Archive for the 'Weight Loss and Maintenance' Category

Night Eating

Night time eating can be a challenging time of the day.  For some, we save up our calories throughout the day and indulge at night.  In other words, we bank up our calories throughout the day and then “go for it” at night.

The banking of your calories to allow for night eating does a couple of unhealthy things.  First, it doesn’t allow for maximum energy throughout the day.  Your blood sugar will be low, you’ll get tired, and looking for a boost of energy you will tend to make unhealthy choices and even binge.  It is a set-up for a binge.  Also eating a large number of calories within a few hours is hard on your body.  It is healthier to spread out calories throughout the day rather than in a few short hours.  Plus, eating at night doesn’t allow your body to burn as efficiently as if they are eaten earlier in the day.

One way to keep late-night snacking under control is to choose light, healthy snacks such as lean protein, vegetables or fruit. But sometimes you need even trickier strategies. Here are a few some suggestions:

- Brush and floss your teeth right after dinner. You’ll be less likely to eat after you’ve gone through this ritual.

- Distract yourself. Telephone a friend or find a hobby (not television) that absorbs your attention. You’ll be so busy you won’t want a snack. Important: Make sure your activity is far from the kitchen, if possible.

-You could even have a family rule that after a certain time, the kitchen is closed.  Closed for snacks, bedtime snacks, anything food-oriented, the food is closed.  Just as a restaurant closes after a certain time, your kitchen has its own hours and when it is closed, it is closed.  No food is served or consumed - again, the kitchen is closed!

- Tell yourself you can have a snack…but not right now. By waiting for 10 or 15 minutes, you’ll give the craving a chance to pass.

- Watch the sunset or gaze at the stars.

-Enjoy a good night of deep sleep.  Sip chamomile tea or other herbal teas.  You’ll sleep better without a full, overflowing stomach that is probably gassy.

- If all else fails and it is close enough to bedtime, go to bed.  Tomorrow morning, you’ll be grateful that you didn’t give in to those night cravings.

Night eating is commonly difficult.  Among my clients, it is probably the most difficult time.  It is the time to relax, reward yourself for surviving the day, and letting down from the day.  Enjoy your evenings by being with family, friends and participating in activities or hobby that bring you pleasure and joy.  Experience your evenings with people and quality time, not food.

End your day with meaningful rituals such as family time, bubble bath, reading a good book, prayer or meditation.  Create a special ritual to reward you for your day and healthy habits you lived by.  Yeah YOU!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Back On Track Facilitator

Hobby, Half-Time or Full-Time?

Is losing weight a hobby, part-time or a full-time commitment to you?  Is losing weight for you a wish without any action?

Yes, I’m questioning your commitment just as I question my own.  I question and check in with myself daily as to the level of my commitment to losing weight, maintaining my weight, and the choices I need to make.  Sometimes we talk the talk but we treat it as though we wished we could lose weight.  A wish is when you throw a penny into a fountain, shut your eyes and make a wish.  Talking and wishing are fun but they generally don’t produce results.  Action is what will produce results that you want.

Are your weight loss efforts a hobby?  Hobbies are fun and nice but we usually put them away until we have the time and motivation to do them.  We think about them, wish we had more time to devote to our hobby, and it is nice to know that hobby is there for us.  I love to scrapbook.  I love photography so it makes sense that I would love to scrapbook.  It is one of my favorite hobbies.  However, I don’t have a lot of time to spend scrapbooking.  Other friends that I have scrapbook many days each week.  I have boxes of photos, even more boxes of scrapbooking supplies, and great interest and intentions to make meaningful scrapbooks for my family and their families.  However, right now, not much action going on there so they sit in boxes.

Are your weight loss efforts the same as my scrapbooking?  You know you want to do it, you need to do it, and it is out there in your thoughts.  You’ll get to your weight loss efforts when you have the time and motivation to do it.  Are your weight loss goals in boxes the same way as my scrapbooking boxes?!  Meanwhile, a hobby remains a hobby that doesn’t demand your attention, focus or action.

