Podcast: Decoding Weight Loss Statistics: How to Be the 20% Success Story

Transcript of Podcast

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Fit and Fabulous with me, Dr. Orlena. I hope that you are feeling amazing. I hope that you are feeling excited about the prospect of getting to healthy, amazing you in 2024. Today, I want to talk a little bit about stress and struggle because, hey, remember on Thursday, we are doing the workshop, Letting Go of Stress and Struggle of Weight Loss.

And we're going to be having a look at why is it that so many people struggle Hey, have you seen the statistics? I tell you what, the statistics on weight loss are absolutely horrendous. For all the people who lose weight, and about a third of America is trying to lose weight, for all the people who lose weight, after 5 years, 80 percent put back on what they have lost.

Which means only 20 percent of people keep it off for 5 years. Isn't that kind of a scary and demoralizing thought? But, I think it's also interesting because if we examine why that is, it's going to give us the road map to, okay, what do I need to do to be one of those statistics, excuse me, success statistics?

And can you be a success, success statistic? Of course you can. You can, you definitely can, but you need to go into it with your eyes open and really have a think about what is going on. So, why? Why is it that stress and struggle happens? Well, number one, stress in itself is really not a great thing when you're trying to lose weight.

Stressing about losing weight is like stressing about relaxing. It's kind of the opposite of what you need to do. And what I mean by this is the stress hormone is very much like a cortisol, a steroid hormone and I'm sure that you have seen people who have had to take steroid hormones For a long period of time and you know what happens to many people who take steroids Is they put on weight it increases their appetite.

So stress is one of those things that is Oh, so not going to help you lose weight, except the reality is that so many people are stressed about losing weight. Why? Because they've tried something, it didn't work. They've tried something else, it didn't work. And then, at the back of their mind, there is this, oh my goodness, I really need to fix this.

I need to fix this. You know that kind of thing that takes over your brain? And it becomes there in the background all, all, all the time. So here are some things that are, we are to consider when we're thinking about, okay, so what is going on when we look at, do some people make changes? Do some people don't make changes?

So one big thing is habits. I love talking about habits. I'm not going to talk lots about habits today, but you know, thinking about habits. Plateaus, which can be weight loss plateaus. They can be fitness plateaus. They can be. plateaus. And those can be really, really frustrating. Stress in other parts of your life.

So not just stress about weight loss and health, but stress about work, or about your loved ones, or about finances. There's always stress in our world isn't there. So dealing with stress and how you deal with stress, and do you turn to food for comfort, so that's a big one. Time management, time management is another big thing.

So many people say, I'm too busy, I'm too busy to do this. Another huge thing, a huge factor is social influences. We live in a society that is, what they call, obesogenic. Like, you go to the supermarket and so many foods are bad for you. I listen to my children talking and my daughter is always like, Oh, I want to eat the pancakes and the bread and the chocolate.

Can I have hot chocolate? And, you know, she doesn't want to eat the vegetables. We call her a vegetable dodger. But her default position is To be a glucose seeking missile and that is part of human nature. We are driven by Wanting glucose and that's great when you you know a hunter gatherer and your glucose is a few I don't know, blackberries.

But now we live in a society where glucose is all around us. And not just glucose, other things that aren't great that get, get put into foods that are not really food. And don't get me wrong, you need glucose in your diet, unless you're doing the ketogenic diet, which I don't eat. Glucose is okay, it's our fuel.

It's like Having petrol or diesel in your body. You want it. You want it in your cells. You want it to be where it needs to be, but you don't want too much of it. So, for example, you don't want to leave the cap off your petrol tank so that petrol diesel spills all over or gets inside your car. That would be a horrible situation, wouldn't it?

Now, here's another thing that I've thought about as well. The allure of quick fixes and fad diets. Why are people drawn to quick fixes and fad diets? Well, because we want to change things, we want to change things quickly, we want action now. But, it has to be the right action. Because if you start doing things that are not sustainable, you stop doing them, and then you collapse in a heap of, oh my goodness.

This doesn't work. Okay, another thing setting realistic expectations I can remember working with somebody who basically said I want to lose 10 pounds in I think it was about three weeks I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was like a really short period of time and where she was there was Not eating anything healthily at all, not doing any movement, and then saying, Yeah, you know, I've got this event in three weeks and I want to look amazing in three weeks time.

