I wanted to share 10 things you can use for weight loss right now. 

Let’s pretend as if you’re my client;

• Who needed to lose some weight, 
• You’re coming to me, 
• You’re stuck, 
• Maybe you’re at a plateau, 
• You can’t get started, 
• Something’s in the way, 
• Whatever it is,

I’m going to give you these 10 things. 

I don’t want to overwhelm you. One of these things is probably going to be the easiest, and one of these things is going to be the most impactful. I don’t think they’re going to be the same thing. If the easiest thing would be the most impactful, you would have already done it and would have  gotten a result from it. 

The proposition I have for you is, can you pick out just two things? One, that’s the easiest for you and the one that if you would get the most impact? 

How would you know you would get the most impact? Well, I think you know what is really the struggle or what is your personal obstacle with weight loss. As I elaborate on them, something’s probably going to ring true for you. 

You and I are working together. Maybe we’re on a zoom call, maybe we’re at a table, a coffee shop, email, and we’re going through what’s happening for you and your weight loss. Some of these things are me figuring out almost like a diagnostic. Let’s start here. 

1) Food Journal.

I would write down everything you eat and drink for the next 14 days in a row, including weekends. Then with curiosity, either at the end of the day, the following day, or at the end of the week, actually review it. 

I really do like food journals, old school pen and paper, keeping a notebook. It doesn’t have to be a fancy one. It could be a $1 notebook you got from CVS. It’s much different than one of the macro trackers. I’m not asking you to track macros. I’m asking you to write down what you’re eating. If you are somebody who’s weighing and measuring, great. If you’re not weighing and measuring, great. Give your estimation. 

Things I would look for. Once I finish the day or maybe the next day, I go back and review it. I take a look, can I get a total or estimate the calories? I don’t need it to be exact. Ultimately, my goal for you and for everyone is that we’re able to actually eat for the rest of our lives without having to know was this 13,172 calories? Or was it 14,191 calories? Was it 15,116? Or was it you know, 33,000 calories, we probably going to know if it’s 33,000 calories. 

The food journal, in a lot of ways, is an awareness and mindfulness tool. The more we’re aware and mindful of what we’re eating, the less likely you know we’re going to be doing those bites, licks and tastes. We’re going to notice, oh, wow, I was just going to take a handful of candy off my co workers desk. I don’t really want to write down a handful of candy. I’m going to pause. I’m going to see what that’s all about. 

I’d also look for total or estimated protein. How much of what you eat is actually protein? Then if you want to really get specific, what kind of protein are you eating? I think there’s a big difference between eating bacon and eating grass fed beef. I think there’s a difference between eating Jimmy Dean sausage links and eating white meat chicken breast. Not judging, that one is better than the other. Just saying, if every single day for 14 days I’m just eating hot dogs, then I don’t think that’s a high quality protein. 

That’s the beauty of having a food journal. Sometimes we are doing the things and we’re not even that aware of the choices that we’re making. We’re grabbing things that are easy. Things we’ve always done. Things that the family is doing. We’re not giving it much intentional thought. A food journal is just bringing it to light. 

I want to caution you, this is not the judgment journal. This is not the oh my god, look at all these terrible choices. This is a journey, we’re not going to be working on weight loss for just three months and then stop. 

We can make changes. We could decide to make some different choices, I’m gonna see if I could elevate my protein choices. I could see if maybe you wanted to add more protein, maybe you want to cut back on protein, maybe you want to add more vegetables. There’s a million different ways that we can go with this but we can’t go anywhere until we know exactly what we’re eating. 

I know that’s why most of us resist a food journal because if I know what I’m eating, then I might have to change it. We might have to confront ourselves. When we think oh,  I’m eating clean up. Journal says otherwise. Or I’m sticking to low carbs or low fat or whatever. Journal says you’re all over the place. 

I think we give a lot of power to this food journal. We become afraid of it. It is not meant to be a way to punish yourself or to prove anything. It is just data. If you resist it, it’s just another layer of coaching for us to figure out why you’re resisting that. 

I would also look at the journal for vegetable count. Am I eating vegetables every day? Every other day? Every meal? What does that look like? Are there bites, licks, and taste? You just want to be honest.

In weight loss, we do have to be honest, we have to be honest with what we want. Where we want to go, who we want to be, all of that. 

