The one thing that finally worked…

I stumbled thata reddit threadthat I really have a lot of attention.

Someone asked “What was the ‘one thing’ that finally made weight loss work for you?”

And this question has 5,400 answers (and counting).

Some of the responses include changes in nature or changes in how they prepare their food:

“Pour snacks into small ramekins to eat them. Suddenly I ate a normal amount of snacks.”

“I prepared my usual amount of food and instead of putting it in 2 containers, I spread it evenly in 4 containers. I forced myself to only eat 1 container per meal and tricked my brain into thinking this was my normal amount.”

Others change what they eat:

“I found a salad that I really like. It sounds dumb, but I’ve never really craved a salad before, and having one that I really wanted meant I put together a solid few weeks of eating lots of lettuce – it snowballed from there, because I felt which was good and then started craving. good.”

Others have a more holistic approach that involves re-evaluating their relationship with food, hunger, and discomfort:

“Realizing this is a lifestyle change NOT a diet.”

“Suffering is over.” Expect to be short of breath and uncomfortable when you do cardio, expect to be sore after you lift, and expect to be hungry if you cut back on your intake.

Others use apps to track their calorie intake, which makes them aware of how much they’re eating:

“Use an app to track everything I eat. I realized the more “healthy” things I was eating, the more I was eating them, had more calories than I thought. Just cutting out certain foods did the trick.

And some succeeded thanks to the first push of the drug:

“Seeing a doctor about my type 2 diabetes. I weigh over 300 lbs and also have coronary artery disease. I qualify for diabetes medication which also helps with appetite control. Started tracking calories and exercise.”

“Semaglutide”

Some prioritize physical activity instead of focusing on food:

“Find some fun. I ate because I was tired. Coming home from work to sit on the couch makes eating easy as sh*t…

“Walk. Proof that I lost 45 lb in 7 months just by walking every night in my neighborhood. It’s free and low impact, I walk in rain or shine even in snow storms. Now I have a treadmill and walk indoors but the feeling is the same as before.

As we look at this list, reading the thousands of comments of people who think back to ‘something’ that changed their life, and how diverse most of them are, we can make some interesting conclusions.

3 Short Lessons We Can Learn

LESSON 1: “Success is moving from failure to failure without discouragement.” -Winston Churchill.

The hardest part of being healthy is not despair when some strategy you try doesn’t work. I bet every person who shared their answer above, they tried many different strategies to try and get fit. Hell, I bet they tried most of the things that worked for other people, until they found one that worked. for them.

What we can learn from this: “Hope is thatwarrior emotion that consumes panicthat,” and it’s okay to have the hope that every failed attempt means a smaller strategy to try in the future.

For example, if you tried Keto 5 times before and couldn’t stick with it, congrats! You find food that doesn’t work for you

If you can keep that up that‘beta test’ mentalitythat of “I’ll see if it works for me,” you might find the first domino to fall YOUR journey!

LESSON 2: Beware of the Charlatan.

Spend enough time on social media, and eventually you will encounter health and wellness charlatans. These are the people who tell you that they are the only ones who have it a solution to all your problems. They always have a villain for everything bad in the world (“sugar in it! carbs in it! ingredient X in it!”).

And sure, once they’re scared of being mongered and scared the crap out of you, they give you hope with their expensive unregulated supplement or unreliable system.

As you can see in the examples above, there is no “one size fits all” solution to this matter. Every person is a unique weirdo with different baggage and factors and traumas and experiences that make some solutions a homerun and other solutions a nonstarter.

You can read more about how to spot and avoid charlatans in my previous essay here: “thatHow not to go crazy on the internetthat.”

Which brings me to my third point!

LESSON THREE: All fitness stories have 3 boring commonalities!

Although all of these “one thing” form factoring solutions are different, they all have some similarities.

The good news? None of these things are revolutionary, proprietary, or fancy.

The compatibility of literally 3 things:

• Eat the right amount of calories for your goal weight
• Get some form of physical activity
• Making these two things part of a lifelong life change.

Losing weight is not magic. This is math and behavior change.

When I cover my thatweight loss guidethatscience is settled on it.

Any diet can work, if it puts us in a caloric deficit. We have thatteaching clientsthat who are vegans, some who do Keto, some who count calories and some who do intermittent fasting.

Our ability to make dietary changes into a lifestyle we can live with is how we find success, and that’s different for everyone.

Speaking of lifestyle changes, most of the answers above also involved finding ways to make exercise a regular part of life.

Remember: it’s okay not to like exercise. We weren’t designed to like exercise! Especially if it’s an activity we don’t really enjoy! We are designed to survive in times of scarcity, NOT to thrive in times of unlimited abundance.

So how do we make exercise a part of our lifestyle?

We must find ways to thatmake exercise fun, useful, or necessarythat:

• Entertainment: join a walking/running club with friends, try it thatcombination of temptationthat.
• BENEFICIAL: to be loved thatgrowingthat and more confident and how much better you feel after exercise.
• Required: pre-pay for a trainer, park at the end of the parking lot, bike to work.

Remember that hope is the feeling of a warrior.

We humans are incredibly adaptable creatures capable of change.

Keep trying different strategies, beware of charlatans, and don’t forget the basics!

And soon one day, you too will be able to share the first domino that fell that changed things for you.

-Steve

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