If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably been wondering why you’re not losing weight, despite focusing on your food and exercise.
A common factor with people who have tried to lose weight for good and not been successful is they’ve taken that exact approach. Despite what the diet and weight loss industry has been telling you for years, focusing on food and exercise will NOT help you lose weight.
It’s like doing yoga and meditation because you’re depressed. While these tools may help manage your symptoms of depression, they won’t solve the real reason you’re depressed. We explain this concept in more detail in our blog Why stress management techniques won’t eliminate your stress and what you need to do instead.
Don’t believe us?
Let us explain.
You need to solve the right problem
Focusing on food and exercise is a bit like having a punctured tyre and refilling it with air every time it goes flat, hoping that will solve the problem. Yes, refilling it with air will solve the problem temporarily, but the puncture still exists and your tyre will continue to go flat. This explains weight gain. People decide they want to go on a diet and introduce food and exercise but this doesn’t solve the reason why they got overweight in the first place – which is because of their habits. This is often referred to as a weight-loss blind spot.
Most people think they’re overweight because they eat too much and don’t exercise enough. While this is true to some extent, it’s not the whole truth. The problem isn’t the overeating and the lack of exercise — it’s why you overeat and don’t exercise.
When you focus on food and exercise you’re solving the wrong problem. The problem you need to solve is why your food and exercise needs attention. And that requires you to ask a few questions to help you become aware of the real issue.
Why are you overweight?
I’ve let myself go
Why have you let yourself go?
Because I struggle to put myself first.
Why do you struggle to put yourself first?
Because I’m a people pleaser.
Why are you a people pleaser?
Because I struggle to say ‘no’.
Why do you struggle to say ‘no’?
Because I’m scared of offending and upsetting people.
Why are you scared of offending and upsetting people?
Because I’m scared of abandonment.
Why are you scared of abandonment?
Because I need people to like me.
Why do you need people to like you?
Because my self-worth relies on people liking me.
Why does your self-worth rely on people liking you, even when you do nothing wrong?
Because I lack self-worth.
If you have low self-worth, you’ll always struggle with your eating and you’ll always struggle to be consistent with exercise, which will make it impossible for you to lose weight for good. You can read more about this in our blog How low self-worth affects your weight.
Just like you need to fix the punctured tyre to stop it from going flat, you need to address your keystone habit which in this case is low self-worth. In other words, you need to build self-worth. We explain how to do this in our blog How to build your self-worth so you can lose weight for good.
Food and exercise are not the solution
Despite what the diet industry tells you, you’re not overweight because you eat too much or because you don’t exercise enough. You’re overweight because of your habits.
This is why focusing on food and exercise is trying to solve the wrong problem. It doesn’t help you learn how to put yourself first. It doesn’t help you get rid of your people-pleasing habit, and it doesn’t help you build your self-worth. We explain this in more detail in our blog Why nutrition and fitness are the last things you should focus on to lose weight.
Of course, food and exercise are important aspects of weight loss. But they are only tools, not the solution. And like any other weight loss tool, you should use them simultaneously, while you address your habits. Just like refilling that flat tyre, focusing on food and exercise without addressing your habits is just a waste of time.
How DATSTM Program helps
The DATSTM Personal Coaching Program will help you identify and address the habits that have led you to become overweight, including low self-worth. It will help you build your self-worth and develop new habits that will enable you to lose weight and gain the body, confidence, and lifestyle you want.
The DATSTM Program will see you work with the world’s leading personal coaching in habit and mindset change, and permanent weight loss. DATSTM will give you the knowledge, systems, tools, and skills so you can lose weight and keep it off — even on your worst days.
In summary…
- Most people try to lose weight by focusing on their food and exercise.
- The real reason people struggle with their weight is not because of their food or lack of exercise, but because of their habits, especially the habit of low self-worth.
- When you focus on food and exercise, you’re trying to solve the wrong problem.
- Focusing on food and exercise doesn’t help you address the habits that led you to become overweight in the first place.
- The only way to lose weight for good is to address the habits that are holding you back.
- Our DATSTM Personal Coaching Program will help you identify and address the habits that have caused you to become overweight, so you can lose weight for good.
- Our DATSTM Program gives you the knowledge, systems, tools, and skills to help you lose weight and keep it off, even on your worst days.
