One of the most common goals of everyone we see is fat loss.
Strangely, one of the best ways to reach that goal is to set a different goal and forget about fat loss altogether.
I know this can sound counterintuitive, and stay with me.
The biggest hurdle with a fat loss goal is it’s not something we can directly control.
In the same way you can’t force your garden to grow, there is nothing you can do today to force your body to lose fat, despite conventional marketing telling you differently.
We can do the fitness equivalent of giving our garden water, sun and fertilizer – exercise, eating quality foods, and getting adequate rest – and then we have to have faith and consistency good things will happen.
This is one of the problems with fat loss challenges – people are rewarded or shamed based on something they can’t control, and it sets a drastically misleading representation of what fitness can be.
Here’s what you can do to “accidentally” reach your fat loss goal, and get significantly healthier, stronger, and feel better along the way.
FOCUS ON YOUR RESILIENCE TO STRESS.
This doesn’t get talked about a lot because it’s just not sexy marketing, and it’s also one of the biggest factors of overall health.
You see, when you are trying to lose fat, it’s a stressor to the body.
This is a good thing, as the body responds to stress to get stronger, heal broken bones, lose fat, and more. It’s how humans adapt.
But when you’re already stressed from work, inflation, family challenges, and house renovations, adding more stress can overload you.
The key is there is no specific amount of stress a human can handle. What matters is how you manage that stress.
So if you’ve got a lot going on in your life AND you want to lose some fat, focus on stress management – going for walks, meditation, engaging with activities that bring you joy, etc – it makes your stress bucket bigger and you more resilient.
Think of it this way, it’s easy to overflow a shot glass, and you can’t get results when it’s overflowing.
t’s hard to overflow a massive bucket.
You want your resilience to stress to be a bucket, and once it is fat loss and all other goals get easier.
FOCUS ON CELEBRATING WHAT YOUR BODY CAN DO.
This is getting a bit less tactical and it’s also one of the most important points of fitness.
Most fitness is focused on “losing this part”, “fixing this weakness” or “addressing this problem”.
They are all focused on a negative that you want to get rid of.
Instead, focus on the positive.
Make fitness a celebration of what your body can do.
What do you want to be able to do with your new found fitness abilities?
It can be as simple as putting away all the patio furniture this fall without help or pain.
Or it can be as big as hiking Machu Picchu like someone, our amazing, almost 60yr old, members did a few years ago.
The key is shifting the focus from dwelling on a negative to becoming excited about a positive.
Because in order to do that awesome, positive thing, you’ll have to do other good things, such as exercise consistently, build your core and mobility, and get proper nutrition.
Then the voice in your head changes.
Instead of “I’m not going to eat that because I want to be skinny”.
It becomes “I’m going to exercise today because I am capable”.
See the difference?
It’s empowering.
And you’ll get results faster because everything is now something you want to do, not something you “aren’t allowed” to do.
If you’re feeling stuck on your goals, or are tired of the fitness norms you see in crappy mainstreet marketing, focus on your resilience to stress and celebrating what your body can do.
All the other goals – fat loss, aches and pains, and better health – will get accomplished along the way.
