the battle. Knowing what meals will be cooked throughout the week and have back up easy options for times when we are thrown a curve ball in our busy lives.
- Vegetables at every opportunity (non-negotiable food group for weight loss).
- Eat regularly and avoid loading dietary intake all towards the end of the day resulting in binges and altered metabolism.
- Last of all they don’t diet. Eating for health is a way of life and is not going to be found in a diet supplement, detox or extreme fad.
Liz Richards is a successful author and publisher of Simple Nourishment. She is also a busy allergy conscious mum, who loves making food for her family and friends. I personally can verify the yummy snakes she makes.
Eating to suit our bodies and not other people’s bodies has always been a big part of why Simple Nourishment was created. The important tool of ‘listening to our bodies’ is often taken away from us or we give it away when we choose to follow diets or trends. What works very well for someone else’s body may not work so well for yours but because often we follow blindly through amazing marketing we miss the vital signs which could be: increase in weight, lethargy or weight loss or, we may just choose to ignore them too.
Cutting large parts of our diets be it: Carbohydrates, fats or protein, has effect both on the body and the brain & this is something not many consider as they take off on a path of ‘this is the answer’ Understanding what each of these macro nutrients does for our body is the first step.
Protein – repair cells and make new cells – our body doesn’t store protein
Fats – second source of energy, cell growth and hormone production – our body can store
Carbohydrates – first source of energy for our bodies which our body can store
The most simple and effective way to ‘hear’ our body again is to clean up our eating. In no way do I mean turn vegan and raw overnight(however if that is what you want to do then test it out) but if we minimize the use of ‘processed’ items in our fridge therefore on our plates, MAXIMISE the whole real food in our homes we are sure to excited by the results. I know you’ve heard it before about taking ‘baby steps’ to achieve a goal but seriously there is no other way of putting it simply or succinctly.
This is the baby step approach that has worked for me and lots of other active health conscious mums that I talk to when changing to a healthier lifestyle:
3 loaves of White Bread > 3 loaves of Whole meal Bread > 1 loaf of Whole meal bread > 1 sourdough rye/spelt loaf every fortnight
Store bought ice-creams > Flavored yoghurt > Natural yoghurt with fresh fruit & honey > Natural yoghurt with berries
Sakarta rice flavored rice crackers > Sakarta rice plain crackers> sakarta whole meal plain rice crackers
Cadbury Rocky Road chocolate > Cadbury plain chocolate > Cadbury Dark chocolate > 70% cacao chocolate > make your own chocolate
Yes we go through some withdrawals but anything worth something is worth some discomfort. Keep the baby steps going to achieve better eating habits – quit the diets and trends – keep it real and there is sure to be happiness.
General Advice Disclosure
Sources of this information are considered to be reliable but are not guaranteed. Information published in this article has been prepared for general information purposes only and not as specific advice to any particular person. Any advice contained in this document is General Advice and does not take into account any person's particular investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs.
