The Downside of Losing Weight

What’s your downside of losing weight? And don't think you don't have one . . . there's ALWAYS a downside to any goal.

Hmmm . . . it could be any number of things . . . most commonly the fear of having to maintain your weight loss, having to give up the foods you love, or the fear of higher expectations or unwanted attention from others.

It can certainly go deeper than that as well. Once you start digging in this area, you are likely to find something.

One of my clients, Sue, for instance, associated losing weight with being sick. Her mother had stopped dieting, lost weight, and was soon diagnosed with cancer. (read Sue's story) For Sue, it simply didn’t feel safe to lose weight.

Having a downside isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But if you want to be successful, you’d better figure out what it is and deal with it.

Because if you don’t, you won’t lose weight, and you won't keep it off. 

You’ll be too ambivalent.

Let’s take the Olympic skier, Bode Miller. At the beginning of the 2006 Winter Olympics, he said he wasn’t sure he wanted to compete. He talked about having “lifestyle conflicts.” He gave few interviews and creatively dodged reporters.

After his 5th and final race, he alluded to the fact that he wasn’t sure that he wanted to win gold medals for fear of having to live life in the limelight.

Bode got disqualified in 2 races and skied off course in a 3rd. In the other 2 races, he finished just out of the money. His letdown led to a split with the U.S. team.

No gold medals for Bode.

Also, no limelight.

Bode’s vision of Olympic success included having to live life in the limelight and giving up his privacy, something he CLEARLY did not want.

His performance reflected his conflicting desires.

Bode values his privacy more than he values gold medals.

Here’s how it works.

The subconscious says YES to everything.

So if you have the thought, “I want to lose weight.”

Your subconscious says YES!

Then you have the thought, “But that would be really hard, and I couldn’t have my double chocolate espresso brownies anymore.”

Your subconscious says YES!

And then you will act accordingly, usually finding a creative way to sabotage your success . . . just like Bode Miller.

That is why NOT winning does not bother him – because he got what he wanted most . . . a life out of the limelight.

His fear of having to live in the limelight was more than his desire for gold medals.

What to do?

Identify the downside of losing weight.

If you got to your ideal weight, would there be anything uncomfortable about that?

The quickest way to deal with it is to use Emotional Freedom Techniques to neutralize the downside.

Then you have a clear path to your goal.

Happy traveling!

Comments

[Megan]

The Downside of Losing Weight...wow. I just had an ah-ha moment.

I've always been overweight. Since I was a young girl. The downside of losing weight for me is that I'm scared that I won't know how to be the thin me. How am I supposed to be that person when I've always been this person?

During the brief time that I was just about at goal weight, I was also going through some very hard life changes. I started becoming confident because of my weight loss and I started valuing myself. So I ended a disaster of a relationship, moved and started over. But the weight quickly came back as I started using food to medicate myself.

I was just wondering, 'When I get thin again, will my life change as much as it did a couple of years ago? Will I lose my husband? Will I want to ditch this current life for something else? Will I keep the weight off this time?'

There are so many thoughts and feelings entangled in this weight!

I feel that once we face the "downsides to our weightloss" we will be able to let go of what seems to be fear based and move forward into health and wellness.

What a journey.