Picture this….
10 years from now
It’s 10 years from now and you’re still trying to lose weight. In fact, you’ve been on the diet merry-go-round for more than 30 years now, trying to find the magic formula so you can lose weight once and for all. The only problem is, you still haven’t found it. In fact, your clothing is 2 sizes larger than what you wear now.
You’re fed up and frustrated because all this time you have been working so hard to lose the weight. You’ve counted calories, tried eating clean, said ‘no’ to all your favourite foods, restricted food, followed meal plans and exercised almost every day. But things have only got worse.
Food and eating are a constant source of enormous stress. You’re so confused about what to eat and are afraid of eating carbs like bread, potato, rice, pasta. You watch every morsel that goes into your mouth worried that it will make you fat. You would never dream of eating cake or ice cream and when you’re at a family celebration, you either make excuses as to why you won’t eat dessert or you mentally calculate how much exercise you have to do to burn it off, before you decide to say ‘yes’.
You also struggle with binge eating and emotional eating. You find this particularly frustrating when you know this only sabotages your weight loss. But some days, the compulsion to eat is just too much. You’re so disgusted at your lack of control.
You find it extremely difficult to exercise, even though you know you need to. You’ve tried walking 10,000 steps a day but you can’t seem to stick at it. Your excess weight gets in the way, your back and knees ache, but the worst thing is the shame and embarrassment you feel when wearing exercise clothes. If you do go for a walk, you go at night when no one can see how large you are and how slow you are.
You look at other people who don’t struggle with their weight, thinking how unfair it is that they can eat whatever they like without the guilt, and without weight gain. You’re convinced that there is something wrong with you, and that you’re destined to be overweight forever. You would love to be able to eat whatever you like instead of feeling miserable because you deprive yourself all the time, but you’re so afraid of gaining even more weight, that you don’t dare.
Your confidence is at an all-time low. You’re so embarrassed and ashamed of how you look that you avoid social situations wherever you can; not only because you find it hard to find clothes to wear, but because you feel that everyone judges you for your weight. It’s so painful to be in the company of other people — especially those who don’t have weight problems — that it’s easier to stay at home.
As a result, you don’t have any close relationships. The people you interact with are either work colleagues or other parents — but you don’t let yourself get too close because you’re afraid that if they saw the real you, they wouldn’t like what they see. Instead, you put on a mask and pretend to be someone you’re not because you believe that you’re not good enough as you are. You hate the idea of anyone not liking you, so you’re quick to say “yes” every time someone asks you to do something, especially when it comes to taking on extra tasks at work. No one really seems to appreciate what you do, and you’re too scared to ask for a pay rise to compensate for all the extra work you’re doing, but at least you feel like you’re important.
Your marriage is also strained. You and your partner argue a lot. They complain that you spend all your time doing things for other people and don’t have time for them. They’re sick of not feeling important to you, and the fact that you never want to do anything fun or spontaneous. Your partner would love to go to the beach for a holiday, or out to a nice restaurant for dinner but you always make excuses as to why you can’t go. The truth is, the thought of having to wear your bathers terrifies you, and the idea of ordering food at a restaurant is very stressful because you’re so afraid of ruining your diet.
You resent anyone who seems to be enjoying life and jealousy often rears its ugly head. You’re always comparing yourself to other people, and always check to see if you are the biggest person in the room. You always seem to feel a bit better about yourself if you’re around someone else who is more overweight than you. But most of the time you feel fat, frumpy, old and worthless. You do anything to avoid being seen. You hate having your photo taken, and have even set up your social media accounts so that no one can tag you in photos. You use social media every day but you never post anything about yourself, because you don’t want anyone to see you for who you really are.
Every day you jump on the scales and most days you feel worse about yourself. If the scales show a drop in weight, you’re elated, but then you find yourself ‘checking’ the scales several times during the day, to make sure that number is real. When it goes up again the next day, you call yourself nasty things like ‘fat’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘horrendous’. You’re convinced that no one could possibly love you because of your weight and reject any romantic or intimate intentions from your partner because you don’t think they are being genuine. This creates further distance between the two of you.
You’re deeply unhappy but hold onto the hope that if you can just lose weight, you’ll solve all your problems. And so, you grit your teeth and sum up all the motivation and willpower you can, telling yourself that you must stick to your diet if things are to get better. But deep inside, you feel helpless and hopeless.
Now picture this…
10 years from now
The alarm goes off and you jump out of bed full of energy after a great night’s sleep. You put on your exercise gear and head out the door for your morning walk. It’s something that you do every day and you love how young and alive it makes you feel.
