Lockdown has affected our bodies and our mindsets in all sorts of ways, and for many, food and alcohol have been the major comfort. So now, as things ease up and you begin to meet up with friends, and perhaps go back to work, getting out of your slouchy joggers and into trousers and dresses with fastening waistbands may be a shock to the system!
Shifting that Covid Stone may have you searching for that magic pill. I wonder how long you have spent over the course of your life searching for the holy grail when comes to weight loss? And how much money you have spent on miracle products that promised to make the weight drop off over night – or at least not make the business of losing weight seem so tricky?
First things first, if you are someone who has spent a significant amount of time in slimming clubs, what you should know is that almost certainly you have been taught to eat the wrong things. And the community mindset seems to be about finding ways to cheat the diet. It’s no wonder people lose weight and put it straight back on again. Of course, actually eating the right things will help you lose the weight naturally, without calorie counting. And eating the way I show my clients has them naturally wanting to eat the foods that will love their body rather than deciding to seek solace in a bag of Haribos.
The vital element of losing weight is the mindset. Part of that is taking care of your self care. That is the real secret sauce for losing weight, and here’s why.
If you are an emotional eater, no ‘diet’ in the world is going to help you deal with what the REAL issue is – your wonky relationship with food. You need to rewire your food brain, because emotional eating or binge eating are major causes of diet failure but, unless you get to the root of the problem, you’re destined to yo-yo diet … forever.
Self care is the recognition that only YOU can make yourself happy and that, if you make sure that you dedicate some time EVERY DAY purely for your own enjoyment, you will have more fun, you will be more fun to be around, and you will have far greater reserves to deal with the stresses of everyday life.
The miracle of self care doesn’t end there. When you dedicate a small amount of time each day to your own happiness, there is less need to reach for the chocolate biscuits. I’m guessing you’re like many of my clients – you are so time poor that rewarding yourself with treat foods like cake and biscuits is the easiest way to show yourself some self love.
My experience in running a nutrition clinic is that so little of why you eat what you eat has to do with nourishing your body. The far greater part is to do with how you feel about yourself and about life in general, especially in the midst of a pandemic. Eating half a packet of chocolate biscuits is much easier than figuring out – not to mention getting – what you really need, which might be a way to de-stress, feel loved, get attention, kick back your heels and even sleep.
When you work with a nutrition coach on fixing your diet and making some simple lifestyle changes (which is code for putting yourself first for a change), you really can rediscover your inner sparkle. Why not click here to book in for a free 20 minute "Shifting the Covid Stone" call?