The Reason You Struggle to Lose Weight

I get it, I've been there.  You're starting another diet on Monday.  This one is sure to work.  You're pumped and ready to do it.  You've read the instructions, you know what you need to eat.  You are dreading not being able to eat all the foods you love, and you are preparing yourself for all the vegetables you are going to have to eat (yuck).  You just need to get rid of all the cookies, candies and chips in your house so you won't be tempted to eat them while on your diet.

And this is where is starts to fall apart.

Chances are you don't throw out all those cookies, candies and chips.  Chances are you eat them.  After all, you want to get your fill of them because you'll be missing them while you are on your diet.  You gain 5 lbs before you have even started your diet because you are consuming the very foods that contributed to making you fat in the first place.   This was me too.

What I know now, is that is food addiction talking.  The little part in your brain that loves sugar, cookies and chips, that tells you little lies like; "just one bite won't hurt you." But the truth is one bite does.  It derails your diet plans and sends you into a tailspin, where you either end up bingeing on the foods you are desperately missing and then restart your diet next Monday.  Or you just quit the diet all together.  I see it time and time again.   I have experienced this myself time and time again.

This is your food addicted brain, that sabotages your weight loss efforts time after time.  Knowing what to eat is not enough when it comes to losing weight when you have a food addiction.  It starts with your brain.  

Sure you've hid food to eat later.  Sure you've eaten all the treats in your house before a diet instead of throwing them out.  Sure you've gone on a binge after you have been so 'good' on your diet for a bit.  But food addict??   Surely not!  Well let's find out.  Maybe your lack of success at diet plans, is not due to the diet plan.

.. but due to a food addiction.

Take my Food Addiction Quiz at this link:  http://www.adrianaellis.ca/food-addiction-quiz.html

By Adriana Ellis.  Adriana is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Weight Loss Coach, Certified Nutrition Coach and Nationally Certified Food Addictions Coach.  Adriana teaches her clients how to change their thinking and habits to help them feel better in life and lose weight.   www.attunedws.com

Why Successful Woman Can't Lose Weight

I have this observation with my Weight Loss Coaching Business.  I have noticed that many of my clients are successful at their jobs, they have good marriages, great kids, and life is generally going well for them, except for this one pesky problem.  They can't seem to lose weight.

Another observation I have, is that these women have everything under control (if you don't count their eating).  They are generally managers, and are considered super mom's by their peers.  They have everything under control and never miss a beat.  

Many woman have an emotional side.  They have moments where they just are overwhelmed and they break down and cry.  But not usually these very successful women I have been coming across.  They don't cry.  They just suck it up and deal with it.   

This is where I believe the problem lies.  As humans, we are meant to feel emotion.  Sometimes the emotions feel like crap, but we were meant to feel.  I believe these successful women have troubles losing weight because instead of feeling their emotions, they stuff their emotions down with food.

Food is often used instead of feeling.  Ask a kids, if we hurt ourselves, or were bitterly disappointment, our mom may have given us a cookie to make us feel better.  When we are older, and we are pissed off at a boyfriend, we turn to our friend Ben & Jerry.  See where I'm going here?  

Instead of these successful women having a moment and feeling their emotions, maybe having a good cry when they've had a bad day, they eat instead.  Then they don't let go and let the emotions out.  They stuff the emotions down, and say how strong they are, see how successful they are, they can deal with anything, and don't 'lose it'.   

Now I'm not saying that women should 'lose it' and any given moment, especially at the office.  But I believe these women should take some time for themselves later in the day perhaps, and go off by themselves (if necessary) and scream, shout, cry...  anything and let out the stress, frustration and struggles.  It may feel week to cry, but it is also cleansing.

Now think about your own life.  Are you successful, except at weight loss.  Really think about it... could you be using food to cover up deep down emotions?  Give is a try sometime.  Let yourself have a good cry, even if it may be over something totally insignificant.   See if you feel a release after your done.  

By Adriana Ellis.  Adriana is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Weight Loss Coach, Certified Nutrition Coach and Nationally Certified Food Addictions Coach.  Adriana teaches her clients how to change their thinking and habits to help them feel better in life and lose weight.   www.attunedws.com

Weight Loss Versus Being Healthier?

As a weight loss coach I get clients coming to me who want to lose weight.  As I standard question, I ask them why they want to lose weight.  The most common answer I get is because I want to be healthier.