Have you stepped up your weight loss efforts to a half-time role?  When convenient, you most of the time make choices to lose weight.  If you wake up in a bad mood, or the day unfolds not going your way, do you stay on track?  Do you eat to take the edge off your bad mood and lessen the emotion from having a difficult day?  Another scenario is that you are making healthy choices, losing weight, and exercising regularly and something comes up.  A friend invites you to buffet lunch or you’re at a meeting and everyone is eating donuts so you indulge as well.  You have plans to exercise and a better offer is made by a friend asking you to go for coffee after work.  You blow off the exercise and hang out with your friend as this is a habit that you’ve been doing when the opportunity arises.

If any of the above sound familiar, then you might be a half-time or part-timer in your weight loss goals.  When it works out, you’ll following your dietary and exercise routine.  However, if something else comes along (similar to a slight breeze in the air), you’ll indulge and blow off your efforts to lose weight.  Are you half committed or part committed?  If so, you’re going to achieve the same level of results.  What you put out is what you get back.

Of course, the ultimate success is when you are committed full-time to your weight loss goals and rarely get derailed.  Sure, you aren’t perfect but more times than not, you don’t veer off your course from being on track.  You operate on the mindset that there are no outer circumstances that can pull you off course to reach your goals.  You remain true to yourself and your commitment to lose weight and become healthy.

If you are frustrated or disappointed with your progress in losing weight, ask yourself if you are approaching it at the level of a hobby, half time or part time when it works out and is convenient, or are you full on committed full-time, more times than not dedicated to making your weight loss goals a reality?  Check your level of commitment regularly even daily.  Being aware of your approach in losing weight is important.  You can’t live your weight loss dreams as a hobby and expect to reach your goal weight.  If you want weight loss success, become a full-time participant in your goals.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

The 3 Words to Lasting Weight Loss

The three most important words when it comes to weight loss are:  Consistency, Persistence, and Cumulative.

Consistency counts.  What you do consistently determine your results.  It you eat healthfully one day, then not so much the next day, have a day full of poor healthy choices and are not consistent, then you won’t lose weight consistently.  To lose weight consistently, you must make healthy choices consistently.  Not perfection but consistently.

Persistence is important.  When times get tough in squelching that screaming voice of head hunger, you (to quote Nike) Just Say No!  Persistence is evidenced when you stay the course, honor your commitment to yourself and health to make healthy choices despite your desire to dive into a piece of chocolate cake.  You are what you do not only when it is most convenient but especially when it is NOT convenient.  Stay true to your promise to yourself by being persistent in your healthy habits.

Cumulative is mandatory because it means the combined effect over the course of time.  Just as you will not put on 5 pounds by eating a hamburger for one meal, you likewise won’t lose five pounds by eating celery for dinner either.  You won’t become instantly healthy or lose weight by eating healthfully for a week.  You also won’t reap the benefits of vitamins and mineral supplements by taking them for a week.  Again, you will not destroy your body’s balance of vitamins and minerals by straying from your nutrition program occasionally.

See where I’m going?  If you want to reap the health and weight loss benefits of a proper nutrition and exercise program, you cannot practice proper nutrition and exercise “once in awhile”. You must consistently be persistent for the cumulative effect of sticking to your program of health over the long term.  You are what you do repeatedly.

Some people think that weight loss surgery is the easy way out or cheating.  Those of us that have had surgery know that is definitely not true.  After we’ve had our surgery, the real work begins.  It requires consistency, persistency and cumulative of healthy habits to create weight loss that is maintained.  If we do not create healthy habits and ditch the heavy habits that caused us to need surgery in the first place, we find ourselves back to doing the work of losing regained weight.  If you are consistent in healthy habits, persistent in using the healthy habits, the cumulative effect is permanent weight loss.

At this time you can make a choice.  The real truth is that weight loss and physical fitness require time, effort, and dedication, also known as consistency, persistency and cumulative.

Remember that anything worth having is worth working for!  You are what you do each and every day and every day after that and after that…..

