19 Jan SOCIAL MEDIA DOESN’T ALWAYS TELL THE WHOLE STORY WHEN IT COMES TO WEIGHT LOSS

Here at The Chief Life we regularly have conversations with people about weight loss. Weight loss is one of the main reason why most people start exercise. We all want to look in the mirror and see a sexy beast / minx looking back at us.

Unfortunately, traditional and social media has provided us with a skewed perception of “methods” which can be used for weight loss

You see pictures of toned bodies but you don’t know the story behind it. They SAY they’ve done this and done that but have they really?

Do you see or hear about the mental battle that individual is having every moment of their day because they are so stressed out trying to lead an extreme lifestyle?

Not to mention the fact that those fantastic pics were probably taken with the best possible lighting and filters to create the artwork you see. Don’t get me wrong there are people out there that work their butt off and are being completely authentic but sometimes those people get lost in the crowd.

Nutrition should be easy, it should be ingrained into your routine to make your body feel good and life more enjoyable, that’s why at The Chief Life we provide you guidance and coaching around real foods and help set you up for sustainable lifelong practices.

If you too want to succeed here are some tips that social media isn’t so obvious in showing/telling:

Look at it as a Long-Term Process

It took you your whole life to get to where you are now. How is making extreme changes going to last long term in 6 weeks? Start with it and stay at it. Learn from it, understand it and use it to help you make better choices going forward.

Set Goals… Proper Goals

“Lose weight” what does that mean exactly? Muscle is weight, water is weight, Fat is weight. I’ve seen people lose kilos after going to the toilet ?.

Define exactly what you want, understand why you want it and set goals and milestones around it. If your goals aren’t properly defined how do you know if you are heading in the right direction?

Become Self Aware

Self-awareness will make the journey so much easier. You learn about yourself and begin to understand how your own body works.

Have you tried a diet that has shown great results for someone else but barely did anything for you? Maybe it is a good diet – for that person, but not for you.

Some things you should start becoming aware of is how your body reacts to a food. If you start feeling burpy and farty after a particular food then, it’s likely that it doesn’t agree with you and that it is not helping you lose the kilos.

Feeling lethargic? Maybe it’s not your sleep last night! You know you had 8 hours and your day today was pretty cruisy, maybe that afternoon cappuccino you had with 2 sugars is causing your blood sugar to fluctuate so much that the burst of energy you just had as worn off and now you are heading for a crash

Learn

It’s one thing to just follow a diet / nutrition plan because someone tells you to. But everyone is different. Start to learn what is happening to your body that causes it to hold fat, it is not always about the food. There are other things that you probably don’t hear about as often like:

– Not getting enough sleep

– Stress

– Not eating enough (yes this could actually make you gain more weight)

– Not drinking enough water

Organise Yourself

The main reason why people slip on their weight loss journey is because they aren’t prepared, they get home from work and they’ve had a hard day with no quality food prepared, so when you are tired you want to take the easy route and the cycle begins. Or they have a night out and don’t take into account that restaurant that they are going to only serves pizza and pasta when you are trying to avoid that stuff.

Enjoy the Process

If you look at this journey as a chore and boring and time consuming, then that is exactly what it is going to be. If you look at it like an experience to learn about yourself, step outside of your comfort zone and try new things, it can be one of the most fulfilling journeys you will ever take.

So don’t rely on solely on those fitspiration pics to show you the whole truth, yes they are good for an occasional bit of motivation but that picture isn’t going to get you the results you need and for the most part they aren’t telling you their daily battles/struggles nor the effort they are putting into themselves to get their results.