One of my biggest goals for the Biking Wellness podcast is to flip the script on weight loss…for good. I am SO EXCITED for this episode because today I am going to share with you exactly what this means and what it looks like.
We have been told that in order to be healthy we need to diet. We need to exercise and use all of our willpower to do both. It is going to be hard, painful, and yes, you will likely be miserable.
And not only that, if you fail? It’s YOUR fault. You are the one who couldn’t stick with diet and exercise. YOU are the one who failed.
The truth is, though, that you haven’t failed your diets. Your DIETS have failed you. Not only that, but our society has failed you by encouraging you to lose weight for the wrong reasons – to focus on what your body looks like – to try to make it into something it’s NOT.
If you’re anything like me you have tried ALL the diets, including the supposedly GOOD ones – that let you “eat all your favorite foods.”
And, guess what? None of them ever worked. At least not long term – and if you lose weight and gain it back? My friend, that diet did NOT work.
When I set out to lose 50 pounds riding my bike for the last time, I knew I needed to do something totally different. Today, I am going to take you behind the curtain and share with you exactly how we are going to flip the script on weight loss for good.
We are going to talk about what that means, and what changes we need to make in the way we THINK about ourselves and our bodies in order to lose weight for the last time.
1. STOP dieting, restricting, counting calories, and eating things you HATE. START making a simple plan each day for your meals.
Diets don’t work. You can’t make temporary changes and expect permanent results. You shouldn’t be doing anything now that you aren’t willing to do pretty much forever.
When we start a diet we are all excited and motivated. We think this will be the ONE. And it might work…for a while. But the problem is that it wont work long term because it is someone else’s plan, not yours.
What I would like you to do is try taking five minutes a day, in the morning, to plan out what you are going to eat that day. Plan foods that you actually like and actually eat. And get in the habit of following that simple plan.
2. STOP following someone else’s rules for what and how much you eat and START focusing on your own hunger cues and what feels good in your body.
When we follow a diet, we are just following someone else’s plan or rules. We aren’t learning how to think for ourselves and eat the foods we love.
I want you to think about making small, doable changes each day. Ask yourself what is one small thing you can do to make today a little better than yesterday?
When I was losing weight for the last time I started by having 2 cookies a day with my afternoon tea instead of 3. You might think that isn’t a big deal at first, but these small changes lead to big results over time! That’s 7 less cookies a week. It’s 365 fewer cookies a YEAR.
When you eat, ask yourself if you are actually hungry. Stop when you have had enough. And, after you have eaten, take note of how food feels in your body. Do you feel good? Do you still have energy? Then keep eating that stuff! Do you not feel so great? Maybe eat a little less of those things. We do NOT need to overcomplicate weight loss. When we do, it gets overwhelming and we throw up our hands and give up.
3. STOP seeing the number on the scale as the be all end all to your health journey and START seeing it as just one piece of information
When you are fixing all of your attention on the scale you are focusing on what is probably the least important piece of information when it comes to biking wellness.
That number is truly just a number. It’s a snapshot in time of what your body is doing right now. It doesn’t take into account things like your muscle mass, how your clothes fit, where you are at in your menstrual cycle or if you are going through perimenopause or menopause.
When you shift your focus from whatever that number is to how you feel, and focus on feeling good and feeling strong? You will lose weight.
When you are fixated on and obsessing over that number at the expense of everything else, you might get discouraged OR do things that are to the detriment of your health just to get the number to go down.
4. STOP labeling food as “good” and “bad” and START seeing all food we love as having a place in our plan
There is no such thing as good or bad food. It’s just food. Is some food healthier than others? YES! Will certain foods fuel our bodies better than others? Of course.
But all food we love, no matter what the nutrition facts are, is food, and we CAN eat it.
When we label food as “bad” we give way too much power to that particular food. When we tell ourselves we can’t have it, and it can’t be in the house because we will eat it all, we are telling ourselves a story that the food is what is in control.
When I lost 50 pounds riding my bike I had kielbasa for breakfast every day because I liked kielbasa. I had real sugar and half and half in my tea…every day. I ate Doritos…every day.
The key is that I wasn’t OVEREATING all of these things. I was putting myself back in the driver seat, I was in control, and I was still able to lose weight. You can absolutely take control over your food and do this too.
5. STOP using “all or nothing” mentality when it comes to weight loss and START realizing that you always have another chance to make a better choice.
You are human. And at your absolute best you will only make the best choices maybe 80 percent of the time.
All of those women out there who seem like they have it all together and are always riding their bikes and making good food choices? Even they are at best only doing it 80 percent of the time.
The idea is that we just want to work on making better choices more often than we don’t. If you go out on a Saturday night and eat way more than you actually need to? And have more drinks than you planned?
Let it go. That was one meal out of 21 meals a week. That means you didn’t blow it. You just did a human thing, and that’s OK.
Remember, your next meal, your next moment, is always an opportunity to make a different choice.
6. STOP comparing yourself to others. START focusing on YOU instead.
Some real talk here. What other people do, and what other people look like is literally none of your business. Stop comparing yourself to them.
Stop trying to make your body into something it’s not.
If you compare yourself to someone and it is motivating? And feels good? Then that’s really not a problem…but that is not what most of us are doing.
Most of us are comparing ourselves to women with different body types, to celebrities, or to a younger version of ourselves. This is just not useful…we can’t go backwards…and why would we want to?
When you move forward and focus on striving to be the healthiest version of who YOU are, it feels so much better, and you are so much more likely to get the results you want.
7. STOP seeing biking as a means to lose weight and look better. START seeing it as a way to focus on what your body can do, and how awesome and strong it is.
This last one, my friend, is the key to flipping the script on weight loss. When we think of cycling as a way to earn our food or a punishment for eating to much…or as purely a means to lose weight?
We sap ALL of the fun and joy out of riding our bikes.
Who wants THAT? Literally no one. As counterintuitive as it may seem, separating movement from weight loss is the absolute best way to flip the script on weight loss.
It allows you to appreciate your body for every single thing it allows you to do. It makes you WANT to take care of it better. It allows you to finally feel good about your body.
I wasn’t able to actually lose weight riding my bike until I made an effort to look at it in a completely different way. When I shifted this focus everything changed, and I was able to lose weight and keep it off. And I want this for you and know you can do it too.
A Final Note
When you double down on everything that is wrong, you forget to focus on what is right.
When we flip the script on weight loss we start to realize that nothing physically about our body needs to change in order for us to feel good right now.
When you think of improvements to your body coming from a place of being strong and healthy, instead of just losing weight, you will be surprised at how much better you feel.
And, when you ultimately DO lose weight and get the results you want? You will barely even notice because you already feel amazing.
I know it might seem crazy to you now that this is possible for you, but I guarantee that it IS. You CAN do this. And even if you don’t believe it right now, I am over here believing it FOR you until you do.
Ride on!
xoxo
Stacy
Don’t forget to check out my FREE Lose Weight Biking Quick Start Guide: www.sascy.com/guide
Also, hang out with me on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/sascycycling/
Finally, Join the Facebook Community!: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bikingwellness
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