This isn’t about I’m not the food police. I don’t want to turn you into the food police. I think diets have assumed that role. A lot of very strict dieting feels very much like the food police. This is not that. 

This is;

• Let’s get an idea of what is going on. 
• We can see some trends. 
• We can see what’s going well. 
• We can see where we can improve. 

That is all. Do not overthink it. Make it a game. You’re just recording. 

So food journal, that’s one of the suggestions I would have for you. That alone could be a huge eye opener and a way to crack the code on whatever’s happening for you. If you aren’t and you’re having trouble getting started with weight loss, or you’re feeling sort of stuck somewhere, that might be exactly what unsticks things for you. Gets your brain going. Gets you some aha moments, and we see it in black and white. 

2) Hunger.

This is kind of an interesting concept. If you’re keeping the journal, I would like you to think about rating every meal or every time you eat on a scale from one to 10 based on hunger. Ask yourself at that meal, was I physically hungry? There’s no right or wrong way to use a scale. A scale of 1-5 or 1-10. 

For this, I will invite you to use a scale from 1-10.

1-3 is not hungry. A low score would mean, I wonder why I’m eating that? Sometimes we’re just eating because it’s lunchtime, everybody else is eating or someone offered me food.  

4-6, would be kind of regular hunger. That’s kind of a mid range regular hunger. I am hungry. I’m physically hungry. I feel hungry. I’m eating because I’m hungry.

7-8, very hungry. My hunger is very noticeable. 

9-10, is f*cking angry. It’s like we’ve crossed over. Something has happened where we ignored our hunger signals, or we’re just not in tune to our hunger signals. We tried to suppress our hunger signals, all we did was drink coffee and pretend we weren’t hungry. 

Hungry or not hungry, all of the different levels of hunger, none of it’s a problem. Nothing’s gone wrong. Humans get hungry. It’s not a problem. I know diets don’t really care if you’re hungry, it will die. It’s actually on a person. In weight loss, you just use willpower. It doesn’t matter if you’re hungry, you just have to do XYZ. 

I want to offer that over time and with more practice, you will get better to listening to your body and just eating appropriately. I want to invite you to listen to your body, eat when you’re hungry, stop putting off hunger until later and later when you’re just going to end up being over hungry. 

That’s when we’re more likely to overeat, especially when you get into very hungry or hangry. We’re noticing our blood sugar is dropping. We don’t instantly raise that blood sugar with just the first bite, it can take a little while for you to feel better. If you are noticing the ups and downs, it could be subtle or it could be extreme, you want to pay attention to this. The more we have a midline hunger, we’re less likely to overeat, to rush eating, to eat past full, and we’re less likely to have insulin spikes throughout the day. 

3) The kitchen.

Imagine a kitchen closed sign. You pull up to the kitchen and it’s that red and white sign that says closed. I’m inviting you to set a kitchen closed time. Especially if you work every single day 9-5, pretty easy. If your job is unpredictable, or you’re just having a weird week, you had to go pick someone up at the airport and their plane was late. I’m not telling you to come home and if you’re physically hungry, that there’s like no soup for you. There’s no food. 

By and large, this is going to serve you well. It’s just a rule you put in place for yourself. This isn’t about intermittent fasting. This isn’t about going to bed hungry or anything. You know what time you normally eat dinner, maybe the kitchen is closed after dinner. You make the decision ahead of time that you’re not going to eat after dinner. 

I put something in my free Facebook group a while ago, it was the N.E.A.D. Challenge. That is No Eating After Dinner Challenge. That’s a big thing for people. 

Many women I talked to, it’s not that;

• They’re on the wrong diet 
• They have the wrong macros 
• The wrong workout, 
• The wrong protein powder. 

It’s because we’re eating after dinner. 

• We’re stress eating, 
• We’re mindlessly eating, 
• We’re on the couch eating. 

That’s the issue.

Everything goes great until we get home before dinner, and then it kind of falls apart. If you’re struggling with regular mealtimes, this is sort of great. 

This is going to be great. You’re going to see your food journal. You’re going to notice, am I pushing lunch off too late? Or do I need to reconfigure the times I eat so that I’m not overly hungry? This is all important. This is the stuff that could be keeping you from being the weight you want. 