While you may be older, you feel the best you’ve ever felt in your life. You easily maintain a healthy weight without needing to count calories, diet or restrict your favourite foods. You love cooking healthy, nourishing food and are always trying new foods and new recipes. But you also make time for your favourite treats, especially during family celebrations, because enjoying food is an important part of life for you.
Along with your daily walks, you also do resistance training a couple of times a week. You feel strong and healthy. In fact, you can’t remember the last time you were sick. You also have plenty of energy to keep up with your busy lifestyle which includes working, socialising and spending time with your family. In fact, other people often comment on how great you look and how much energy you have.
Your marriage is also the best it’s ever been. You regularly spend time with your partner doing fun and exciting things. Each week, you take a turn at organising an activity together, for example, a day at the beach, or a hike through the rainforest. You and your partner also dine at nice restaurants regularly and enjoy trying new things on the menu. Every year you take at least 2 holidays together and your next one is a week in the Whitsundays. You can’t wait to rest and relax on the beach and swim every day.
You love your job and have recently been successful in landing a promotion and a significant pay rise. While you enjoy your work, you have healthy boundaries around how much time you spend there. Investing time in yourself, your marriage, family and friends is much more important to you, and the people in your life understand and respect your boundaries.
You have a small group of fabulous friends who truly support you in all that you do. You can be your authentic self around them and don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not in order to be liked. In fact, you dropped the people-pleasing habit a long time ago and now your life is filled with people who genuinely love you for who you are, rather than what you do for them. You are able to say ‘no’ to others easily, when they ask you to do something you don’t want to do, and you’re never worried about what they may think. You know that being true to yourself and your own desires brings you the most happiness anyway.
You are grateful for every day, even the ones that don’t go to plan, or when life throws you a curveball. You no longer try to control everything and everyone around you, and always look for the lessons in life. You continue to work on yourself every day, never compare yourself with anyone else and love how much confidence, self-assurance and peace that this brings to your life.
This confidence is also reflected in what you wear. You love going clothes shopping and never have trouble finding clothes to fit you. You have your favourite brands and have developed your own style around the clothes that you truly love to wear. You feel sexy, attractive and confident in whatever you wear and are always happy to show your true self to the world.
You know that life will only keep getting better and you’re already looking forward to what the next 10 years will bring you.
What will you choose?
Which of the two futures above sounds more appealing?
The second one, right?
Well, the bad news is that if you continue on the same path you’re currently on, Future #2 will only ever be a dream.
Years of dieting, low self-worth, comparing yourself with others, hiding from the world and people-pleasing will take their toll and create a life that is so restrictive and painful that you’ll never be able to see a way out. You can read more about this in our blog Who you become when all the diets fail: The high cost of dieting.
But the good news is that you can change the ending to your story.
You can have Future #2. All you need to do is choose a different path.
Simply doing what you’ve always done will not lead to the future you want. You’ll only get yourself into a deeper, bigger, unhappier hole.
To have what you’ve never had, or never dreamed you could have, you must do what you’ve never done — and that means doing something different. Because nothing changes if nothing changes.
Our DATSTM personal coaching Program is the answer.
How DATSTM Program helps
The DATSTM personal coaching Program is based on habit and mindset change, rather than focusing on diet and exercise. Because at the end of the day, it’s your habits, mindset, behaviours and fears that determine the quality of your life.
Through DATSTM we help you uncover the habits that have led you to gain weight and lose confidence. We give you the tools and strategies to ditch the diets that have taken over your life, so you can reclaim your health, vitality, freedom and quality of life. In short, we can help you have the future of your dreams.
Through the DATSTM system, which includes structure and accountability, you will work with the world’s leading personal coaching in habit and mindset change, and permanent weight loss, so you can have the future you want.
In summary…
- Many people spend decades of their life dieting, restricting food and gaining weight.
- They continue to do this, believing that diets are the answer and losing weight will make them happy.
- But this approach only leads to lack of confidence, fear of being seen, resenting other people and living an even more painful and restricted life.
- The only way out of this vicious, unhappy cycle is to do something different.
- To have a future of freedom, confidence and happiness, you need to take a different path from the one you’re on now.
- You need to ditch the diets and start working on your habits because they are what have led you to become overweight.
- Our DATSTM Program is the change you’ve been looking for.
- Our DATSTM Program gives you the knowledge, systems, tools and skills to help you ditch the diets that have taken over your life so you can reclaim your health, vitality, freedom and quality of life.
