Everyone wants to know… what’s the secret?
How do I lose fat? Consistently? And keep it off?
We turn to crash diets, to fat-burners, to squat challenges, and yet keep seeming to come up short. We keep trying the things we THINK lead to fat loss, and yet here we are, heavier than ever, and mentally exhausted by the perpetual chase for weight loss.
But we see other people successfully lose weight and keep it off. We see coaches and athletes lose weight and adapt to a healthy lifestyle who seem to not struggle and… actually enjoy it (gasp!).
So what’s their secret? What on earth is the secret sauce to fat loss?
As a weight loss coach for the last 6 years, I can tell you… I’ve finally cracked the case. And here’s the secret… you ready? The secret sauce to fat loss is…
Mindset.
Yep. That’s the sexy secret. Managing your stress. The way you think. The beliefs you hold onto. The beliefs you have about yourself, about food, about health. Your philosophies on all of these issues. This is what’s holding you back from weight loss. Allow me to explain.
On a practical level, what tends to hold back fat loss results is: over-eating & not creating enough of a calorie deficit. But let’s dig underneath that: why does over-eating happen so much? Why does it feel so hard to prevent?
One reason is stress. When you are stressed, your cravings can get out of control (even on a hormonal level). You can feel driven to emotionally over-eat as a form of stress management and it can be hard to even prioritize healthy eating or exercise when you feel like you’re bursting at the seams with stress.
So what if, instead of trying hard to control food & cravings, you worked to control & manage stress? If there is less stress, there will be less stress-eating (boom!).
Another reason we over-eat often comes down to perfectionism, or something I like to call “all or nothing mentality”. If things don’t go perfectly in our diet or workouts, we feel like we’ve failed, and so we give up for the day (or the week) and decide to eat whatever we want until we start over the next day. Sound familiar? How many times this year have you told yourself you’d “start over on Monday”? And every time we do this, we often end up undoing a whole week’s worth of effort toward fat loss. What a waste!
What if, instead of letting small missteps in your food or workouts derail you for the rest of the week, you practiced a healthier, more balanced belief of, “I made a small mistake today, but that’s okay! I’m going to keep going!”.
If you practiced this, you’d start eliminating self-sabotage binges, and start making more forward motion in your diet. And when you practice this over a period of time… weight loss will consistently happen, because you’re no longer holding yourself back by giving up every week.
As you can see, stress, mindset issues, & limiting beliefs are a HUGE factor in our fat loss journey. So to help you out, here are 4 things I do to make sure I’m giving just as much effort to a healthy mindset as I am a healthy body:
1. Balance your hormones + stress inside first. I couldn’t kick off this list without mentioning Protea’s supplements StressDefy and Baseline+. Did you know that our hormones are where so much of our mood, feelings, & stress begins? And that if your hormones are off-balanced, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle to be happy, healthy, & able to consistently burn fat? Taking these incredible, targeted supplements to improve your mood, fight stress & balance your hormones is a physical way to help your body support YOU in being happy, balanced, and a fat-burning machine.
2. Get enough sleep. Let me tell you: there is a sleep crisis in the world! Most people are not getting enough sleep. We’re staying up too late and getting up too early. I know that most of us are busy, and have so much we want to accomplish in a day, but getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep needs to become a non-negotiable. When we don’t get enough sleep, we feel moody and stressed, our bodies are physically stressed, we won’t recover properly, and therefore our bodies will not prioritize fat loss. We’ll also be more likely to retain water, and less likely to see the scale drop. So if you’re not getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night, make that a priority this week!
3. Take time to play. Play time isn’t just for kids! Adults also need healthy fun. I’ve fully invested into adult coloring books, video games, board games, puzzles, or even just dancing alone in my house to my favorite music. We need to have moments of play to reconnect ourselves with happiness and that freedom we felt as a child to just be. Doing so will help your body de-stress, and also help your mind feel so much more balanced and unburdened.
4. Take time to reflect. We are thinking, hurting, feeling, and experiencing all day long, but we are NOT processing it like we need to. Outlets like journaling, therapy, conversations with people who love you & can be honest with you are ways for us to allow ourselves to process our lives & things that happen to us, as well as the past, our stressors, our fears, and our beliefs. Without this reflection, we can feel suppressed, or worse: numb. And we can’t be our healthiest, happiest selves.
Written by Protea Nutrition athlete Lynette Hoyle
The contents of this blog should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any health problem-nor is it intended to replace the advice of a physician. Always consult your physician or qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
