Do You Have What It Takes To Succeed At Weight Loss?
I want to credit my friend and client, Ned Parks, for inspiring this post.
It’s been an honor to work with Ned in efforts to help him reach his health goals. And he has apparently been spreading the word about his experience working with us. As a result, his wife and daughter are now training here and we’ve picked up business from friends of their family as well. To that, my sincerest and heartfelt “Thanks” goes to Ned for trusting me and my team with “his circle.”
Ned owns a business consulting firm and drawing from his base of experience coaching others to success, he wrote a small book that I recently had the pleasure of reading. It’s called “The Simple And Easy Manager.”
And there was a tactic used in the book that I wanted to highlight for each of you. I appreciate Ned letting me take some liberties in the reframing of his concepts to help you determine if you truly have what it takes to be successful (finally) at weight loss.
There were 5 points of consideration in the book that were used to help the fictitious team solve problems. I believe they warrant usage with your goals to help you understand how to win the weight loss game once and for all.
- Training
- Skill
- Ability
- Knowledge
- Support
When I think about how it is when I first meet a potential client, there is a lot of information I give in the initial consultation. I believe, and I have been told, that the information I give is thorough enough to help someone succeed.
However, it is only information until is it acted upon.
This, in it’s very basic form is the training. (Concept 1)
I help clients understand, in the simplest way I can, how calories and macronutrients (should they decide to analyze both) can help them reach their goals effectively. Not everyone needs to count calories and not everyone needs to examine their macros but this tends to be an enlightening conversation for those who constantly feel misled and confused with the saturation of information available at their fingertips. I offer no fluff, I offer no myths, I offer no magic. This is just “training” people how to eat respective of their goals.
Like a lot of things, learning, unlearning, and relearning how to eat is a skill (Concept 2). Many of my fellow coaches know this. Typically, you don’t just flip a switch and know how to eat for your goals. It takes training and then a development of the skill.
It’s a skill to learn how to meal prep (should you decide to use that skill.)
It’s a skill to use a food tracking app.
It’s a skill to make a pen-and-paper journal of what you eat.
It’s a skill to practice mindfulness in eating.
It’s a skill to learn appropriate portion sizes.
Not every skill needs to be utilized to be effective. Clients generally will find the one that provides the least resistance and stick with that skill set to accomplish each stage of their goal.
As Ned states it in his book: “Skill is what we acquire as a result of practicing.”
Once those skills are learned, a client then focuses on their ability to utilize the skill. For me, calorie tracking is the most beneficial thing I can use with respect to my physique goals. It has taken time to fine-tune that skill for myself and I do not use it every day, only when I have specific goals. When I first started calorie tracking many moons ago, I wasn’t very good at it at first. It took time. Now, it is my preferred method.
However, that is specific to me.
You may find that making a switch of meal prepping for a week as opposed to embarking on a corporate lunch is easier for you and still helps you reach your goals. You learn how to meal prep and you not only fine-tune that “skill” but your efficacy highlights your “ability” (Concept 3.) You get training, you sharpen the skill, then you show your ability to execute.
Ned says: “Ability is the mental and physical ability to do the task.”
At this point, you’ve been learning what tools you can use to succeed. You’ve selected a tool based on lifestyle and personal preference to help you succeed. And you’ve taken time to show your ability to perform those skills consistently.
What about knowledge? (Concept 4)
While there is a certain amount of knowledge you undoubtedly receive during your “training”, you are also learning more about yourself through your selected skills and your ability to perform them. Your knowledge, at this point, comes from understanding why your body is acting or reacting to a given set of changes.
For instance: If you understand that you have to consume 1300 calories a day to lose weight and you’ve been tracking your calories in a food app to make sure you hit that number, do you have the knowledge to overcome your first plateau on your weight loss journey? Do you understand how and why it might be beneficial to raise your activity OR drop your caloric goal? Are you learning how your body informs you that sleep and recovery are positively and/or negatively impacted?
As you are working through the first three concepts, you are gathering data that give a greater understanding of how your body reacts to change. This “knowledge” helps you and gives you feedback so you can correct things in real-time as they happen. If, despite your best intentions, your scale does not reflect the weight loss you were hoping for, have you gathered the right knowledge to understand “Why” that happened?
Lastly, there is support (Concept 5.) I take a lot of pride in this one. If you’re a client here, you know how the RevFit family supports one another. We are “all in.” Some prefer to stay more quiet and consume content. Others ask questions and try to rally the troops to come to their aid. If you’re not a member here, I’ll forgive you (for now.)
What I would ask you is to find your base of support. You need it. Weight loss is hard.
You need people on your team who understand the difficulties, who support you in moments of weakness and who allow the missteps when they occasionally happen. Support can be a spouse, a parent, a child, a co-worker, or some random person in a Facebook group who shares a similar struggle as you.
Most importantly, your support needs to know your weaknesses and how to come to your aid when you’re faced with them. The journey is never perfect you just have to keep walking the path.
Reading through Ned’s very simple-to-understand concepts as they applied in a business setting made a lot of sense to me in the weight loss setting. I’ll have more to write about this on a future date. I believe when you treat your body like you would treat a healthy, profitable, functional business, you win.
Thank you Ned: for your great results, your great friendship, your sense of humor, the trust you’ve placed in us to help your family and, of course, the inspiration from your book to write a post I hope will help as many people in my industry as you have within yours.
As of the writing of this post, Ned is down 20 pounds. Keep killing it, buddy.
“We Make Great People Greater.”