'Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any
goal. I'm so smart I can negate any dream."
― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
The other day, I overheard a couple women talking about their weight in the locker room where I go swimming every day. One woman said to the other,
"I'm 60 years. It's impossible to me to lose weight now. I'm too old. That's my story and I'm sticking to it," she said with finality.
Over the years, I've had many clients who believed it was simply impossible for them to lose weight for a variety of reasons - age, metabolism, and hormonal factors being the
common culprits.
I challenged these women's assumptions and when I worked closely with them, most of them were overeating and taking in far too many calories than their bodies actually needed as a result. They simply didn't want to acknowledge their emotional and mindless eating. Once they got real with
themselves, curbed the overeating, and upped their activity, they began to lose weight.
I myself will be 60 years old in January. People tell me I look a good decade younger, but years sitting at a computer began to take its toll. I started to develop some extra around my middle because of my age and not
being active enough. I too, at first rationalized it with, "Well....most women my age have some around the middle. It's middle age."
Fortunately, I got sick of it and embarked on a new fitness regimen. At 59, I am now in the best physical shape of my life. I feel fantastic! As an added bonus, a
handsome personal trainer, who is 10 years younger, became smitten with me and vise versa. Talk about motivation to look good! I feel like a teenager again!
When I was younger, I could talk myself out of anything. My reasons for not moving forward were very convincing to me and sounded
perfectly logical. I had told myself these stories so many times that I believed them to be truth.
Unfortunately, they were lies I told myself in order to protect myself from facing my fears. At the time, I was burdened by a fear of success and fear of failure. These two paralyzed me and kept me from moving forward.
Most of us have a story line about our food and weight issue that keeps us from moving forward The excuses we use repeatedly become a story that we come to believe. It's really important that we question the validity of our stories and excuses otherwise they become our reality.