I would love to say, my 10 tips are this magic protein powder, this magic supplement, and this magic water bottle. It’s not. It’s really looking at what’s going on right now in your life. 

4) Snacks.

I’m going to ask you a question. Don’t be mad. 

With your snacks, the treats, the rewards;

• Is it a habit? 
• Is it this sort of mindlessness? 
• Is it procrastination? 
• Is it buffering? 

Buffering just means I’m doing a thing, like eating or drinking alcohol or online shopping. I’m doing something that’s actually not helping me. If I’m overeating, I’m not hungry. 

I’m in the pantry looking for snacks because;

• I really don’t want to sit down and answer these emails. 
• I don’t want to pay the bills. 
• I don’t want to make a decision. 
• I don’t want to have a difficult conversation. 
• I don’t want to have any conversations. 
• I’m really tired. I’m trying to avoid feelings. 
• I want to make myself feel better. 
• I don’t want to be overwhelmed. 
• I don’t want to be stressed.
• I don’t want to be unhappy. 
• I’m going to go grab a bag of happiness. 
• I’m going to go grab a little ice cream container of joy. 
• I’m going to be having a snack. 
• I’m going to treat myself. 
• I’m going to reward myself. 

Why? 

Many of us were brought up in that way. I’ve said this before, it’s the whole like, Oh, poor, you, you should have a cookie. You had a bad day, have a drink. All of this stuff. These are hundreds of extra calories. 

Before you make yourself a snack, or you get a treat, or give yourself a reward. 

• Let’s find out why?
• What’s that all about? 
• Are you hungry? 
• What would be a different reward? 
• What are non food rewards? 
• Is the reward the ice cream? 
• Is it to look bomb.com in your new bathing suit?
• Or to feel bomb.com? 

By the way, you can look bomb.com right now in your bathing suit. It’s just you making the decision to do that. 

When it comes to snacks and treats and rewards, you’re waiting for it. I’m gonna say PS, you’re not a dog who gets snacks and treats. In my house dogs, I mean my kids, go get their own by now. I would really shine a light on this. I know you don’t want to but like I said, you don’t have to do all 10. I’d find the one that’s easiest for you. Then identify the one that would give you the most results. 

I have a feeling if we took away all the snacks, treats, and rewards and we just sat there with our thoughts and feelings. Although it might be uncomfortable, we would lose weight. We’re trading uncomfortable thoughts and feelings for the comfort of our clothes, seems kind of like an easy choice to me.

5) Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk. 

Go for a walk every day. I really think it’s just a matter of building up the time, the distance, and making walking part of your life. 

It is a great way to lose weight and keep it off. It helps regulate blood sugar. It helps with stress. If I did have magic, it would be walking. 

If you already walk, please don’t be like, Oh, I already walk. I’m gonna walk 10 miles today. No, walk away from this one, and go find two other things to look at. 

6) Playing games that suck.

As humans, our brains really go looking for problems or danger. An interesting part of that is a problem or danger might be that somebody else is doing it better than us. Somebody else is better than us. Somebody else is competition with us. 

In the age of social media, it’s pretty easy to find people putting up their hot girl summer photos on Instagram or Facebook. Or showing you their, look at me, I’m so thin and I’m eating pizza or whatever. Stop the comparison game. 

Even if you’re comparing yourself to the high school version of you. I talk to a lot of women, and they tell me their goal weight. I ask them, when was the last time they weighed that and they tell me High School. I’m like, well, you’re a 50 year old woman. I don’t know that what you weighed when you were 16 is really valid right now. I’m not saying to change your goals because you’re too old but our brains are gonna go to that comparison game. It’s up to us to decide whether we play or not.That is something we control. What we’re going to take in and make it part of our lives. 

Did you know that you can cultivate and curate your social media thread. You can decide who you follow. You can decide who you do not follow. If somebody is not rowing in the same direction you are and the things they post don’t align with you, you don’t enjoy it, it’s triggering, you don’t have to take it in. I know our feeds would have like two people, and the two people would only post pictures of puppies. 

7) The scale.

Let’s say the scale went up a pound today. Guess what? That doesn’t mean you gained a pound, that means the scale went up. That’s all it means. The scale game is an old one but this might be where your work is. Many of us give a lot of meaning to the scale. 

When the scale doesn’t go down, we go right back to;

• This isn’t working. 
• I don’t know what I’m doing. 
• I need a different plan.
• I need a different thing.
• I quit. 