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

Exercise With Mindset of Fun

The New York Times published an article recently about the science behind exercise music.  The music that a casual stroll walking at 3 mph should listen to music between 115 and 118 beats per minute.  A power walker at 4.5 mph should listen to music between 137 and 139 beats per minute.  Interestingly, if you’re a rock fan, most rock songs don’t keep up with the tempo consistently for workout purposes.  Dance music is what is optimum.  A survey recently done by exercise walkers indicated their favorite song is the theme song to the movie Rocky!

How much do you walk per day?  How much activity do you get in compared to your television watching time?  Assess how far you walk in a day.  Also, on the same day, record how long you sit in a day.

Some of us can’t help how little we walk! The workplace has become so modernized that we rarely need to leave the hub that it our desk. Between the phone, e-mail, and inter-office mail deliveries, there’s not much walking going on in a typical day.  Want to know more exactly about your activity?  You can purchase a pedometer.  They are fun.  The optimum level of activity is 10,000 steps per day.  Keep track of your steps and compete with yourself to increase your steps each day or week.

Find ways to walk more by using simple tricks like parking further away or try to use the stairs all day at work (if you work on the 15th floor perhaps you could get off the elevator 2-3 floors early and walk up). Take breaks and walk around your office, walk over to a co-worker instead of sending an e-mail. Even if you take fifteen minuets of your lunch break to walk around the block you will be increasing your daily activity.  Every little bit helps.

A sedentary lifestyle is characterized by a lot of sitting or remaining inactive for most of the day (for example, in an office), with little or no exercise. It is believed to be a factor in obesity, and, as such, may contribute to other diseases, such as type II diabetes, heart disease, depression and even hemorrhoids. Lack of exercise causes muscle atrophy, i.e. shrinking and weakening of the muscles, which in turn increases susceptibility to physical injury.

People whine they don’t have time. But little things can add up. If you take a bus or train, get off early and walk a little, if the weather is nice. While watching TV, work out a little - or at least stretch. Do something in your a yard. Dance in your house! Maybe while doing the dusting, dance and move to some music while cleaning. Walk around the house while talking on the phone. Almost everyone has a cordless phone these days. Do you sit or multi-task while on the phone??

There are lots of little things you can do when you think about it. Over a period of time they will get you into the habit of choosing an active alternative to the every day things you do. And it can add up!
Staying at home watching your favorite TV show can be real disaster for your appearance - it is widely known. According to some studies one hour spent in front of TV will give you extra 200 calories, that could be burned. For an year this means about 10-12 extra pounds! This is a lot of extra weight!

For me, I have a small television in front of my treadmill.  As I walk on my treadmill, I turn the television on to closed captioning so I can read what is being said.  I also wear an iPod so I have double distractions!  Also, get up (no remote) and turn off the television.  Take a walk with your family for quality time.  Do an activity together as a family.

Exercise is a mindset.  Make it a way of life where you miss it if you don’t do it.  Activity equals weight loss and maintenance.  Exercise and activity are a way of life - a healthy, fit, and ideal weight life.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

Cheap Junk Food or Higher Priced Healthy Food=What’s the Cost?

The economy is difficult right now.  Times are tough.  Housing, gas and food are at an all-time high.  I have a client that gets her meals through a fast food drive thru taking advantage of their dollar menu.  She believes that it is cost-effective and a wise financial choice, however, is it a wise healthy choice?

When buying groceries, how much you spend depends on where you push the shopping cart.  Do you shop the perimeter of the supermarket?  The essentials of a healthy department are located outside of the processed foods up and down the center aisles.

With 75 cents in the produce aisle, you can purchase one serving of fruit such as an apple, a cup of strawberries or a cup of grapes. But that same 75 cents spent in the snack aisle will buy you three times as many servings: three granola bars, 12 Oreos or 25 potato chips.  And if you want to get the most calories for your money, stay near the junk food. Compared to the 400 calories provided by a candy bar, a dollar’s worth of a tomato will go as far as 18 calories.  Look at what 75 cents will get you as far as calories.  You get much more as far as calories.  However, what nutrition are you buying for that 75 cents in the snackaisle.

