What is holistic weight loss? It’s about addressing the whole you instead of segmenting weight loss into it’s own little compartment. That’s what most people do when it comes to weight loss.
With weight loss there needs to be a combination of many things together in order to achieve success. Looking at various aspects of your life, not just the diet and exercise part.
They are the two most common components that get addressed when people want to lose weight. But what about your mindset, your level of stress, your work situation, the state of your personal relationships, your time out and relaxation, your sleep patterns, your level of perceived happiness, your overall view of the world? What about all those factors about YOU that really matter?
Do you think they might contribute and influence your results?
The clear answer to that is yes.
In fact I believe one of the main reasons that most people fail with their weight loss pursuits is that they are not addressing the rest of the problem. Often weight gain is a symptom of something else. For example, if you are stressed you will tend to reach for the bad foods. This leads to weight gain. The weight gain and more importantly the pain of it, is a symptom, not the cause. The root cause is the stress and until you deal with that, then chances are your success rate may not improve much at all.
Certainly this is not how it works for everyone, but often it is, and if you are reading this and nodding your head then obviously you relate.
First things first, stressing about losing weight won’t help you lose weight at all. And many of us chase our tails in circles stressing about wanting to do it, stressing about why it’s not happening fast enough, stressing about the whole process.
In order to take a holistic approach you need to first:
Relax
And Breathe…
Now slow down and take an objective look at your whole life, take a look at you.
Take the time to ask yourself some important questions, and more importantly, time to reflect and write down or think through how your life looks now and how you’d like your life to look in the future.
How is your level of stress? What would you like it to be like?
How is your work situation? Do you need a change of career? Are you happy doing what you’re doing?
How is the state of your personal relationships? How could you improve it if it’s bad?
Do you take your time out and relax? Pencil in how you will do more of it.
How are your sleep patterns?
Are you happy? What would your life look like if you were happy?
It may seem strange to think that these things can affect your weight loss results. But everything in our life is connected; we are a whole person. And often when we work on fixing the cause, our efforts to achieve weight loss, or achieve anything in our life, suddenly becomes much easier!
Jedha D is a weight loss and wellness coach who is passionate about helping people get off the merry go round and change their life from the inside out. If you need help with achieving better weight loss results and a lifestyle you love, please visit Jedha’s website for more info.