All of those are not good options. 

If you’re going to use a scale, I would advise to use it just once a week. And please stop using it as a weapon against yourself. It is just data. Just like the food journal. 

I’ve seen people said, Oh, well, the scale just fucks with me so I’m just not going to use it. Then they just stick their head in the sand, kind of like an ostrich, and pretend they aren’t trying to lose weight. I’m just going to do whatever I want because I don’t have the scale. That’s not what I think is a good option either. 

We want to make this scale neutral. Just like if I went to the weather app, and I went to see the weather in my town and it said 30 degrees. I’m like mother f*cker, and just pitched a fit because it wasn’t 75 and sunny like I wanted it to be. It’s just the weather. It’s just the temperature that day, at that moment. It’s just data. It doesn’t mean anything. 

The scale can go up and down for so many reasons. We don’t really need the scale to do the things. 

• You don’t need the scale to eat for mostly fuel and eat for some joy. 
• You don’t need the scale to drink water. 
• You don’t need the scale to eat only when you’re physically hungry. 
• You don’t need the scale to eat only till you’re full. 
• You don’t need a scale to tell you to go walking or do your strength training.

You can do these things. You can be a woman who loses weight and keeps it off. The scale is a minimal part of your journey. The scale does not participate in your weight loss. It only records what you weigh at that moment. It’s not the reason for your weight loss. It certainly shouldn’t be the reason for you to quit on your weight loss. 

8) Sleep.

I’m telling you if there’s one thing that can make a huge impact on your overall health and your weight loss, it is getting quality sleep. I would say the goal is about seven to eight hours every night. There’s so many studies and so much data out there about sleep and how it really can help with your weight loss. Lack of sleep starts to mess with your hunger hormones. 

If you say, Bonnie, I can either sleep or I can go for a morning run because it’s the only time I could run. I’m going to tell you, you’re better off sleeping and getting a full seven to eight hours than getting up at 4am to run. Sorry, not sorry, but that is true. To get up early, before the sun comes up, and to stress an already stressed body is just throwing gasoline on a fire. 

I truly believe fat loss is a hormonal event and you’re not going to be losing fat optimally if your body’s all stressed out. It’s just not going to work.

9) Protein. 

Protein at every meal. PS peanut butter is not a protein. It’s not protein, it’s fat. 

There’s no one set amount of protein. There’s not one magic amount. For most of us, if you’re eating three or four meals a day, probably four to six ounces per meal is reasonable. Eat more if you’re physically hungry, eat less if you’ve had enough. 

I am a fan of rotating proteins. I wouldn’t eat white chicken breast 24/7 for the next five years. There’s other things to eat. Sometimes it’s trying out new things. One of the things I really like is grass fed bison. I like that as a red meat option and it’s seems to be in most every store. 

You can choose;

• Different kinds of ground meat. 
• Different cuts of steak
• Different kinds of fish or seafood,
• To use eggs in a number of different ways. 

There’s a lot of different proteins to choose from.

There’s certainly other products that have protein. Things like cottage cheese or Greek yogurt.

I mean, there’s no shortage of protein ideas. It’s just finding the things that you like and that you can make work for you. 

10) Perfectionism. 

We all get stuck, even. We get stuck in perfectionism and all or nothing thinking. Thinking weight loss is an all or nothing scenario. 

Either I do all the things and I do them all perfectly or;

• I failed. 
• It’s not good enough.
• It won’t work.
• I screw it up. 
• I have to start again tomorrow/next Monday/the first of the month/next year. 

And we just keep kicking the can down the road. 

I’m here to tell you, as somebody who is very imperfect, I am at best a b minus on most things but it works. 

I don’t have to be an A+ on;

• What I eat and 
• My supplements and 
• My workout and 
• Walking and 
• Sleeping. 
• Having a good attitude
• Personal hygiene 

Nevermind being an A+;

• Mom,
• Boss,
• Business owner,
• Wife,
• Home owner.

It’s just a lot. 

What if I was just a B-? It’s just a lot easier and it allows me to have more time and energy to do more things. I’m gonna get burnt out. I will just use all my energy trying to be perfect. So why can’t we take imperfect action? Some action beats no action. Imperfect action beats no action. Imperfect action beats quitting all the time.