Because fruits and vegetables are generally more costly than snack foods, many people are having to choose whether to stretch their money on cheaper food and save money or eating healthfully. For those on a tight grocery budget, steering clear of higher-priced produce seems to makes sense.   It is hard to lose weight when junk food is so cheap.

But is spending grocery money on snack food cost-effective?  What is cheap?  Junk food buys ore calories but the are empty, void of nutrition calories.  You are paying for sugar, fat, and zero quality nutrition.

There are ways to eat healthy and feed your body without emptying your wallet.

* Stores have ads every week to get you in their store.  Use them!
* Buy fruits and vegetables that are in-season, more plentiful thus less in cost.
* Shop at Farmer’s Markets as they are usually more inexpensive than the grocery stores.
* While the convenience of bagged and pre-cut produce is nice, it is more expensive.  Do your own preparation and buy whole fruits and vegetables.
* Canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are less expensive than fresh.  If you don’t overcook, they will retain their nutritional benefits and last longer.
* Frozen produce offers more nutrition because it is picked and frozen almost immediately, rather than picked and transported.
* Buy meat in bulk and freeze what you don’t need right away.
* Purchase cheese in blocks and shred it yourself rather than buy pre-shredded bags.

The economy is at a tough time right now.  Lots of financial insecurity and jobs unsure of.  Don’t let your health or weight loss suffer or be compromised.  A place that people can try to make up costs is in food.  Maybe it is a good deal price-wise but it is a good deal health-wise?  A wise food choice is more than calories per buck.  Look at the nutrition you get and that is the best choice of all.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator


FEAR-Yes; FEAR-Less

What do you fear?  How real are those fears?  The most common fears are the fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, the fear of change and, surprisingly, the fear of success.

As real as these fears may seem, most of them are only imaginary and beliefs that you’ve created for yourself.   I like to refer to these scenarios as our stories. We have an amazing ability to make up stories and assumptions, and then to believe them as our reality and fabricate some F.E.A.R.: False Events Appearing Real.

Your mind, as wonderful as it is, has great difficulty in discerning between what’s real and what’s made up or imagined as a story. Your mind tends to perceive all your stories and imaginings as being real.  As children, we picked up adults and even other childrens’ beliefs, opinions, agendas for us and made them our experience and reality.  We carry those into our adulthood as our reality, who and what we are.  We don’t re-evaluate them and see if they truly fit us as we are today and even back then.

The primary functions of your mind are protection and survival.  Because of this, if your mind perceives a threat, it activates the fight or flight mechanism which prepares your body to go into battle or to flee. When you then feel the rush of the adrenaline flow through your body (triggered by the activation of this fight or flight mechanism), this just validates your perceived “story”: There must indeed be some threat. Often you end up pumped up and keyed up for no true reason because the threat was not real after all. This reaction—adrenaline and the fight or flight mechanism—also takes a huge toll on your body and your health. Prolonged exposure to excessive ongoing adrenaline releases will eventually tear down your immune system.

Whether or not you are aware of it, you will tend to believe your stories to be true. It then becomes easy to build one false story upon another. From there, you risk constructing an entire fear-based belief system and way of life—a life that’s very limiting and restrictive and founded on a couple of made-up rear-based stories.

But there is hope and another choice…F.E.A.R.: Face Everything And Rejoice.   This FEAR is important in combating and overcoming emotional overeating.

When you face your fears and confront them rather than letting your emotions and assumptions run wild in your mind, you’ll find much of what you used to fear was not nearly as threatening as you once believed it was. You can begin to dispel the stories and assumptions, and you’ll get freedom from all this old fear. The primary difference of Face Everything and Rejoice will change you from the inside out and allow you to feel less like a victim and more in control of your life and eating.  It is the realization that your old limiting beliefs are not based in your true reality and not who you are.

Moving from the destructive, limiting, mindless and highly reactive F.E.A.R. to the hopeful, mindful and more responsive F.E.A.R, and separating false fear from fact, is as simple as asking yourself two simple questions:

“Is it true?” and “Where’s the proof?”