Here is where the catch comes in.  People want to lose weight to be healthier…. But it really is backwards.  You need to be healthier first before you lose weight.  Say what!!!

I know it almost seems like the, which came first the chicken or the egg scenario.  But I’ve noticed there are a lot of things us humans tend to try to do backwards. 

If you want to lose weight there are steps you need to take for that to happen.  Lots of people think it’s just eat less and exercise more and that should do the trick. But if you have trying to lose weight for a while now, then you know that just doesn’t really work.  You need to change your eating habits first.  You first need to stop over eating, and you need to start eating foods that are better for your body.  

When you start feeding your body food that is better for your body, you start to get healthier.  When you start to get your body healthier, then guess what?  That is when you start to lose weight.

Although most people are searching for weight loss…. They really need to start with getting better health first.  Weight loss is a side effect of good health.  No need to diet.  Just need to treat and feed your body better.

By Adriana Ellis.  Adriana is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Weight Loss Coach, Certified Nutrition Coach and Nationally Certified Food Addictions Coach.  Adriana teaches her clients how to change their thinking and habits to help them feel better in life and lose weight.   www.attunedws.com

Do Weight Loss Coaches Give Diet Plans?

I recently read a blog post of a Dietitian that is in my area. She goes on in her post as to why she does not do Weight Loss Coaching.  In it she implied (well basically said) that Weight Loss Coaches put their clients on diets, and who needs another diet, as there are lots of those out there.

Well I'm here to tell you most Weight Loss Coaches, do not.... I repeat do not put their clients on a diet plan.  In fact many nutritionists I know, are switching from teaching strictly nutrition to more Weight Loss Coaching.  Why is that do you suppose?  Well I'll tell you, because we all (well many of us) know what we are 'supposed' to eat, but honestly, most clients I come across know more about nutrition than I do, but they still struggle with losing weight.

Working with people to lose weight in most cases is not about teaching them what and how much to eat.  It is working with people to understand why they sabotage themselves, why they can't stick to their chosen eating plan.  Why they continually over eat, and why after following a healthy eating plan and losing a couple of pounds will binge and gain it all back.

Weight Loss Coaching is not about giving meal plans, or diet plans, it is about transforming the way you think about weight loss.

It saddens me when a Dietitian is so mislead about what a Weight Loss Coach really does, that is makes me wonder how many people out their are not hiring a Weight Loss Coach because they think it will be just another diet plan.

So just out of curiosity I looked up what a Dietitian is, what a Nutritionist is, and what a Weight Loss Coach is.  Which one seems most like they provide a diet plan?  Which one seems most likely to be able to transform your habits, so you can lose weight without dieting?

Here are the definitions I found:

On Wikipedia a Dietitian is:  "A dietitian (or dietician)^[1] is an expert in dietetics; that is, human nutrition and the regulation of diet.

On Wikipedia a Nutritionist is:  "A nutritionist is a person who advises on matters of food and nutrition impacts on health."

On Wikipedia a Weight Loss Coaching is:  "Weight loss coaching is the use of personal coaching techniques to bring about long term weight loss."

Isn't it interesting... only the Weight Loss Coaching is it mentioned about long term weight loss.  And in fact only the Dietitian of a dietitian does it mention the regulation of diet (diet plan??  just what you need right, another diet plan).  I know that most of my clients are tired of the short term weight loss of eating or diet plans, they are looking to lose weight and keep it off.

I am proud of the fact that I am a Weight Loss Coach, and yes, I help clients with long term weight loss, with out dieting.

By Adriana Ellis.  Adriana is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Weight Loss Coach, Certified Nutrition Coach and Nationally Certified Food Addictions Coach.  Adriana teaches her clients how to change their thinking and habits to help them feel better in life and lose weight.   www.attunedws.com

Are You Done With Diets Yet?

It amazes me!  I was just reading a newsletter of a person I follow.  She considers herself a weight loss expert and was talking about how to lose weight and if you are tired of yo-yo dieting you should quit dieting follow her.  BUT, here is where she disappointed me.  She had a special offer to buy her book which is called The ---- ----- Diet. (I did not type the book, because I don't want to specifically identify the person).

