When all is said and done

Found a new favorite spot by the sea.

Sunday Scales: -5.6 lbs | total loss: 39.4 lbs

I am back! Since my last post I’ve been deep in last-supper mode, until last Sunday. That’s when I finally decided that enough is enough. I want to get back on track with my health journey and lose the last 60 lbs.

It’s been 10 months since I allowed refined sugar back in and started experimenting with my program until I eventually abandonded it. I want to say I was lost but actually, I wasn’t. I knew what I was doing. I tried different approaches, including Corinne Crabtree’s No BS Weighloss program. I learned a LOT from that but ultimately her method wasn’t right for me and her community and everything they do was just a little too overwhelming. I am learning over and over again that our world is mostly run by and for extroverts, there is so much noise everywhere. As an HSP and empath it can be hard to find the balance that we need to stay sane. Nonetheless, I am glad for this little detour into Corinne’s world because in many ways it was the missing piece that helped me return to my own path.

When all was said and done these are the five things I learned this year:

1. It has to be doable

Whatever method or plan we chose to lose weight and get healthier, it has to be doable for the next 24 hour and doable for the rest of our lives. I learned that for me, doable means two things:

1. It’s in alignment with my personality, lifestyle and environment.

2. It’s enjoyable, easy and sustainable.

2. It’s not about the weight

Obesity is ultimately not about the weight at all. For many women it’s about trauma and using comfort eating as a coping mechanism, for others it’s learned behaviors from growing up in a diet culture that only cares about profits and wants to keep us on the diet roller coaster. For many it’s a combination of it all. The good news is: We have a lot more power than we think! We can create new healthier habits and the weight loss happens as a side effect of those, there is magic in that! It takes time, effort and the willingness to go deep, and it will change your life.

3. There is no one-fit all solution but there is a common ground

We already know this, right? Yet even someone like Corinne, who does so much good for evolving us beyond diet culture, has a very specific approach when it comes to planning meals and eating food. And guess what? It works for many women in her group but not for all. Yet the mechanics of weight loss are the same for almost everyone (as with everything there are exceptions): we need to eat less and move more, i.e. create a calorie deficit. So we just have to find a food and movement approach that works for us.

4. Journaling is a game changer

This is hands-down the biggest take away from this year: journaling helps me stay focused, present and also unravel some of that emotional tangle that I feel when I want to comfort eat. For the last couple of weeks, when I feel a craving coming on I reach for my journal instead of food. This is big, friends! I mean, really big! I have never done this before. Sure, I’ve journaled in the mornings, or filled in my planner, but I’ve never intentionally replaced eating with writing. I will write a lot more about this in the weeks to come (and share the planner and journal that I designed!) but this is also why I changed the name of this blog, yes, again! ;-) With all the name iterations I’ve gone through this one feels like I am finally on the right track. And the URL was still available and so was the Instagram handle – I took that as a sign!

5. It is never too late to figure this out

When I started beating myself up over being a failure my friend Shauna said: “You’re not failing, you’re still figuring this out.” That was a lifesaver because it meant that I wasn’t a lost cause and that I could still do this, I was just figuring out my best way.

And so I did.

The best way for me is: the program that’s always worked for me, calorie counting, but this time with the addition of journaling and an intentional focus on eating a healthy, balanced diet. The plan was never the problem, my head was. That’s another thing I learned from Corinne, it’s our thinking that mostly drives our actions and we can change our thinking.

One of the things my plan has always done – once I stopped resisting it and started embracing it as the tool it is – was give me a sense of peace, calm and stability. Given the current state of the world those are attributes I welcome and crave. My plan has also evolved and I will share more about that in my next post.

As always I thank you for coming along on this journey, I love getting your feedback and if you have any questions about any of this, feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Have a great week!

Kerstin xo