When you begin to really look at, examine, and evaluate situations clearly, you’ll often find your initial reaction may have been more intense, emotionally-based and irrational (a story) than actual reality.  The key is to finding the pause and evaluating from a calm stance within yourself so you don’t turn to food.

Three other great questions to ask yourself when you start to feel fear are, “And then what?”, “What is the worst that could happen?” and “Can I handle that?” Ask and answer these questions and you’ll allow yourself to see things more clearly, which allows you to create a more grounded response that doesn’t include food. This response will allow you to make a choice which is always more empowering, rather than from some old, out-dated unconscious conditioning. The effect of this process is less head hunger and emotional eating.

When you respond this way, you’ll discover you can, and will, act in a much more adaptable manner. In other words, you’ll handle these situations by overriding the fight or flight mode, and create the intention for yourself that everything will be okay.

There is one affirming phrase I’d like to recommend to you above all the others:

I can handle this!  There’s nothing I can’t handle.

When you’re able to say this to yourself as a self-intervention (even if you don’t fully believe it), your mind starts to accept it. Remember, your mind may perceive some things as real whether or not they are. So, just as your mind accepts the negative, false fear-based stories it makes up as “real”, it will also tend to believe, even before you actually feel it to be true, the self-reassurance and confidence you instill merely because you think it and say it to yourself.

You might as well use this dynamic to your benefit and to your advantage. Once you’ve begun to formulate a different and more positive response, you may finally fully realize there is no threat at all.

You have a choice: The old F.E.A.R. or the new F.E.A.R. I know which one you desire and deserve, and I support you in creating a life of freedom through positive empowering responsiveness and self-intervention.

It is time you choose to rejoice!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

5 Ways to NOT Lose Weight

We are on a quest to lose weight.  Like you, I’ve tried countless healthy and unhealthy (also known as crazy) diets.  Some sure ways not to lose weight are:

Way #1:  Choose a fad diet.
There is a Magic Bullet but it is a speedy, small blender; not a fad diet.  There is no magic bullet found in a healthy diet. If you put in the time and effort your reward is weight loss and maintenance.

Way #2:  Don’t exercise.
According to the National Weight Control Registry, the exercise of choice is walking.  Be active!  Before you eat something that is not a healthy choice, thing….”what will it take to burn it off and is it worth it?”  You’ll either wear it or walk it off.

Way #3:  Diet alone.  You don’t need support.
Studies show you can lose twice as much when you have a support person to share your experience, share motivation and challenges.  Remember, there is strength in numbers….and in losing weight and obtaining support, the more the merrier.

Way #4:  Pile on the extras.
Start with a healthy salad but when piled like a skyscraper with cheese, avocado, thick salad dressing, the salad becomes a foundation to support the high caloric food choices.   Have a salad and use dressing and condiments as a compliment for extra flavor rather than piling on the condiments and slather on the dressing and throw in a little bit of salad….NOT.

Way #5:  Deprive yourself.
Incorporate some foods you enjoy.  Follow the guideline of 90% of the time you make healthy food choices/10% fun foods for you.  Alternatively, six days of the week, make healthy food choices and one day a week enjoy more of relaxed food choices.  Think long term and not just the immediate as far as weight loss.  We didn’t gain it overnight and it will take time well invested in losing it too.  If you feel restricted, the opposite of that is a binge.  Either extreme is not healthy nor promote weight loss.  Yo-yo dieting is caused due to extreme restriction followed up with a binge (or two or three…).

