Latest / Cameron's Conversations: The last weight loss podcast you'll ever need. / Episode 69: Are you STUCK at your current weight?
Transcript
- Cameron Cummings: And welcome to the Cameron's Conversations podcast. Not that you can see it, but I'm recording this in a different spot. I'm in a conservatory today, ooh, fancy, rather than my usual desk set up. And it's a very nice spot, actually. Very nice, the sun is shining, although it's windy and a bit chilly outside, but it feels nice and cosy in here. So I'm very much enjoying the set up, so I'm feeling very inspired. But I wanted to talk a little bit about this idea of feeling stuck with weight loss. I think this is one of the most common things that can come up for it. about anyone and understandably so, that weight loss is hard and I actually sometimes think that should be and could be said more is that weight loss is hard. It doesn't have to be impossible, it doesn't need to feel like a struggle but for a lot of people when they're first starting they've got quite a bit to learn, they're not necessarily particularly skilled at dieting and yes I absolutely buy and I did a reel about this the other day on Instagram actually where I think dieting is a skill and I think being aware of that's a really important thing is that you know like now when I go through shock weight loss phase is so much easier than it used to be. ⁓ my God, made life so much harder for myself once upon a time. But this is really, really important, is you are, you're not stuck, but it is very normal to feel stuck. And a lot of the reasons that you will feel stuck is that actually it's a lack of consistency. Now that is the most boring answer in the world, you're like, another coach saying, you know, be more consistent. But here's the thing, there is an element of truth in it, right? But there's also context that's needed. The reality is, that if you are tracking, 20 out 30 days in the month. I'll be surprised if you make good progress. Sounds blunt, but it's true. Like if you are tracking 20 out 30, whatever that is, 66%, be surprised if you make even reasonable progress. Probably won't. If you are tracking 25 days out of 30, you'll probably make a good chunk of progress, but it won't be anywhere near as fast as you like. You have got to turn up and do what you need to do every single day. Now the good thing is, is that that doesn't mean we have to be absolutely perfect, we have to be spot on our calorie target every single day otherwise we'll make no progress, that's not how it works. But I think a lot of people get caught out by thinking that they're stuck and they've tried everything when A, they've never actually been very structured with the nutrition unless it's been hyper restrictive. So sometimes people are structured because it's restrictive, i.e. you have two meal replacement shakes and one dinner, right? Or you go to Slimming World and you get told that you can't have mashed bananas because that's very sinful and then if you if you have a normal banana, that's like no sins at all. Who knows? Go figure that one out. But the point is this, is that when it comes to weight loss, you absolutely do need to be consistent. And I think there's a little bit of a culture now, and I see more and more of this, of coaches trying to be empowering, and they're not because they're not being fully transparent and honest with people, where it's like you can eat whatever you want all of the time and still lose weight. You can't. Unsurprised. If I just eat pizza and ice cream, which is what I would choose to do if I could I would definitely not be losing weight I bloody love pizza and I could probably eat it every day and I genuinely mean that I could definitely ice cream every day as well That would work brilliantly for me and an ideal situation of those cow those two foods had to be my no calorie foods that probably be up there I could probably have those every day if there was two foods I could pick to be no calories forever But the point is this is that I think that's quite unhelpful and I think that it leads people to feel stuck because they think that they can be more relaxed than they are, than they can be. The reality is, is that most people don't have a over-restriction issue because when they talk about being all or nothing, it's usually that that all lasts about 24 hours. And yes, maybe in a short period of time they are too restrictive. There's definitely an element of that. I've got so many clients that have done periods of a real restriction, but it's just tended to be very, very short-lived. It's very unusual for it to last. any length of time to actually make the impact that you want it to, right? But the point is this, is that actually you will need to change some things and you're probably not stuck, but you probably need to learn the skills of dieting and those skills are not reacting to what the scales say. Even if the scales don't drop for two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine days, right? That's where you need to learn not to react because especially if you're female and have a cycle, you're out of luck. There's gonna be fluctuations. Even if you're perimenopausal, Etc like these things are still hormonal fluctuations as well and often you have clients on HRT and there can be fluctuations from that and all the rest of it So that's a factor even if you don't have a menstrual