THE ONE THING THAT FINALLY WORKED…

I crossed Yesreddit threadYes that really caught my attention.

Someone asked “What was the 'one thing' that finally made weight loss work for you?”

And this question got 5,400 answers (and counting).

Some of the responses included environmental changes or changing the way they prepared their food:

“Pouring snacks into small bowls to eat. Suddenly I ate a normal snack.”

“I prepared my usual meal and instead of putting it in 2 containers, I spread it evenly in 4 containers. I forced myself to only eat 1 container per meal and tricked my brain into thinking it was my normal amount.”

Others changed what they ate:

“I got a salad that I really like. It's silly, but I've never wanted a salad before, and getting one I really liked meant I spent a few weeks eating lots of lettuce – it was a It snowballed from there, because I felt good and then I started to feel miserable. good.”

Some had a more holistic approach that involved re-evaluating their relationship with food, hunger, and discomfort:

“Understanding that it's a lifestyle change NOT a diet. “

“Accept the suffering. Expect to be breathing hard and uncomfortable when doing cardio, expect to be sore after lifting, and expect to be hungry when you limit what you get in.”

Others used apps to track their calorie intake, which made them understand exactly what they were eating:

“Using an app to track everything I ate. I realized that a lot of the “healthy” things I was eating, in the amounts I was eating, had a lot more calories than I thought. Simply cutting down on certain foods did the trick. “

And some succeeded thanks to the first push with medication:

“I saw a doctor about my type 2 diabetes. I weighed over 300 lbs and also had coronary artery disease. I qualified for diabetes medication that helps control appetite. We started tracking calories and exercising. “

“Semaglutide”

Some prioritized physical activity instead of focusing on food:

“Finding a hobby. I was eating too much because I was tired. Coming home from work to sit on the couch would make it so much easier to eat like sh*t… now I just go and do something I like so I don't get distracted by to eat.”

“Walking. Proof that I had lost 45 lbs in 7 months just by walking every night around my neighborhood. It was free and low impact, I walked rain or shine even through snow storms. Now I have a treadmill and walk in but the feeling is still as good as it was in the beginning.”

As we look through this list, we read thousands of comments from people thinking back on the 'one thing' that changed their lives, and just how different many of them, we can draw interesting conclusions.

3 Short Lessons We Can Learn

LESSON 1: “Success is moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. “ -Winston Churchill.

It's the hardest part of being healthy No losing hope when some strategy you try doesn't work. I bet for every person who shared the answer above, they tried dozens of different strategies to try to stay healthy. Hell, I bet they tried most of the things that worked for other people, until they found the one that worked to them.

What we can learn from this: “Hope is the Yesa heroic expression that is the waste of cynicismYes,” and it's okay to hope that every failed attempt is one less strategy to try in the future.

For example, if you've tried Keto 5 times before and can't stick with it, congratulations! You found the diet that doesn't work For you.

If you can keep that Yes'beta testing' mentalityYes of “I'm going to see if it works for me,” you might just get the first domino to fall do trip!

LESSON 2: Beware of the Charlatan.

Spend enough time on social media, and eventually you'll come across health and wellness charlatans. These are the people who tell you that they own the one solution to all your problems. Often they blame all the evils in the world (“sugar! It's carbs! It's X ingredient!”).

And certainly, once they are afraid and to scare you, they give you hope with their expensive unregulated development or unregulated system.

As you can see from the examples above, there is no “one size fits all” solution to this stuff. Everyone is a unique weirdo with different baggage and triggers and traumas and experiences that make certain solutions into home runs and other non-starters.

You can read more about spotting and avoiding charlatans in my previous article here: “YesHow not to go crazy on the InternetYes.”

Which brings me to my third point!

LESSON THREE: All fitness stories have 3 painful things in common!

While all of these “one thing” solutions to getting in shape are different, they all have a few things in common.

The good news? None of these things are revolutionary, possessive, or elegant.

Getting healthy literally 3 things:

Eating the right number of calories for your goal weight
Getting some kind of physical movement
Doing both of these things is part of a lifelong lifestyle change.

Weight loss is not magic. It is a good change and behavior.

As I cover my Yesweight loss guideYesscience is based on this.

Any diet can work, if it puts us in a caloric deficit. we have Yestraining clientsYes who are vegan, others who go Keto, some who count calories and others who fast.

Our ability to turn dietary changes into a lifestyle we can live with is how we find success, and that looks different for everyone.

Speaking of lifestyle changes, most of the answers above also include finding ways to make exercise a regular part of life.

Remember: it's okay not to like exercise. We are not designed to love exercise! Especially if it's an activity we don't enjoy at all! We are designed to live in times of scarcity, NOT to thrive in times of endless abundance.

So how do we make exercise a part of our lifestyle?

We have to find ways Yesmake exercise fun, rewarding or necessaryYes:

Sports: join a walking/running club with friends, please Yesturmoil gathersYes.
Beneficial: fall in love with Yesgetting strongerYes and more confident and better you feel after exercise.
Required: pay in advance for a trainer, park at the end of the car park, cycle to work.