I recently stumbled upon this saying…
Losing weight is hard. Obesity is hard. Choose your hard.
Wow, talk about oversimplification.
Something about this message didn’t sit well, so I decided to dig a little deeper.
Let’s break it down.
Losing weight is hard.
I’m not going to lie, losing weight is no piece of cake. Over two-thirds of the adults in the United States are overweight or obese. A stunning figure. We all know how to lose weight – our energy intake (calories in) needs to be less than our energy expended (calories out). Simple.
Then why is it so difficult to lose the weight and keep it off?
One word Chickadees – change.
We continue to choose our old ways, even thought they cause us to suffer (in this case live in an overweight body), because they are safe, comfortable and familiar.
Let’s take a look at the next sentence.
Obesity is hard.
I was obese once and of all the words I could choose to describe being obese, hard doesn’t even make the top 10. Miserable, yes. Embarrassing, yes. Hard, not really.
If obesity were so hard, then why would we choose to remain in that state?
I think you already know the answer.
Staying fat doesn’t require us to change a single thing. We can eat the same food, live the same lifestyle and no one will notice.
Let’s move on to the final sentence.
Choose your hard.
I agree, there is a choice to be made and we can always choose to make things hard – or not.
I’ve lost the weight and kept it off and I’ve accompanied lots of other women on their personal weight loss journeys. I know what it takes to succeed.
We find our willingness to change when we have finally suffered enough.
Ask yourself this question. Am I sick and tired of suffering?
If the answer is yes, then you’re on your way. You have to want to lose the weight – for YOU.
Stop beating yourself up, acknowledge where you are right now and embrace it. Stopping the resistance opens the door and allows growth and change to enter.
Once you accept the circumstances and are willing to change from a place of love and acceptance, weight loss is no longer an insurmountable obstacle (aka hard).