If you’ve been keeping up with my posts this week (and I hope you have been!), then you’re aware the topics of my blogs this week all have a focus around weight loss and weight loss coaching. Over the last couple days, I’ve shared why a weight loss coach might be right for you as well as what to look for when selecting a weight loss coach. Today, I want to talk a little bit about why weight loss coaching works (when you work with the right coach, of course)!

In last week’s blogs, I covered a variety of aspects around mindset and why it’s so important to shift your mindset to help you in losing weight. Actually, it’s the first thing you need to do to ensure you lose weight and keep it off. Well, a good weight loss coach is in alignment with this approach, as well, and can help you bring about the mindset you need to lose weight.

Often, coaching is seen as a form of positive psychology, where the coach helps the client focus on positive aspects of their life to shift their mindset and achieve their goals and the life they want. This is what a weight loss coach helps you do. But it’s not just about positive motivation; it’s also about providing tools to help you focus, have accountability, and have an action plan to move forward to reach your goals. By having these tools in place, it helps add to the motivation and mindset shift required to lose weight. In addition, a weight loss coach is a very positive resource to have on your team because a weight loss coach is there to support you to ensure you remain as positive as possible and maintain the right mindset to lose weight, even when it’s tough.

So bottom line is that positive reinforcement and focus helps us achieve anything we want in life, and weight loss is no exception. By ensuring positive reinforcement on a daily and weekly basis, a weight loss coach helps the client lose weight and keep it off, largely due to the fact that the positive reinforcement approach aids in the mindset shift required to be successful in losing weight.

Good luck! You deserve it!

If you took the time to read my blog yesterday, ‘Why a Weight Loss Coach Might Be Right for You’, I touched on some of the benefits of hiring a coach. So now that you know why a weight loss coach is the right choice for you, there are some important factors to keep in mind when selecting the right weight loss coach. There are several coaches to choose from, so it’s important you have the right fit for your needs, or you’ll be wasting your money, and no one needs that.

Some thoughts to keep in mind when selecting the right weight loss coach for you include the following.

Personal track records – Does the weight loss coach do as they say?

First, you want to make sure you’re working with a coach with a successful track record in helping others, in addition to achieving their own life and weight loss goals. If you’re working with a coach that doesn’t lead by example, it will be challenging for you to be motivated to lose weight because your coach hasn’t been successful. You may even find you use it as an excuse for you to not achieve your goals (the whole, ‘if she can’t do it, neither can I’ excuse).

Ask for Referrals

It’s important to do your homework to select the right weight loss coach for you! Ask others you know who have lost weight successfully who they’ve worked with. Also, you may want to check different health clubs to see who they recommend. You may choose to ask different weight loss coaches for references, as well.

Personality Fit

This is probably one of the most important aspects to keep in mind when looking for a weight loss coach. If you’re working with a coach that sees things and does things completely different than you, then you are setting yourself up for a challenging relationship, and weight loss can be challenging enough as it is. Be sure to interview your coach. What are his or her values? How do they like to communicate? What time of day works best for them? What type of energy do they exert? You want to work with someone who you’re comfortable with and respect to get the most out of your coaching relationship!

By keeping these items in mind, you’ll be on your way to choosing the right weight loss coach for you to ensure your success in creating the healthier and happier you! 

You’re in a position that you want to lose weight. You’ve gotten clear it’s definitely the best thing for you, regardless of the reason, and you’re ready to embark on the journey to a new and healthier you (not to mention happier!).

But, you find you start down the right path to lose weight, only to have a bad day, then week, and then month. You get frustrated and become hard on yourself. Your self-esteem takes a hit, and in addition, your family and friends don’t seem to be supporting you.

Does this sound like you?

If it does, then you may want to consider working with a weight loss coach. Actually, you should strongly consider it. I know this is one step I took that was a key factor in my success of losing weight. By hiring a weight loss coach to help you take off the weight and keep it off, you’re taking a very deliberate and helpful step in ensuring you accomplish all of your weight loss goals.

Some of the benefits of hiring a weight loss coach include:

Having someone who can motivate you when the going gets tough and reminds you you’re fabulous! A successful coach will get to know you and what works best for you to motivate you and help you keep focused on your goals when it gets challenging. And when it does get tough, you should be able to pick up the phone to contact your weight loss coach for moral support to remind you how incredible you are!

