HOW FLEXIBILITY CAN LEAD TO FAT LOSS
What’s your favorite “splurge food”? The one that it just kills you to give up each time you go on a diet? Is it pizza, ice cream, burgers and fries? What if I told you those foods are actually the key to losing fat? You’d probably tell me I was crazy! But hear me out as I paint a picture for you.
Sally’s been struggling to lose weight for years. She was successful at first. She did a 6 week challenge that had her eating 1200 calories a day of only whole/clean foods. It was tough cutting out all of the foods she loved but the results were worth it. She lost 20 lbs but when the 6 weeks were over and she started adding in a bit more flexibility it was like the floodgates were opened and she immediately went back to her old habits gaining all of the weight back.
Next she found a program that claimed to be customized. She put her age, height and weight into a calculator and was told how many grams of carbs, protein and fat (macros) she should eat. As long as she could fit the foods she ate into this plan she could eat anything. Perfect! She entered her food every day and prided herself in hitting her macros consistently. But she would only allow herself to eat foods that were easy to track. She’d never go to a restaurant or out for drinks with friends because how do you track that? If she did it was a grilled chicken salad with dressing on the side. Soon this customized flexible plan caused nothing but stress and anxiety. And what’s worse, she’d get home from that dinner out after eating a salad and hide in her pantry as she ate everything that wasn’t nailed down. She’d then beat herself up over having no self control and self sabotaging.
But here’s the thing. Hitting the pantry had nothing to do with being weak. It was a result of feeling like she had to be 100% perfect and “on plan” every single minute of every single day. She had developed a terrible relationship with food and if she even went off course just a bit she’d spiral into a bingeing episode.
As much as fat loss is about physiology it’s about psychology as well. And psychology research shows that a good food/bad food mentality has a direct correlation to weight gain.
Now I’m not saying that a diet of solely pizza, ice cream, burgers and fries will get you to your fat loss goals. But I am telling you that avoiding these foods is giving them control over you. This control will cause damaging patterns that will ultimately work against you.
Yes, nutrient dense foods filled with the vitamins and minerals you need to thrive are the cornerstone of a healthy diet. That’s the physiological side. But enjoying 2 slices of pizza with a big salad on pizza night with your family, well that fulfills the psychological side. And guess what? You can even enjoy a reasonable serving of ice cream for dessert as well. Because in the big picture, those few extra calories on that one day a week will be what prevents you from ending up at the bottom of a quart of ice cream after the kids go to bed. And I promise it will make your fat loss journey so much more enjoyable and sustainable. And consistency and sustainability are the key to success!
What this type of plan looks like is highly individual. Feel free to reach out if you’d like me to walk you through what it might look like for you!