We’ve been helping people healthily lose weight and maintain a healthier weight for over 30 years. We feel like we’ve seen it all. But despite the wide range of people and circumstances we’ve worked with, certain truths emerge time and time again.
We’ve put a few of these together below because we feel they offer valuable lessons for healthy weight loss for everyone.
Healthy Weight Loss Lessons We’ve Learned from Experience
Like everything to do with losing weight, there’s no single answer that absolutely works for everyone or even more than one. But these guidelines can help you learn more about the realities of weight loss.
- Weight Problems are Not Just About Food – Yes, we can all eat a healthier diet and skip a bit more junk food. But excess weight has as much to do about the how, when, where and why we eat as it does with what we eat. From emotional eating to “hoovering” every meal, healthy weight loss is a complex solution.
- It Doesn’t Have to Be Endless Agony – We’ve seen so many people who have endured pain, fainting, constant hunger, and food that tastes like cardboard, in efforts to lose weight that ultimately backfired. Here’s the lesson: you only live once. Do you really want to spend that much of your life in all-consuming agony? It isn’t a race. No one ever gained 20 pounds from eating a slice of pie. While maintaining a healthy lifestyle and eating habits are important, they should also be your friend, not the enemy.
- Be Very Careful About What You Say to Your Children – This one hurts. Many of the weight problems we’ve seen began in childhood or teenage years after the person was told, teased or bullied about their excess weight. Of course, that sort of damage runs deep and isn’t easily repaired. But, with more understanding of the basis and reasons for your weight issues, you’re better able to focus on a solution.
- Weight Loss Isn’t a One-Time Event – You’ve been overweight for most of your life, so don’t expect to transform into a healthier, slimmer person in a matter of months. In fact, the complete opposite is true. While weight-loss diets generally have a beginning, middle and end, healthy, balanced eating is going to be with you for the rest of your life.
- Give Yourself the Opportunity to Lose Weight – When you go through repeated cycles of fad dieting, you never really give yourself the chance to properly lose weight. From researching as much as you can about the real issues surrounding excess weight, to talking to nutrition consultants, you need to give yourself the best opportunity to lose weight. The best weight loss diet ever is the one created to meet your particular needs, including the need to stick with it.
Ready to start your weight loss journey? Visit one of our Herbal One locations across Canada to speak with a Counsellor who can customize a plan according to your specific needs and goals.
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