Having someone on your side to be honest and direct, yet supportive and understanding when it seems no one else gets you. A good coach will have your best interest at heart, help keep your spirits up, and will keep you motivated.

Having someone who can hold you accountable. The right coach will be sure to help you set achievable weight loss goals and will be sure to hold you accountable as you focus on losing weight. This is so important, as it’s easy to get off track as life takes its course, so a weight loss coach will be sure you eliminate excuses and stay focused on and continue to achieve your weight loss goals.

This is just a small sample of some of the benefits of hiring a weight loss coach. Weight loss coaches are a great resource to have on your team as you build the life of a healthier and happier you on your journey of losing weight. Good luck!

To recap, this week I’ve shared why mindset is important to help you lose weight naturally, the importance of identifying what’s holding you back and keeping you from losing weight, in addition to understanding why you want to lose weight. I have also provided some techniques to help you shift your mindset. The final topic for the subject of mindset and why it’s so important for weight loss is how to stay on the right path, which was definitely a topic I found helpful through my natural weight loss process.

First, we’re all human. We all have off days. So be gentle on yourself!! It’s OK. If you ‘slip’ and get off track throughout your weight loss process, just take a deep breath, let it out, and tell yourself you’re fabulous!

A great way to get back on track is to think about the positives (use your positive affirmations) and what you’re thankful for (refer to and write in your gratitude journal). Also, if you feel off-track, take a step back and reflect on what seems out of balance. Are your priorities off a bit, as discussed in ‘Trouble with Natural Weight Loss – Identifying What’s Holding You Back’? Or have you lost focus on why you want to lose weight, as discussed in ‘Natural Weight Loss – Understanding Why You Want to Lose Weight’? Regardless of why you slipped or you feel off, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is you realize it, and you have the tools to get back on track. No biggie.

Just remember, you are beautiful, you deserve the life you want, you are worthy, and you will lose weight to have the healthier and happier life you want! It doesn’t have to be challenging or difficult. When you begin to adjust your mindset through the tips and techniques I’ve shared throughout my blogs this week, you’ll see the results. I promise that if it worked for me, it really can work for you! And I’m excited for us all!

Here’s to natural weight loss and a new, healthier, happier you!

Though you do have what it takes to shift your mindset on your own, there are definitely some techniques to help you make the shift happen much faster, which means you’ll be on your way to natural weight loss and happier you more quickly! I encourage you to experiment and find what works best for you, but some techniques I found helpful are listed below.

Positive Affirmations. The power of the mind is tremendous. And as I mentioned in my previous blog, ‘Trouble with Natural Weight Loss – Identifying What’s Holding You Back’, you want to avoid negativity from both yourself and from others. One way to do this is through positive affirmations. Some examples of positive affirmations include:

• I am worthy of fulfilling all of my dreams.
• I am beautiful inside and out.
• I love who I am and am deserving of love.
• I deserve to be happy and to lose weight.
• My life is full of possibilities and beauty.
• Life is plentiful, and I am thankful for my life.

The list could go on and on. The goal is to find an affirmation (or affirmations) that feels good to you and focuses on the positive to help you lose weight. You then want to repeat them several times daily. A good way to remember to do this is to say them, at a minimum, every day when you wake up and go to bed. And say them with positive emotion! The more emotion behind them, the faster you’ll start to believe them and the faster you’ll shed the pounds as you lose weight. You may want to write them on a piece of paper and stick it on your fridge or in your car where you’ll see it often, or write it on your bathroom mirror with lipstick. Have fun with it!

Visualization. It’s been shown visualization is a great technique to get the results you want in your life, which for you means a great tool for weight loss. Athletes often use it before a major competition or game. Take a few minutes each day and sit and truly picture yourself living the life you want, which includes losing weight naturally for a happier and healthier you. Picture the physique you want and how you feel when you have it. Don’t be afraid to be detailed with your visualization. The clearer you are on what you want, the better!

Gratitude Journal. Even when we’re having a rough day, we can shift our mindset to a more positive frequency by focusing on what we have in our lives that we are thankful for. A gratitude journal is a great way to do this, and the more you write in it, the better you’ll feel. Maybe you’re thankful for having air to breathe, or your family, or the food that nourishes your body. Whatever you’re thankful for, write it down.

By using these techniques, you’ll be on your way to shifting your mindset in no time, which means the new, healthy and happy you is right around the corner (though she’s already looking back at you in the mirror today!). You are fabulous! Don’t forget it!