Many high achieving men and women I know believe success with their weight and well-being comes at a price and it requires hard work and sacrifice.
Having twelve years of wellness coaching under my belt, eight as a Registered Dietitian (RD) and four as a Lifestyle Design Coach, I believe a permanent solution to weight loss has nothing to do with working hard or paying a price, but rather it’s about making changes mentally and emotionally so you love the life you live and easily see big shifts on the scale too.
Here are the top three reasons why high achievers fall short of reaching the health and well-being they truly desire and deserve.
- Where do you fall on your priority list? Many of the successful, result driven men and women share it’s quite common to be pulled in a million different directions. With juggling work and family commitments they’ve learned to put themselves second and make taking care of those around them their priority. So by the time the day is over their vision to hit the gym or cook a nutritious meal has dissolved and instead they’re heading straight for the couch with their favorite bag of chips or box of cookies.
- Are you holding yourself to impossible standards? Do you have an inner perfectionist, condemning you to failure before you even start? High achieving men and women can be incredibly hard on themselves. Quick starters love to see results so their go-big or go home attitude often prevails in their health and fitness goals. However, this bigger than life pressure is exactly what derails you from reaching your goals because you now have created unrealistic and impossible expectations for yourself. You’re now on an eternal climb where you’re risking burning out because you never feel like you can get to top and enjoy the view.
- Do you think reaching your goals requires hard work? Most if not all the successful men and women I’ve worked with believe hard work and sacrifice are the only ways to achieve results, especially with food and their body. So they push themselves and follow strict routines and diet plans only to create more of a struggle. The emotional energy you put into your food and exercise plan is now taking up a ton of your headspace and you may find yourself feeling out of control when you step a little bit out of line. Ultimately, this kind of pressure can lead to dicey situations where you may throw in the towel and feel like a failure just because you ate a few chips or a little bit of ice-cream.
Are you ready for new solutions?
1. Make yourself your number one priority and that starts with getting comfortable with saying no. Learning how to hold strong boundaries with employees, your spouse, kids, and other family members will provide you with the time and energy to focus on your health and happiness. Remember you can’t fill someone else’s cup up if yours is always empty.
2. Your inner perfectionist may be rooted in the belief that you’re not enough and likely this underlying belief is driving your desire to be better. In order to dissolve this, you must get to the source of this belief, let go and build unshakeable confidence so you override the opinions people may have about you. When you establish your own core beliefs about who you are, you can stand strong in yourself even when others criticize or critique you.
3. When you shift out of hard and into easy you will align with your inner brilliance and so much of your life will change. Pushing hard and putting a ton of effort into your health goals won’t make sense anymore. You will flow your wellness goals effortlessly and with ease. Remember life isn’t about hard work or sacrifice. It’s possible to have an amazing personal and professional life and be HEALTHY!