Rather than have tunnel vision and try to lose excess weight rapidly and deprive yourself, expand your vision and look at this as a lifestyle change.  Remember, one choice, one meal or even one day does not make or break a diet.  However, long term, the success is in the choices you make.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator

One Choice At A Time

Do the stresses and problems that come up sometimes get to you?  I know they do for me sometimes.  As much as we would like to have problem-free lives, everyone experiences crises that test their coping skills. Many people turn to food in times of stress because it can provide a temporary distraction, replenish energy and induce a feeling of calm.  Unfortunately, eating in response to crisis usually results in weight gain, which creates its own cycle of depression and anxiety.  I know I’m not telling any of you anything you don’t already know.  :)

Because stress is often a common precursor to overeating it’s important to become a good healthy crisis manager.  Instead of having the label of  “I’m a STRESS EATER or I’m an EMOTIONAL OVEREATER”  How powerful would it be to create the label, “I’m a stress exerciser”  or “I”m an Emotional OverExerciser”  Yeah,  I know it’s a stretch, but I can tell you I’m slowly becoming a crisis EXERCISER.  Having to deal with my previous challenges these past couple of years I made a decision to keep an “emergency” pair of tennis shoes in my trunk and I’ve CHOSEN to use those emergency pair of tennis shoes on many occasion due to extreme stress and crisis.

So, where I used to pull into the nearest drive-through for some comfort foods, walk through the local convenience store for a smorgasbord of snacky, junk foods, now the lacing up of my shoes is slowly becoming a better comfort than ANY food ever could.

Success from weight loss surgery obviously happens as a result of our tool of the surgery.  However the real success happens in our choices - one choice at a time.  We choose to use our tool of the surgery.  Choose it as your partner in losing weight, maintaining your weight, and finding all the wonder of living your best life in fulfilling your goals and dreams.

Progress and CHANGE can happen.  One choice at a time!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Back On Track Facilitator

Have It YOUR Way

When making healthier choices in high-protein foods (such as meat, fish, poultry and eggs), going with lower-fat varieties is half the equation. The other half: how you choose to prepare those foods. Some cooking methods can essentially cancel out the benefits you gained in choosing lower-fat products. Examples are:

Deep-frying chicken
Sautéing meat in a cream sauce
Having some salad with your salad dressing (more dressing than salad!)
Frying an egg in butter.

Healthier methods, on the other hand, include dry-grilling and baking.

Examples: Broiling fish without butter, grilling eggs or meat without any added oil.

This is also why it’s important to know precisely how your restaurant meals are being prepared. Ask the food server how the meal is usually prepared. If you feel the cooking method or ingredients are high in fat or calories, specifically ask for the meal to be prepared in another, healthier way.

To lose weight, you need to take charge of your food choices.  Many times when we go out to eat, our goals to lose weight can be put on the back burner to indulge in food choices offered by restaurants.  While you don’t want to feel deprived, you also don’t want to give in to the temporary indulgences of a restaurant.  For me, it is a challenge to avoid the restaurant mentality of getting back on track “tomorrow.”

Some of the strategies I’ve learned that work for me are reviewing the menu of a restaurant on line and deciding what I will eat in advance.  I then skip the menu and getting caught up in all of the usually unhealthy food choices and huge portions.  Also, by avoiding the menu and deciding what you will order in advance, you aren’t tempted by the photos of the food on the menu.

I also keep the bread they put on the table before you meal away from me.  Even better, I’ll ask the server to skip the bread basket entirely.

I also request a to go container at the same time that I order.  Before I take a bite, I will divide the restaurant huge multiple sized portions.  I will keep on my plate an appropriate portion and put the rest in the container.  By doing this, you avoid to continue eating past a normal portion.  Also, you get more meals at home and enjoy what you ate at the restaurant again.

I’ll also remember that whatever choices I make at the restaurant will stay with me after I walk out the door.  If I succumb to the temptations of eating out, that will show up on the scale and possibly serve as a trigger to continue poor food choices for a few days, weeks, etc.

Eating out is fun.  No cooking, preparation or clean up done on your part.  It can also be a trap for choices that you wouldn’t make otherwise at home.  Redefine what it means for you to eat out as fun.  Rather than food as fun, define fun by enjoying the company of those that are at your table.  Change your focus on food to family, friends, business associates.  Truly, the real purpose of going out to eat is to enjoy the ambiance of the restaurant with those people that you choose to join you.

