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Let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room and give you the master key on how to lose weight and keep it off: commitment.

How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off

It's a commitment to yourself, not to the scale, because the number one thing that keeps women from attaining their goals is that they quit.

I'm going to be talking about something that I see happening with the majority of the clients that I work with. And I've had some run-ins with this particular topic myself, and it really is about commitment. Now, there are a lot of other factors that play into weight loss, so we can't just rely on commitment alone without understanding those factors.

Even if you are committed, and maybe, just maybe, it's still not working, when you were committed, you stayed until the end and figured it out. When you're not truly committed, you quit, and then you end up backtracking. Maybe you'll start something new, try it for a little bit, and then the same thing will happen. You'll get stuck in that cycle. So, I like to talk about how to cultivate commitment.

Challenges of Weight Loss During Menopause

When I'm talking with my coaching clients when I'm talking with women on discovery calls, or just in everyday life, I hear this a lot: "I'm trying. I'm trying to do this. I'm trying to lose weight. I'm trying to develop a podcast. I'm trying to implement exercise. I'm trying." 

When I hear that, I'm proud of them and so happy that they're working on this. But there's a difference between trying to do something and actually doing it. Trying implies a potential for quitting. Whereas commitment means continuing until the goal is achieved. 

There is a difference. When I am working with the client, these are some of the things we start working with. First, we will discuss our thoughts about the whole weight loss journey. Because if we're not working on and cultivating a garden of committed thoughts, then you're going to more than likely quit. You're more than likely going to stay in the land of frustration and discouragement, which never helps us show up the way that we want to. 

Importance of Commitment in Achieving Weight Loss Goals

So, in my opinion, one of the biggest keys to lose weight and keep it off involves taking massive action (commitment) without quitting, and adjusting as needed to reach the goal. And this is really what has enabled me to create any type of success in my life. It's not because I didn’t fail. It's not because I had a lot more discipline. It was that I was committed. I was committed to figuring it out. 

And the most beautiful thing about our brain is that when you set your brain out to go do something, it's going to start looking for evidence. It's going to look, if you're moving in the right direction, in the growth direction, it's going to start looking for evidence of how you can create what you're looking for. However, if we have limited beliefs, then our brain is going to go and look for all the reasons why this is not going to work. That's why managing our mind and our thoughts, and I like to say cultivating a garden of committed thoughts, is paramount. It's not something that we can shift on a dime. We can't just decide. 

It looks like thoughts like this: I'm committed to taking massive action even if the scale isn't saying what I want it to say. I'm committed to myself because I am worth it. This is an investment in my health, not an opportunity to quit when things get hard. 

Strategies for Successful Weight Loss During Menopause

And so, as we start cultivating these commitment thoughts and practicing those and bringing those up when we are faced with discouragement, defeat, or quitting, that is how we overcome it. It's not that you're not going to come up against the walls. It's just what you do with that. Choosing to stay committed and adjusting as needed. And when you're open to adjusting, your brain will look for evidence. It will look for help. And then the help will appear. But the commitment part is what's going to keep you running in your lane.

 So, I like to ask my clients when I'm talking with them, "What is your level of commitment right now? Where are we on a scale of 1 to 10?" 

Ten means, "I'm all in. I'm not giving up. This is lifetime for me." 

Or, of course, at the other end, which is, "I haven't been able to commit to anything. I've never been able to lose the weight and keep it off.”

Where are you in your commitment level? 

Get an idea of where you are and take a look at those thoughts. I want you even to write them down. 

• What are your thoughts about your past commitment, your current commitment, and your future commitment? 
• What are those thoughts? 

Let's just get a raw, right-off-the-brain thought download where you're going to write those thoughts out. You're not going to judge them. You're not going to try to fix them. We're not going to resist them. We're just going to get those thoughts down on paper. And very much like a watcher and a detective, we're just going to take a look at what my thoughts are here. Because your thoughts create your results. Believe it or not, your thoughts are responsible for creating your results. 

Let's look at this. When you have a thought about something, say it's commitment, say it's weight loss, you will have a feeling. When you have a feeling, and we don't have feelings without thoughts, sometimes we're just not aware of the thoughts. But when you have a feeling, you are more than likely, unless you interrupt this in some way, you're going to act on that feeling.

So, if you're frustrated about your weight loss journey, you're disappointed, and discouraged, what are you going to do? When you're frustrated, discouraged, and disappointed, probably throw the baby out with the bathwater. "Who cares? This doesn't work. I might as well eat what I want to, maybe go into some type of depression," or, you know, you're definitely not going to show up your best self, right? You're probably not going to do something that you set out to do if you're feeling that way.

And then, when you show up in that way for yourself, you're going to create the result. The result is you're not going to get closer to your weight loss goals. You're going to be depressed and discouraged the whole time, and you're just going to spin. We're going to spin in that cycle. 

Overcoming Common Obstacles and Staying Committed

And so, I like to back up, and if we want different results, we need to look at our thoughts. So, take that raw, off-the-cuff thought download that you did about commitment. Just take a look at those thoughts. Are they helpful at all? Okay, if they're not, let's create some helpful thoughts. Let's take a look at what your brain is actually telling you about being committed to yourself. 

Most women will not take a look at what they're unintentionally thinking, and they won't really know what's driving them. When you don't really know the thoughts that are driving you, then it's hard to figure out how to cultivate the committed thoughts, right? 

So, I shared some of the thoughts that I have about commitment, and I would like for you to take time, take that thought download, and come up with three or four helpful thoughts or intentional thoughts, higher-level thoughts, up-leveled thoughts that are going to help you stay in it for your journey, for your weight loss journey. 

What do you need to think to feel committed? 

When you do come up with that, you want to practice it. You want to embody it. The way you identify and embody that is you practice it so much that it just becomes who you are. It's no longer what you do, but it is who you are.