But I'm thinking - Seriously!! Your promoting non dieting... but yet you have a diet book. As a Mindful Eating Coach I know it is possible to lose weight without dieting. It frustrates me how brain-washed we all are that we think diets are the only way to lose weight.

Please people listen.  If diets worked so well, we wouldn't need a million diet plans out there.  Stop dieting!  You can lose weight without dieting – please research how before going on yet another diet or worse going through with weight loss surgery.  Please consider Mindful Eating, it is a great place to start.

By Adriana Ellis.  Adriana is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Weight Loss Coach, Certified Nutrition Coach and Nationally Certified Food Addictions Coach.  Adriana teaches her clients how to change their thinking and habits to help them feel better in life and lose weight.   www.attunedws.com

Why Hiring a Nutritionist Won’t Help You Lose Weight

I have been involved with Weight Loss for quite some time now.   First as a person trying to lose weight and then as a weight loss coach.  

My experience as a person trying to lose the excess weight and my with my clients as a weight loss coach has taught me;  It doesn’t matter how much you know about what you ‘should’ eat.  It will not make a difference if you don’t implement what you know.

In my days of trying to lose weight, I took tons of nutrition training, thinking I just didn’t know how to eat.  Once I figure out how to eat, then I am sure to lose weight.

But no, I didn’t lose weight because I didn’t like eating that way.  I hated eating vegetable ALL of the time.  So I would suffer eating ‘healthy’ for a short time, and then go back to my old eating ways, as I was unhappy trying to eat better for weight loss.

Again and again I repeated this pattern.   And as a coach I have many clients who know more about nutrition that I do.  So why are they still struggling with weight loss.

Because they don’t implement what they know and their thing about the way they eat keeps them stuck.   Now here is the catch.  Your body does not like change.  It likes that habit you are currently in.  So just knowing about nutrition is not enough.   You need to learn how to change your thinking about your eating and understand why you are eating what you do in the first place.

When you look at eating in a different light – not what you should or shouldn’t eat.   But why are you eating what you do, and what you are thinking about what your eating is the key to solving the weight loss mystery.

When I learned to quit trying to eat differently and just took a look at my thinking about my eating and looked at how and why I ate what I did…. Then I started making different food choices without thinking about it being what I ‘should’ be eating.

So to summarize.  Knowing what to eat did no good at all.  Only when I changed my thinking about what I currently ate, did my food choices begin to change.  It didn’t change over-night.  But when change happened it stuck.  And I slowly and surely lost weight – without feeling deprived or starving, and without eating foods I hated.  And changing your thinking can work that way for you too.

Bottom line is it’s not what you know about food, it’s what you thinking that makes all the difference.

I did it with the help of a Certified Weight Loss Coach.  You can do it to.

By Adriana Ellis.   Adriana is a Certified Weight Loss Coach and a Certified Nutrition Coach.  Adriana teaches her clients how to change their thinking and habits to help them lose weight without dieting.   www.attunedws.com.

Weight Loss Goals

It’s the New Year, and many of us have a weight loss goal that we would like to achieve this year.

The problem is, it is most likely with the help of a diet plan.

What is wrong with a diet plan?   Well nothing really.  It’s just that most people find them hard to stick to.

Ask yourself?   How long have you lasted on a diet plan?   Did you lose ALL the weight you wanted or did you quit before that goal?

I would like to suggest to you a different type of weight loss help this year - In the form of a friendly food journal.

Now before you groan.  Hear me out.

This isn’t just a normal food journal where you write down all the foods you eat noticing how bad you are eating (and usually omit writing many of the foods you ate down – because you are embarrassed that you are cheating on your plan).  With the friendly food journal, the objective is not to notice how many bad foods you are eating, but to notice WHY you are eating in the first place.

In the age of Super Size Me, we have become super sized.  Many of us don’t even realize what a normal portion of food looks like any more. 

With the friendly food journal, you write down what you eat (without judgement of yourself) but you also write down;  Did you feel hungry when you ate it.  If not, why did you eat it?

So many times it’s the WHY we are over-eating that makes all the difference, not the what we ‘should be eating.’

You can get a copy of the Friendly Food Journal at this link: Click Here

By Adriana Ellis.  Adriana is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Weight Loss Coach, Certified Nutrition Coach and Nationally Certified Food Addictions Coach.  Adriana teaches her clients how to change their thinking and habits to help them feel better in life and lose weight.   www.attunedws.com