Remember, you are paying for it so you can choose to have it done YOUR way.  Remember that you are in charge and responsible for your food choices that you make at the restaurant.  You’ll either leave the restaurant feeling awesome about the healthy food choices you made and enjoying the experience without leaving your weight loss commitment in the parking lot.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Back On Track Facilitator

Self-Esteem and Body Image

I’m fat. I’m too skinny. I’d be happy if I were taller, shorter, had curly hair, straight hair, a smaller nose, bigger muscles, longer legs.

Do any of these statements sound familiar? Are you used to putting yourself down? If so, you’re not alone. As a weight loss surgery patient, you’re going through a ton of changes in your body. And as your body changes, so does your image of yourself. Lots of people have trouble adjusting, and this can affect their self-esteem.

Why Are Self-Esteem and Body Image Important?

Self-esteem is all about how much people value themselves, the pride they feel in themselves, and how worthwhile they feel. Self-esteem is the opinion and reputation you have of yourself. Self-esteem is important because feeling good about yourself can affect how you act. A person who has high self-esteem will make healthy choices in their food, fitness, and life in general, is more in control of his or her behavior, and will enjoy life more.

Body image is how a person feels about his or her own physical appearance. For many people, body image can be closely linked to self-esteem.

What Influences a Person’s Self-Esteem?

Transition from Overweight/Morbidly Obese to Losing Weight

Some of us struggle with self-esteem because after losing weight, the body goes through many changes. These changes, combined with a natural desire to feel accepted, mean it can be tempting for us to compare ourselves to others. We may compare ourselves to the people around us or to actors and celebs we see on TV, in movies, or in magazines. But it’s impossible to compare ourselves to others because the changes that come with losing weight are different for everyone.

Outside Influences

Family life can sometimes influence a person’s self-esteem. Some parents spend more time criticizing their children and the way they look than praising them. We carry this forward into our adulthood. This criticism may reduce a person’s ability to develop good self-esteem.

People may also experience negative comments about the way they look from others. Sometimes, by losing weight, it can threaten others’ image and role in the relationship with us.

Healthy Self-Esteem

If you have a positive body image, you probably like and accept yourself the way you are. This healthy attitude allows you to explore other aspects of your life, achieving your goals and reaching your dreams. Challenge yourself physically and mentally because developing these parts of yourself can help boost your self-esteem.

A positive, optimistic attitude can help people develop strong self-esteem. For example, saying, “Hey, I’m human,” instead of “Wow, I’m such a loser,” when you’ve made a mistake. Or not blaming others when things don’t go as expected.

Knowing what makes you happy and how to meet your goals can help you feel capable, strong, and in control of your life. A positive attitude and a healthy lifestyle (such as exercising and eating right) are a great combination for building good self-esteem.

Tips for Improving Your Body Image

Some people think they need to change how they look or act to feel good about themselves. But actually all you need to do is change the way you see your body and how you think about yourself.

The first thing to do is recognize that your body is your own, no matter what shape, size, or color it comes in. But it is no one’s business but your own what your body is like — ultimately, you have to be happy with yourself.

Next, identify which aspects of your appearance you can realistically change and which you can’t. Everyone (even the most perfect-seeming celebrities) have things about themselves that they can’t change and need to accept — like their height, for example, or their shoe size.

If there are things about yourself that you want to change and can (such as how fit you are), do this by making goals for yourself. For example, if you want to get fit, make a plan to exercise every day and eat nutritious foods. Then keep track of your progress until you reach your goal. Meeting a challenge you set for yourself is a fantastic way to boost self-esteem!

When you hear negative comments coming from within yourself, tell yourself to stop. Try building your self-esteem by giving yourself three compliments every day. While you’re at it, every evening list three things in your day that you feel good about and gave you pleasure. It can be anything from the way the sun felt on your face, the sound of your favorite band, or the way someone laughed at your jokes. By focusing on the good things you do and the positive aspects of your life, you can change how you feel about yourself.

As you fill your life with healthy self-esteem, your body image will adjust too. When your life is filled with positive things that you enjoy, bring you joy and are passionate about, you no longer will need to turn to emotional eating to fill that void in your life.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Back on Track Facilitator