Moving through Midlife | Helping Midlife Women Move Better and Feel Better

127 | The Power of Consistency in Achieving Weight Loss Goals

Courtney McManus

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Are you genuinely ready to redefine your relationship with your body and your understanding of weight loss? Settle in, because that's what we're about to do. I'm Courtney, your guide, personal trainer, and movement specialist. We're going to start by asking the hard question - why do you want to lose weight? Your answer to this question will be the bedrock of your weight loss journey. Let's walk this path together, examining my Transform coaching program, where a commitment to consistency can lead to a weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week. This journey is about celebrating your body, both as it is now and as it transforms.

But remember, weight loss isn't just about the numbers on a scale. It's a lifestyle change, a shift in perspective. It's about managing stress, getting a good night's sleep, and integrating more movement and healthier eating habits into your life. We'll explore how your level of commitment can influence your weight loss, potentially ranging from half a pound to two and a half pounds per week. And to support you all the way, I'm inviting you into our free community. Here, we'll explore ways to move more, feel better, and support each other every day. So, grab your earbuds, take a leisurely walk, and let's move through midlife together.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Moving Through Midlife. I am your host, courtney, a personal trainer and movement specialist who wants to help you move through midlife with more grace. Each week, we will discuss ways we can show up better for ourselves and our children, without the burnout. We will focus on overall health through habit stacking to help increase energy, provide movement snacks to help you move more throughout the day, while also moving your body more, and learn from professionals on moving through midlife with ease so that you can feel confident with aging. Gracefully, grab your earbuds and join me on a leisurely walk while we discuss moving through midlife.

Speaker 1:

Today, I want to speak with you about what you can expect when losing weight. We all see those ads that promise you 10 pounds in two weeks, weight loss and all of that. But the question becomes is this something that is doable and, more importantly, is it recommended? Any time that you are looking at a program that you find online, I need you to think about two things. One, why do I want to lose the weight? Why are you wanting to lose that weight? And I need you to dig deep. I need you to really be honest with yourself. Why do you want to lose the weight? Oh, I've got a wedding coming up. Okay, why do you feel you need to lose the weight for the wedding? Because I want people to see me the way I was five years ago? Or I want to look better than I did the last time they saw me? Okay, why do you feel it's necessary for people to see you differently than what they saw you last time? Right? So all of these questions and usually will take you about five times of asking yourself why for you to get to the real root of why you're wanting to do something. That's where you've got to start, because if you don't start there, you're doing it for the wrong reasons. So start there, figure out why. Why do you want to do this? And then, the second thing you need to think about when looking at whatever the program is is this something I can do consistently for the long term? You can do these quick weight loss. If you're trying to lose weight for a wedding that's, you know, two weeks from now or a month from now. Go do that program, do that quick weight loss, but understand that once that time is over, you will probably gain all of that weight back and then some. So you need to understand that, going in that that may happen. So instead, instead of these trying to do, these quick wins, you need to start changing your mindset. You've heard it before, possibly from me this is a marathon, not a sprint. We are doing this for long term results. You will not see results in one week or two week if you do it correctly, but what takes time will last longer. Okay, so it may take you six weeks before you start to notice something, but those six weeks are then going to last you for 13, 14 weeks, and then the eight weeks last you four months, and it goes on and on.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I am not a huge proponent of weight loss programs. I am more about helping you feel confident and strong, no matter where you are at on the journey. It is imperative that you start to feel good in your body right now, wherever it is, because if you don't do that, you're going to be dealing with the stress of trying to lose the weight, the stress that comes up. With all of that you have got to say I appreciate my body for where it is right now, but I want to make changes, and that's okay. You are allowed to want to change your body, but you need to appreciate it for where it is right now. Before you do that, and when you do that, you can start to make these small changes, and these small changes, like I mentioned before, are going to provide lasting results. So what is a healthy weight to lose If you were to join my Transform coaching program?

