DO AS I SAY… NOT AS I DO
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE ANYONE HAS EVER GIVEN YOU ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS??
DO AS I SAY… NOT AS I DO
I remember my mother always saying these eight words to me with everything she taught me. No matter if it was doing dishes, vacuuming, cooking,cleaning. I mean LITERALLY everything she taught me it was always
DO AS I SAY …NOT AS I DO.
I could never understand it, and it used to make me so mad. Especially as a teenager I was always like WTF!!!! Of course now that I’m an adult I totally get it. I have used that same line on my children – now I know exactly what she meant. My mother would say that because she didn’t want me to make the same mistakes as she did. This advice can apply to so many areas in life.
I started thinking about this phrase again when it came to my weight loss. I have been dealing with my weight my whole life. I have tried almost every way there is to lose weight. . I can actually pinpoint where my weight problems began. It was the summer before 5th grade. My mother and I had moved back from New Mexico to Massachusetts. We lived at my dad’s house that summer and they both worked all day. I didn’t have any friends there because I hadn’t started school yet so I didn’t know any of the kids in the neighborhood. I used to sit home and watch the neighborhood kids walk by the path that went past the house, and wish I could meet them. So instead I would sit in the house alone all day and try to keep myself busy. The thing I did most to keep busy was to watch aerobic workouts on TV while I ate snacks. The snack I remember eating the most was cheese puffs. Come on who doesn’t love cheese puffs!! Needless to say, this was definitely a bad combination!
Fast forward to my adult life . I have tried almost every method of weight loss there is including:
- Counting points
- Vegetarian
- Smoothies
- Protein Shakes
- Keto
- Intermittent Fasting
- Tracking calories
- 48 hr fasts
You name it I have tried it. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, but I have accumulated a ton of knowledge about weight loss over the last 30 years. I find myself constantly giving advice to others whether I’m in weight loss mode or not. The most amazing thing happened for me while giving this advice. I discovered that the advice I give worked to help others lose weight. I found that even though I personally struggle with keeping on track with my health and weight loss I was able to help others to meet their goals. The first time that became evident to me was when I had started doing the keto diet and had lost 40lbs. I was super passionate about it and shared my experience with my sister. She decided to try it. We would send pics to each other of our keto meals, share recipes and give each other encouragement. Of course like always I fell off plan… but not my sister she went on to lose 80lbs and hit her goal weight. I unfortunately gained back 35lbs of the 40 I had lost.
Ultimately my sister was my first success story and that was a real AH HUH moment for me. I began to think maybe I could be a weight loss or health coach. The problem is I haven’t lost the weight myself so how can I tell others to do it.
DO AS I SAY… NOT AS I DO!
I asked myself could I really help people lose weight and live a healthy lifestyle. Would I be able to get people to follow the advice I give even if I was still overweight and trying to stick to my own journey? HELL YES I CAN!!!!
Not too long after that I came across fasting for weight loss. I found the science behind fasting so intriguing ( because i’m a science geek ) . I began to follow a fasting focused lifestyle. I couldn’t believe how great it worked for me and how amazing it made me feel. My daughter noticed how well it was working for me. I told her everything I had learned about fasting so we did a 48 hr fast together. We used a special salt water mixture to keep our electrolytes up and get us through it. The experience was better than we could have imagined. We had never felt so good and we lost weight. Don’t get me wrong, a 48 hr fast can be hard but totally worth it. As always I fell off the wagon and my daughter’s results surpassed my own. So here I was again asking myself why is it that I can help others to lose weight but I can’t stay consistent. What I realized is that it’s much easier to advise people on how to lose weight than to do it myself.
DO AS I SAY … NOT AS I DO
I feel like I have finally found the key to my weight loss struggles. It surely is not for lack of knowledge but more so a mental thing and lack of willpower.I have learned the power of the mind and how to use positive affirmations to assist in sticking to my goals. You can attract the health you want through manifestation and the right tools. I now know that I have the ability to mentor others in their journey whether it be with weightloss,nutrition, fitness or a mental strategy and in the process help myself to reach my goals with the same tools I advise my clients to use.
Follow my journey on Instagram @fastingtillfifty.
It is my intention to reach my weight loss goals by my 50th birthday in 2022 and to be in the best shape of my life mentally and physically and to help others reach their goals in the process. DO AS I SAY … NOT AS I DO is probably some of the best advice my mother could have ever given me.
Thanks Mom, I Love You