Ep #84: Quick Fixes – Why They Don’t Work for Long-Term Weight Loss

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women with Shannan Christiansen episode number 84. Welcome to Weight Loss for Successful Women, a podcast for women who are ready to break the diet cycle and end their struggle with weight for good. Here’s your host, fortune 100 executive, and certified life coach, Shannan Christiansen.

Hello love. So happy to be back with you. I of course am delighted and excited about today’s show. On today’s show I’m going to dive into quick fixes and why they don’t work in your weight loss journey. But first, as always, I want to give a listener shout out. This is where I’ll read a review of the podcast every week. And this week’s listener shout out is to Sharon Spohn. She left the review on iTunes. Shannan, I love the cheat codes to weight loss. I never thought planning meals would be a component to my success. Joining Transform and learning the tools and brain hacks has made all the difference in my transformation. Writing my realistic plan every day has taken the drama out of what I’m going to eat, which leads me to losing weight for good. I’m in a body I love and living my best life. Thank you to Shannan and all the beautiful ladies of the Transform community.

Oh Sharon. I mean Sharon is kind of a rock star. She’s lost 121 pounds, and you know, she’s been in maintenance now, I don’t know, I mean, she’s been in maintenance since September, October of 2020. Amazing. I mean, that’s the power of this work my Love, the power of this work. If you love the show, I would so appreciate a rating and review. You can leave it wherever you listen to podcasts.

Love, I am getting so excited. Paul and I are going to Sedona for a few days very soon. And we’re going with no phones, no internet. We have a cabin and we are going to rest, relax, read books. I have a whole stack that I’m bringing with. I cannot wait to disconnect, to hike and just spend some time in nature. And I was thinking about this because I love this time before we leave, thinking about it, planning for it, the anticipation of it, thinking of the drive up there, sitting on the patio in the woods by a creek. I love the before the goal as much as the goal. So let me say that again. I love the before the goal as much as reaching or hitting the goal. Loving the anticipation, the process is all part of the journey.

I think about this in weight loss, loving the hard work, the growth, the learning. Lloving the simple things like making my realistic plan. When I was losing my weight, I would think about hitting my goal weight, but I loved sitting in the “now” of the process. This is so important. While you’re working on a goal, waiting on a vacation, or maybe something like a wedding, don’t forget to enjoy the process, the hard work, the planning. It can be some of the best parts. Because love, once you hit your goal, go on the vacation or whatever it is, it goes by quickly and learning to enjoy all of it just enhances your daily pleasure and joy in life. So do not forget to enjoy the journey. I think we were all told that a long time ago, but it is so true my love.

So onto today’s show. Oh my love, quick fixes. I have had a lifetime of them, almost 38 years to be exact. I would look for a diet or exercise plan. I would tell myself, just be good for a few months then you’ll lose your weight, and then everything will be okay. I was thinking about this time when I went to one of those packaged food places, you ladies know what I’m talking about. I had this idea that if I just ate the food they gave me I could lose the weight. So I made the appointment, I went in, and I left with hundreds of dollars worth of their packaged food. I felt excited. It was enticing. I mean, I had pancakes, some little desserts. I thought I can do this. There was even pizza.

Then I got home. I unpacked all of it. I was still very excited. I heated one of them up in the microwave and it didn’t taste that good. It really didn’t. It was unfulfilling. It was frozen meals and some not frozen, which is even a little more strange to me. And I had this thought I can not live on this.

I could not just eat this food for six months to a year. So I ate the desserts and ended up throwing out most of it. See, quick fixes, they focus on the outside, the food, the exercise, whatever it is. But what happens when you don’t like the food or you get tired of eating “bird food?” What happens when you have a stressful day or when someone brings you donuts?

Then what? See love, losing weight long-term is an inside job. This is what Transform is. This is what I specialize in, long-term weight loss. How many times have you lost weight only to gain it back or sometimes even more than what you started with? We live in a world of quick fixes, temporary highs. I think of social media, TV shows all the things are quick, and they give you a quick hit of dopamine.

Shoot. I mean, Tik Tok is like 15 second videos. You can get lost in those. But love, it never lasts. Because you have a bad day, a stressful event, and if you have not learned how to feel your feelings without buffering, then what happens love? You’re knee deep in the pantry. Maybe it’s trail mix or a bag of chips or a bag of cookies, but you’re eating more than you wanted. You’re eating past full. And if you haven’t learned how to reconnect to your body, how to feel hunger, how to feel feelings, how to plan, how to become aware, then my love, you are stuck on the diet roller coaster.

I was listening to John Acuff, he is a published author and he’s written several books. He said something that really resonated with me. Don’t give the problem a year and the solution a week. I just want to say it again love, because it’s so good. Don’t give the problem a year and the solution a week. We have been overweight for years. Maybe you’ve been overweight your whole life, but we expect it to work in a week.

We want to flip a switch and be cured. Now I want to tell, because a lot of my Transform ladies listen to this podcast and I’m actually going to announce it to them tonight, but we’re doing a book club in June and we’re doing one of John’s books because I think he’s a fantastic writer. And he has a couple books that are amazing.

And that’s going to be our book club in June. So my loves, so fun and exciting. So love, everything in my life that is amazing and wonderful has taken years, many years. Meeting my husband, developing the relationship we have today, losing my weight, building my career, building Transform. Learning the process I teach in Transform it takes time, grace, failure. But love, it is the only way to lose weight for good. See, what happens for most of us, I mean I did this, we start a diet. We lose weight or we don’t. But eventually stress happens, life happens. Then we stop showing up for ourselves. We give ourselves all kinds of reasons why it doesn’t matter anyway, and then we quit. We give up. Then we start this cycle over and over and over again.

In Transform, we have a motto. Every pound is the last time. It is the last time you’ll have to lose that pound, because my Transform bosses are learning how to change from the inside out. I want to talk about fear for a moment because John said something that really resonated with me too.

He said, fear is there and it has a voice, but it doesn’t get a vote. The wedding, the event, work, or people will think I’m fat. People will think I’m not good enough. I need to lose this weight right now. I can’t find my partner, my future partner until I lose weight. I can’t go for that job until I lose my weight. I’m scared I will fail again. So I don’t even show up and I don’t even try. I know my love, fear will be there, but don’t give it a vote.

We are opening Transform for five days on May 24th. And I want to leave you with one very powerful transformational question. If it took you two years, three years to lose your weight, but it was for good, get completely off the diet roller coaster, wear what you want, live in a body that feels like freedom, where weight struggle was in your rear view mirror, it was the last time you had to lose it, would you be all in?

Oh love, Transform is opening May 24th. Mark it down on your calendar. For five days only. Go to bflycoaching.com/join to get on the wait list. You’ll be the first to know all of the information. And of course, we’re going to do an amazing 5-day challenge to kick it off.  Bye for now love.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for Successful Women. If you love what you heard today and want to learn more, come on over to bflycoaching.com. See you next week.