You probably know by now that Imani Tribe Transformations is different from any other weight loss program around.
That’s because we have very different philosophies to those of the diet industry.
If you’ve been following diets but still not getting the results you’ve been looking for, perhaps it’s time to re-think what you believe to be true about weight loss.
We guarantee that if you follow our philosophies, not only will they help you lose weight, but they’ll change your entire life!
Nutrition
Diet industry philosophy
You need to create a calorie deficit to lose weight, which means that you need to focus on food (ideally restricting it), and exercise (ideally doing more).
Our philosophy
Nutrition and weight loss is not about food or exercise.
It’s never about what you eat and how you move. It’s about why you eat what you do, move how you do, and believe what you do.
In short, it’s about your habits, mindsets, beliefs and fears.
When you conquer your fears and change your habits, mindsets and beliefs, weight loss will take care of itself.
Food
Diet industry philosophy
Weight loss is a matter of ensuring that you burn more calories than you consume. That means that foods high in calories are ‘bad’ for weight loss and foods that are low in calories are ‘good’. If you want to lose weight, there are some foods that you just shouldn’t eat. That’s why restrictive diets are the way to go.
Our philosophy
There is no ‘good’ food or ‘bad’ food.
Labelling food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is a concept born of diet culture.
Food has no moral compass. There is no inherent ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ within a food’s chemical structure. Food is just-food. However, the benefits of that food depend upon the purpose it serves.
Food should be enjoyed, not just because of its nutritional value, but because it tastes good, smells good, makes us feel good and brings people together.
Life is too short to live on diet food.
Learning to eat and enjoy all foods without feeling guilty will get you the best weight loss results.
Less is more
Diet industry philosophy
To lose weight you must overhaul your entire life and create new habits. This means making BIG changes overnight, especially around eating and exercise.
Our philosophy
We believe in focusing on less, to achieve more.
Small, progressive changes over time is the only way to lose weight and keep it off.
Doing too many things at once is overwhelming, extremely stressful and will only lead to you falling off the wagon, or quitting all together. The only way to create new habits is to work on one thing at a time, nail it, and then move onto the next.
Focusing on changing one thing at a time is easy and doesn’t require willpower or motivation — two things that don’t work long-term. Plus, it means that you end up progressively and successfully creating new habits that will help you lose weight. It might sound counter-intuitive but lots of small changes added up over time are more powerful and lead to greater success than trying to implement big changes all at once
The philosophy of “less is more” also applies to training and exercise (as outlined below).
Training/Exercise
Diet industry philosophy
Go hard or go home. No pain, no gain.
To lose weight, you need to do as much exercise as you can so you can burn lots of calories. Doing cardio burns the most calories per minute so you should focus on that. The more exercise you can do, the better.
Our philosophy
To get results, you have to train smarter not harder.
The best results don’t come to those who train the hardest, but to those who are most consistent.
You don’t need to put yourself through gruelling workouts every day — or any day for that matter. The truth is that exercise is just 3% of the equation when it comes to weight loss. The remaining 97% is about your habits and mindset.
Most people do too much exercise and focus on the wrong kind of exercise.
The best exercise program for fat loss is one that includes focused intense resistance exercise (FIRE) first and foremost. Adding in small amounts of intense cardio exercise (ICE) is also beneficial. Plus, you should aim to move your body through low-intensity activity (LIA) on most days.
When it comes to exercise, less is more. You really shouldn’t spend any more than 5 hours of your week exercising, if you’re doing the right kind of exercise.
Rest and recovery
Diet industry philosophy
Exercise as much as you can for as long as you can. This will help you burn the most calories and will speed up your weight loss.
Our philosophy
Rest and recovery are just as important as effective training.
Resting allows you to be consistent with your training because it helps you avoid injury and burnout. It also aids muscle recovery and helps you build muscle — which is vital to boost your metabolism so you can burn fat. It reduces stress which is a metabolic blocker, and it boosts your immune system which means you won’t get sick or run down and end up missing your training sessions.
Incorporate structured rest periods into your training program to allow your body and mind to recover. This will help you come back to your training stronger than before. Incorporate ‘active’ recovery sessions (e.g. walking, swimming, bike riding, stretching) to keep your body moving when you’re not training.
Prioritise sleep and aim for 7-8 hours a night. Research shows that sleep aids weight loss.
Ensure you structure rest and relaxation into your week. This will give you better weight loss results than trying to fit more into your already busy schedule.
Relationships
Diet industry philosophy
Surround yourself with people who have similar goals to you and who are on similar weight loss journey. Join a weight loss community and get support from others.
Our philosophy
Surround yourself with the right people.
Many people don’t understand the power of having the right people behind them and don’t understand the damage that can arise from having the wrong people in their support network.
The wrong people will enable your self-sabotaging behaviours, and will never make you accountable for them. In fact, they will make you feel good about the habits that are preventing you from losing weight, so that you’re lulled into a false sense of security, believing you don’t have to change anything.
Ask for help from people who have already succeeded at what you’re trying to do, instead of asking someone who is further behind or struggling with the same things as you.
Make yourself accountable to people who can help you and challenge you to change your habits and mindset instead of surrounding yourself with people who enable the behaviours that have led you to become overweight in the first place.
Avoid toxic people who judge and gossip about other people, who only take from you, and who expect you to prioritise them. Put your own needs first, and avoid being a people pleaser.
Learn to stop caring about what other people think and stop comparing yourself to other people or copying what other people are doing. Focus on your own journey, and do the things that you need to do, to lose weight.
Ask yourself what you get out of spending time with the people you currently hang out with. Do you get something valuable in return? Or do you feel drained? Do they add to your life, or do they just take from it?
Surround yourself with the right people because the wrong support network will spell disaster.
Investing in yourself
Diet industry philosophy
Lose weight as quickly as you can, by doing quick fixes, and looking for cheap solutions that focus only on how you want to look, because how you look is the most important thing of all.
Our philosophy
Instead of focusing on what you LOOK like — and the quickest way to get there — focus on all the 3 fundamentals of a successful body and lifestyle transformation —How you LOOK (body composition and shape); How you FUNCTION (energy levels); and How you FEEL (general health).
Because we know that without LOOKING good, FUNCTIONING better, and FEELING fantastic, you can’t be consistent, and without being consistent you can’t achieve permanent results.
Permanent weight loss results don’t happen overnight. They happen over time and with effort.
Too many people are not willing to invest time, energy or money to create a better future for themselves. In fact, not having enough time and money are the two main excuses people give not to invest in themselves.
Yet they invest time and money into things that won’t help them lose weight.
The people who invest in themselves don’t have more time and money than other people. In fact, they often have less. But they understand that investing in themselves physically, emotionally and financially will change their life (not just their weight), and they will reap benefits greater than they could have ever imagined.
Be willing to invest in yourself for the rest of your life. Stop looking for quick fixes or diet ‘solutions’ that only create more problems.
Be willing to do the real deep work on yourself, so you can lose weight for good, and live a life of confidence and freedom.
We promise it will be worth it.