cycle, right? It's still likely that you will have fluctuations for all sorts of other reasons that aren't related to hormones and they can still be really really significant So the point is is that you need to learn the skill of not reacting to the scales Then you need to learn the skill of eating to your calories whilst keeping yourself full. So the first thing that springs to mind for a lot of people will be, oh, you've heard that thing about protein keeps you full. Yeah, it does, absolutely. That's one factor. Having more protein will help. Good place to start. But also volume eating, making sure you're getting enough from fruit and veg. And another thing as well is just having foods that make you feel full that you find it easy not to overeat on. So for example, having loads of Chocke biscuits in the house might not be the best strategy because it means you're much more likely to have a moment where you wobble a little. a little bit and then go over. So you need to learn the skill of structuring your diet and creating meals that keep you full. So that's another aspect that you kinda need to learn to do that too. Another thing that needs to be learned to not be stuck is about consistency with it and learning to say no, although they're two separate things, so keep them separate. But consistency is really important. I'm sorry but you can't just have a day off for the weekend because you fancy it. Little bit of harsh weight loss truth, right? get away with it. just don't fed up of tracking this week. I've tracked all week. I'm gonna have a day off. Cool. Chances are, if we're honest with that, for most people, unless, and this is one of the cool things about when someone comes into coaching, because we'll talk about untracked days and how we build that in and learning to, you know, still have a day where you eat sensibly, although you can be a bit more relaxed without treating it as an all-you-can-eat buffet from breakfast to dinner to supper to bed, right? That's not ideal. I've not said supper in years, by the way, but anyway. But the point is is that we can't that right for most people they've not learned the skill of an untracked day so an untracked day is just a you know it's giving a toddler a credit card in a sweet shop right good luck to you that's gonna be a big bill in terms of money and calories right there's gonna be a lot consumed there so that doesn't really work and then the other part is the saying no is i think sometimes people can be quite uncomfortable with the idea that they ever have to go without and honestly as i kind of joke sometimes it's not that deep like saying no to a scone in the office like will you care the next day because if not it ain't that deep like going out to dinner with your friends and Opting for a main rather than a starter main and dessert. It's not that deep Does it matter that much to have to do that for a few months? Does it matter to you that maybe actually have one glass of wine or one pint of beer and then move to non-alcoholic beers or move to a soft drink again? It's not that deep right I think a lot of clients I find a lot of clients I work with find this is that at the start saying no they'll kind of say like I really don't miss out on this this this this and this and then over time they sort of realize like oh like actually it's really about seeing my friends or actually it's really about seeing my family and it's not such a big deal if I don't have dessert or you know I have me and my partner want to go for dinner but we shared dessert like and actually I really enjoyed it and I was afterwards because you know when you're in a weight loss phase you tend to find you get fuller quicker anyway the point is this is that a lot of the time when you're coming to the saying no part of it like it's not as big a deal as you think but the point point of the things that I've mentioned there is that you're not stuck, but you probably need to learn how to do it properly. And actually, a lot of the time, if you haven't learned how to do it, if you haven't learned how to structure things, then you are going to struggle, right? You're going to feel stuck because you've never focused on eating to keep yourself full. You've never focused on where are you gonna make the trade-offs that aren't so important to you and learning to say no. You've not learned not to react to the scale. In fact, in reality, right now you react to the scale a lot, you don't say no very often, you struggle to be consistent and you let yourself have a day off every so often and all the rest of it and that's what's keeping you stuck. It's not that your body weight is immovable and you're stuck forever, that is not the case. So if that resonates and you are struggling a bit with your weight loss at the moment and need a bit of a hand, the link for one-to-one coaching is in the show notes. You can book a little call if you're a good fit and I feel like it can help you and get you where you need to be. in terms of your weight loss journey and move to maintenance, then you can click on that link, book a little call, and we'll have a little bit of a chat about all things involved in coaching. And if it's not the best fit or it's not the right time for you, then we'll talk about next steps and what you can do in the short term to get on top of things and make the progress you want. Have a great day, I'll speak to you soon.