“But I’m doing everything right, Terra!!” The words jumped off the screen at me and I could feel the frustration and dismay. The email went on to explain a very unexpected weight gain after a week of tracking and staying within her target along with increasing her activity.

It’s one thing to pay no attention to our eating, step on the scale and see a weight gain. Bummer? Most definitely. A shock? Not really. It’s quite another to make conscious, healthy eating and portion choices all week long and then experience what appears to be a gain on the scale.

Mad, sad, defeated, frustrated, hopeless…..a myriad of painful emotions were obvious as I read further into the email. The last sentence before she signed off was “Will I ever get to a healthy weight again?”

We’ve all been there. Ugh. If you haven’t, prepare yourself, because it’s a very natural, albeit frustrating, part of the weight loss process. That being said, we still have choices and we can overcome it.

When we experience an unexpected weight gain we often want answers to what we are doing “wrong”…..but here’s the thing: It could be that nothing is wrong!! Our bodies are not necessarily on a 7 day weight-loss cycle. Just because we weigh in once a week, doesn’t mean our bodies are know it’s “weigh day”!

The best possible action we can take in this situation is to recover conscious control of our thoughts immediately. What we think about produces how we feel. If we go down the thought path of “this isn’t working”, “I worked so hard and I’ve been cheated” or anything of the like, how’s it going to make us feel?? For lack of a better term: Crappy. Those thoughts are not only painful, they’re destructive.

Instead…..Breath, remind ourselves all the good food choices, increased activity and other healthy behaviors are not for nothing! It all counts!! Weight loss aside, what we did for ourselves was healthy and good! We are treating our bodies responsibly and with respect and it matters, regardless of what this week’s scale reads.

When we trade heavy, negative, low energy thoughts for light, joyful empowering ones it’s far easier to continue practicing healthier behaviors. And guess what happens over time? In addition to increased feelings of physical and mental well being, more energy, less bloat, sleeping better and overall better health, low and behold, the weight comes off at it’s own pace.

Change what you think about, what you focus on, and your experience WILL change. When you stop lamenting over the not-so-great weigh in or how “slow” you perceive the journey to be and instead shift your focus to your behavioral progress and really tuning in to how much better you feel physically as a result of those new behaviors, you’ll empower yourself. We all like instant gratification and this shift can be made and felt NOW!! We all deserve to feel good, regardless of a number on the scale. We each have the power to do so, we just have make the choice to use it! Look for what’s right about the situation. Focus your thoughts and place your attention on how amazing the good things FEEL. Then simply start today from where you’re at and move forward!! If you need to modify something, you will. Any action or change made from a place of joy rather than desperation not only feels better, it’s more effective.

Hope to hear from you soon!! Let me know how you’re doing😊

All is well❤️

Love,

Terra🌺

Terra Ayres,

Wellness Coach