I love taking road trips. Especially when the journey includes my favorite destination, Steamboat Springs Co. Being that the drive is about 18 hrs I get to experience 1,100 miles each way of “Drive Time University” thanks to podcasts and XM radio. Yesterday on the last leg of the drive home, from my 2 glorious week retreat in the mountains, I was lucky enough to listen in on the show “Oprah’s Soul Series” with host Elizabeth Lesser. Elizabeth’s guest was Author Geneen Roth. The topic they discussed was so captivating and inspiring that light bulbs were going off in my head like crazy! I often discuss with my clients that I wish that I could come up with the magic ingredient to permanent fat loss. The truth is that pretty much any diet and exercise plan will work for a while, but in order to get long lasting results that stick, lifestyle modifications need to be realistic and sustainable. But besides that, there’s still yet another very important piece of the puzzle that most programs are missing. Can you guess what it is? I don’t have it yet myself and I’d be willing to bet that you might be longing for it too. Any guesses ????
Well, as of yesterday after I finished listening to that show, I’ve been really working on my own stuff regarding the KEY to what I believe is the common thread that those who experience long lasting weight loss success possess. Which is, drum roll please….. A healthy relationship with food and exercise. Think about it, even those who have never experienced a weight issue have it. They don’t feel guilty about food. They more than likely are conscious and present when they eat. They eat to sustain life and provide their bodies with essential nutrients and energy. They don’t use food to fill voids in their life. They don’t use food as a crutch, comfort or stress relief. They eat until they’re satiated and they don’t feel bad about eating and then go and punish themselves mentally or physically by exercising like a maniac. Do any these behaviors sound familiar you? They hit home for me and really gave me a quick kick in the pants to finally get to the root cause of some of my issues and change some of my self-destructive habits. Listening to that show really made me want to read her book too, “Women, Food and God”, which goes into specific steps on how to re-program these unhealthy behaviors. I’ll leave you with a pretty cool quote from the book, let me know what you think in the comment section below. “The way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. No matter how sophisticated or wise or enlightened you believe you are, how you eat tells all.”