How To Stop Starting Again On Monday

𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 – a bag of cookies, jelly babies and a bottle of pop to wash it down!

This was me after I’d eaten my takeaway by the way.  This was the closest I got to emotional intelligence 12 years ago.  When I felt low.  When I felt rejected.  When I was fed up.  Also, when I wanted to celebrate.  Food was my comfort.

 My name is Brenton and I’ve been a Personal Trainer and Online coach for over 6 years.  I want to share with you the reason that therapy is the way forward to help you and me cement our weight loss goals. 

The common advice is:

1. Move more.
2. Eat less.

 You’ve probably heard this from the fitness industry and maybe slimming world too?  If only it was that simple.  Both of us would have the body of our dreams ALL year round.  We wouldn’t need to “start again on Monday”.  And I wouldn’t have lost weight and gained it again over a dozen times in my 30 years. 

The thing I’ve learned about weight loss is that it is connected to all the other important parts of your life.  Career, mental health, family, recreation, and other responsibilities.  Which means that they all impact each other’s success and failure.  

For me when I had a low self esteem my old eating patterns would resurface.  Exercising alone or “just losing the weight” didn’t fix my self esteem unfortunately.  My body temporarily changed but my thoughts and feelings were still in the past.  And because of that I often went back to old habits.

If you aren’t aware of why you eat and live the way you do a complete lifestyle change is almost impossible!  Will power alone sounds good but that might be a reason you’ve struggled to diet consistently in the past.  Will power is like one tool in the tool box.

 What about self-compassion? 

Self-awareness? 

More positive self-talk? 

Or even support and accountability?

 The more tools you have access to in your toolbox, the more problems you can solve in the process.  And the more problems you overcome the more confidence and consistency you build thereafter. 

What I’m saying is this.  I’ve been a coach who wasn’t aware of the importance of mindset and improving your mental health.  Which made it a lot more difficult for clients to do what they needed to do inside and outside of our workouts.  Whereas now improving your mental health in the process of weight loss has been a game changer for the clients I work with.   

Fortunately, I began the therapy process for myself four years back, which helped me become a more open and authentic coach.  To be exact, therapy has helped me: 

Improve my relationship with challenges.

My relationship with food.

Release old heavy emotions that were replaying in current day scenarios.

Build more confidence, discipline and consistency in everything I do.

 I would encourage everybody to learn more about themselves and why they are doing the things they currently are, so that they have more confidence and autonomy over their day-to-day habits.  Which ultimately impacts your:

 Eating decisions.

Mood and motivation.

Self-belief.

Will power and determination.

Thank you for reading this article.  I hope it gives you an understanding of how you can change your mind and body for the better.  The two compliment each other so you can’t work on one without the other. 

If you would like my help going forward, feel free to visit my website and send me a message.  From there we can talk about your goals and what you need to achieve them.

Brenton