And it's just an unrealistic expectation. And when you set yourself up with an unrealistic expectation, the time comes and goes and you think, I haven't even made a dent in that expectation. Oh my goodness, what's wrong with me? It's all my fault. So I guess that's the same as lack of immediate results.

And I definitely see this with my clients. That, particularly when we go back to talking about a plateau, sometimes you get to the stage where you feel like you are doing everything right and yet you're not getting the results. And that is a really, really hard place to be because we want a feedback which says, yep, you're doing this right, you've lost some weight, keep going, everything's going right.

But sometimes life doesn't happen like that. The body is a super complex situation. Now, what I can tell you in that situation is don't jack it all in. Don't go to, oh my goodness, yes, I'm going to start eating cake and all the other things that I know are going to push my sugar levels up and put my weight up.

That isn't going to help. But that is the knee jerk reaction when you don't see immediate results. Here's another big thing. Boredom and monotony in healthy routines. And I think this ties up with, okay, We live in a society where food is more than just nourishment. Food is also entertainment for us. And it's entertainment on a social level, but it's also part of, okay, we've worked really hard during the week, so now at the weekend, let's go for a nice Meal, we want something special, we want to drink something, and you have to train yourself to enjoy healthy routines.

And I will tell you that I have got to a place in my life where I prefer to eat at home because when I go out to restaurants I'm always disappointed. I do live in Spain, so we have very similar restaurants here. We don't have huge great variety. I'm sure in other places of the world there are amazing vegan restaurants which do delicious foods that I can't get hold of.

Or plant based food. So here in Spain, everything is quite similar and never vegetable based in the way that I want it. And Spanish people tend to eat super, super late. And I just get to the stage where I'm like, this is not what I want in my life anymore. And that is partly because I have done so much work on my inner being healthy and enjoying being healthy and enjoying healthy food.

Here's another problem. Self sabotaging and fear of success. I spoke to somebody recently who said, when I have a lot of weight on me, I feel lovable and I feel that people can love me. And I'm scared that if I lose weight, I'm not going to be lovable. People are going to stop loving me. Well, if you've got that fear, it's going to make it very difficult for you to want to.

Lose weight. To really get to where part of your brain is saying, I want to get there, and another really powerful part of your brain is going, yeah, but if you get there, nobody's going to love you. And that's scary. Now here's another thing to think about. Addressing perfectionism. And I call this black or black and white thinking.

And it goes like this. I'm going to set myself a goal to not eat any chocolate. Okay, I'm going to do that for two weeks. And then you find yourself having a bite of chocolate. And instead of stopping there, you think, I'm going to eat the whole bar of chocolate. I've failed already, so if I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail big time, I'm going to fail whole bar of chocolate, rather than one bite of chocolate.

Now, does that make logical sense? No, my friend, it does not, because one bite of chocolate contains about a tenth of the amount of sugar and badness that a whole bar of chocolate does. So you're much better off just having one bite and going yep, okay, I've had one bite and I've really enjoyed it That's fabulous And now I'm going to stop But we do have this idea that things need to be perfect that I have to do healthy eating I have to do exercise.

I have to do sleeping if I don't do that Then what's the point? And I will share a success story with you. One of my clients in the Facebook group said, Hey, do you know what? I've lost four pounds over the last two weeks just doing 90 percent of the plan that we had put together. And I'm like, well, then just carry on doing 90 percent of the plan and lose another two pounds every week until that stops working.

And then we'll have a little think about what's going on. But if 90 percent works and you're losing weight and you're happy with that, then just keep going. And here's the last one, just keep going. You know what Dory says in Finding Nemo? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Well, that's what you need to do.

So many people try a little bit and then they give up. They try a little bit, they try something else, that's not working. Try something else, that's not working. You need to give it a bit of a go first to actually make sure it isn't properly working. Not just for a week or two weeks. So my friends, we are going to be diving into how to become a success statistic so that you can lead your healthy, amazing life.

So that you have confidence that you're leading a healthy life. So that your energy levels go up. So that your weight comes down. So that you feel vibrant and just happy. So, it's happening on Thursday. Thursday, the 18th of January. 8am Eastern Time. 1pm UK Time. And, if you turn up live to the Zoom room. I am giving away a free digital copy of my book to whoever turns up live to the Zoom Room and it is called Building Simple Habits to a Healthy Me and it is simple and it is easy and it's what you need to do to move the needle forward this year.

So my friends, I look forward to seeing you on Thursday. Have a fabulous day and I will see you soon.