I would rather quit, than have imperfect action? What is that all about? It’s shifting your mindset. Weight loss is 99% mindset. If it’s not 99, it’s somewhere between 95 and 99% mindset. 

It’s just changing what you think you have to do. Many of us have been on really strict diets with lots of rules. You can have these foods but not these foods. It has to be below X amount of carbs and as soon as I’ve had 10 grams more of carbs, it’s blown. I fail.

First of all, this is not a race. I mean, I want to tell you the honest truth, we all die. That’s how it ends. I don’t know where you’re racing off to. I know everybody wants to lose weight today, yesterday, last week. Why can’t I already be there? Well, because right, all you have to do is take imperfect action.

What we’re doing for weight loss is what we’re going to have to do for life. Give or take, plus or minus, coloring a little outside the lines, or redefining things, or leveling up, or making some changes along the way. This is it. This is our life. Weight loss maintenance is the long game. You’re not going to win this game in just one perfect day or ruin it by eating something, quote unquote, bad. 

The mindset is a much bigger piece than what can I eat? How many grams of this? What’s the right workout? It’s the imperfect action and being okay with that. 

Think about it. In a month, even 15 of the days, I was working on weight loss that beats zero days. As you go forward with little wins, that’s part of imperfect action. Give yourself credit for the things. Maybe your goal was to walk 45 minutes today, and you only got 30 minutes, because you ran out of time. It’s still a win win. All of those wins add up. 

Every single day that we do something towards our goals, 

• Even if it’s not 100%, 
• Even if it’s not perfect. 
• Even if it’s not what we had hoped 

We’re still putting money in the bank of our weight loss, our health, our goals. 

I could list a zillion more things but there doesn’t need to be a zillion more. This should give you one thing that’s pretty easy and one thing that would be really impactful. 

If none of it’s easy, that’s okay, pick one thing. It’s not a race, imperfect action for the win.

NOTES IN ANCHOR

I am here to help you truly unf*ck your weight loss. To help you undo the years of programming the diet industry has instilled into your brain. One question I often get is, “What can I do to lose weight RIGHT NOW?”

It’s simple. Ch Ch Ch Changes. You have to make sustainable changes. Creating a weight loss lifestyle is about making changes that you can live with. It is about playing the “long game”. It is not a sprint. You aren’t going to make these changes for a few weeks and that’s it.

Creating a weight loss lifestyle is also not about perfection. You don’t have to do everything 100% right, every day, in order to achieve weight loss. It is about making changes to become the best version of yourself. The woman who learns how to lose weight and keep it off for life. Today I’m going to give you a list of 10 things you could use for weight loss RIGHT NOW.

I don’t want to overwhelm you. Some of the things on the list are just collecting data to see where you are at. Others are changing the way you view certain things. In this episode, you will also a few action items designed to help you take action RIGHT NOW. I challenge you to pick one thing from the list that you could easily do and one thing that would make the most impact on your current weight loss journey. Then let’s work from there.

Let’s get to it in episode 41 of Unf*ck Your Weight Loss now!

ABOUT THE HOST

Bonnie Lefrak is a Life & Body Transformation Expert and Founder of Self Made, a program designed to help you tackle the physical aspects of health and weight loss as well as the beliefs and thoughts that drive our habits and behaviors. It is her goal to help women create certainty in their own lives, their own results, and their own abilities.

Weight loss is not about the one “right” diet – it is about MUCH more than that. Weight loss is not about the one “right” workout. Weight loss is not about being positive and putting a big smile on. Weight loss is about FEELINGS. All of them. Not trying to bury them or hide from them but knowing and allowing the full human experience.

Weight loss is not about grinding hustling and will powering your way to some end line. Transformation (when done well) is done from the inside out.

By addressing both the physical and mental aspects of dieting and weight loss, she has coached thousands of women ages 30-55+ from all over and helped them ditch the mindsets that are holding them back, achieve permanent weight loss, and get the bangin’ body of their dreams.

Bonnie is an expert at Demystifying weight loss. She helps you unf*ck your diet brain.

She is on a mission to help women love themselves, to find PEACE in the process of losing weight, taking care of themselves, and leveraging the power they do have to become who and want they want right now.

Connect with Bonnie:

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Email- bonnie@bonnielefrak.com