Last week I asked a client, if the scale never moved again would you stop lifting weight? Would you stop trying to eat high protein? Would you quit working on eating more well rounded nutritious balanced meals?
I have been coaching women over 30 since 2018 and guess what? This is not the first time I have asked this question.
I have never once heard the answer, yes I would stop.
Why? Because all those habits are making you FEEL your best, better than you ever have felt! (and because when you have a trainer in your corner, you have perspective)
So why then do we as women obsess over the one metric we do not have control over?
The scale.
The answer is really simple, because we have been conditioned to do so.
Women have been taught to obsess over this metric and measure their health (and worth) with it, for as long as I have been alive.
When you watched your mom (who did her best but was subjected to the same diet culture) diet your whole childhood and talk poorly about her body.When you started your first diet at 16 with your mom, and just never stopped.When your doctor made a comment about your body weight at every check up, or worse brings up your weight when you complain of any ailment.When mainstream media made you believe that women cannot eat more than 1200 calories.When the same culture made you question every single workout routine you ever tried to adopt. It is hard enough? Or is it TOO hard for a woman? *the same culture that sells you all things pink and makes you pay more for it.These are the things my clients have experienced, and these experiences all gave a smaller body weight VALUE.
Women come to me to lose weight but the reasons above are why they actually work with me. Whether they realized it or not when they first signed up.
Because if we can break this all down, we can focus on what we CAN control. (And sure enough eventually the results we are after do come)
The good news is we have control over a lot of things when it comes to our fitness and nutrition, most things actually.
But we don’t have control over the number between our toes, and unfortunately the desire to control this uncontrollable thing is driving us to quit on our efforts before we even get started, and so no results can be had because we are stuck in our heads.
And this vicious cycle continues. Start a diet, stop a diet, start a diet….
All the while the self loathing compounds and makes it even harder to FEEL deserving of the confidence that comes from having a strong body. (and body image)
I won’t act like it’s easy to break through decades of behaviors and mindset, but I can say it’s possible.