Three Biggest Mistakes Women Make When It Comes To Weight Loss

For over 20 years I have worked closely with thousands of women to help them achieve their highest health potential. I noticed three common mistakes that they shared that were keeping them from improving their relationship with food and their body.

Mistake #1

Weighing Yourself Everyday

Do you start your day by jumping on the scale? And when it doesn’t read back the number that you have been hoping for does it disempower you within seconds? It sabotages your entire day. And sends you into a diet spiral of cutting calories…not fun!

The can scale inhibit you from learning what your body truly needs and completely handicaps you from taking care of yourself based on how you feel.

Excess weight is a sign that something is out of alignment on the inside

If you don’t start listening to your body and understanding how to fuel, move and care for yourself – that excess weight will always be a battle.

Instead

Get rid of the scale! Instead, first thing in the morning ask yourself; how do I FEEL today? And how do I want to feel for the rest of the day? Make your decisions and food choices based on how you want to feel for the rest of the day.

Mistake #2

Not Eating Enough

Cutting calories, or “saving” them for later will only cause you to gain weight. It is a common mentality to think that cutting calories drastically will result in weight loss. The truth is, the less you eat the slower your metabolism is and the less calories and stored body fat you burn. This does not mean that you have to eat every 1-2 hours as that is not realistic for most people. However, listening to your body when it needs to be refueled and not ignoring it to “save” calories will give you more sustainable results without having to diet or feeling deprived.
Instead

Start building a healthy relationship with food and your body. Try this exercise:

Pick one day where you will set an alarm every hour. When the alarm goes off, rate your hunger on a scale from 1-10 (10 being starving). Write this in your journal along with the times of day when you eat. Notice the trend of your hunger and how you feel. Work towards being more aware of what your body needs and following its natural hunger cycle.

Mistake #3

Eating Your Emotions

Women are emotional beings. And for many of us we were told that feeling and showing our emotions was a bad thing. Stop crying, you are too sensitive, calm down etc…does this sound familiar?

So we learned to put a tight lid on our emotions and to keep them bottled up inside. These emotions eventually build and build…then we reach for food to numb or compress those feelings even more so we do not have to feel them. It manifests until we start holding those feelings as extra cushioning on our thighs, stomachs, butts and arms.

Instead

Start to feel your emotions. I know this can be scary at first but take baby steps with this. Begin a regular practice of journaling to release any thoughts or feelings that you may be experiencing within that moment or day.

Journaling is a healthy way to “purge” your emotions. It is a healthy way to listen to your internal voice and understanding what is going on inside of you before you express them verbally or dive into a pint of Ben and Jerry’s!

Start with “I feel”…. write it out and don’t judge yourself during this process. Notice how light you feel physically, mentally and emotionally after you get it out on paper.