Speaker 1:

This is a 12 week coaching program where we work through the various things that we discuss. You know that there's 12 pillars, so each week, we're focusing on something that has to do with movement, exercise, nutrition, breathing, posture, all of those things, health habits, all of it. What would I say to you? What would be something you should be looking for? So it honestly ranges, because the program is not designed for you to go through it. And, yes, okay, it is designed for you to go through it and stick to it for the 12 weeks, but it's not where. Oh, I'm going to wait to do it until after the holidays, or I'm going to wait to do it because you know this weekend's my birthday, so I've got to. Oh goodness, but then after that, there's this, right, you know. So it's 12 weeks, three months, where you're dealing with life and things happen throughout it. So you have to work with your life situation and you have to make this work.

Speaker 1:

So, for those clients that are really consistent and if you were very consistent, say 90 to 100 percent, consistent with what I'm asking you to do so this would be your movement, your exercise because I separate those two out and your nutrition, along with whatever habit we're focusing on that week, if you practice consistently 90 to 100 percent of the time, you could expect to lose about one and a half to two pounds a week. Now, if you followed it 75 to 80 percent, you could lose about a pound a week. And if you only followed it about half so you were showing up to my classes two to three times or doing your workout two to three times, you were also making sure to move at least two to three times a week in addition to your exercise, and you were following the program, the protocol for nutrition, 50 to 60 percent of the time, you would probably lose about a half a pound a week. So if you think about that that should help guide you, and this is for most programs, like if you're following them to a tee you should be losing no more than about a pound and a half to two and a half pounds a week, and it also depends on where you are at if you're in your journey. Okay, those of you who have 50 pounds to lose are going to lose that weight a little bit quicker than the person who's only got 10 pounds to lose. If you have 10 pounds to lose, you're going to have to push a little bit harder or stay on it a little bit longer to see those less 10 pounds move.

Speaker 1:

In addition to making sure that you're doing this you know protocol, so to speak, a certain period of time or percentage of time that you're doing it your results may also be affected by a few things, and two of the things that I cannot stress enough is sleep. If you aren't getting seven hours of sleep each night, you are affecting the production of two hormones ghrelin and leptin, and these are two hunger hormones. So what happens is, if you're getting less than seven hours of sleep and some of you it might be a little, you may need a little bit more you are increasing the ghrelin hormone, which that stimulates appetite. So you're going to be hungrier that next day and you decrease leptin, and that is the hormone that tells your brain you've had enough to eat. So not only are you going to be hungrier, but you're also lacking that hormone that says okay, we've hit that point Right. So you're not only hungrier, but you're going to even eat more because you're not producing the ghrelin and the leptin. So if you're struggling to sleep, that is where you need to focus first.

Speaker 1:

If you are dealing with stress here's another one that deals with hormones you are. If you're dealing with stress, you are increasing your cortisol response and when you increase your cortisol, you also increase the blood glucose levels. So what happens is when you get that cortisol response, your body pushes out glucose to kind of help. It's designed to allow the body to cope with the stress right. So you can think back in time whatever it pushes out glucose to get you to get out of the situation, the body needs to move. It needs to get out of whatever the situation is. It needs to handle the stress, whatever that stress is, and your muscles will then pull in that glycogen to get you out of that situation. The problem is, most of us we deal with a stressful situation. We sit down or we're dealing with these minor stresses that are constantly pushing out cortisol and then glucose, and we're sitting and we're ruminating and we're stressing over something and our body's pushing out the glucose to help us handle the stress, yet the muscles aren't absorbing that glucose because we're not going anywhere, we're sitting on the couch, and then what happens? It goes around the midsection. So that is why, when you are dealing with a lot of stress and depending on how you deal with stress People do tend to lose weight because they lose their appetite.

Speaker 1:

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about these other situations where you're gaining the weight in the midsection due to the stress, or if you're lacking the sleep, you are increasing that. So that is something to expect when you are losing weight. If you do not have your stress and your sleep under control, you may not see the results that I'm talking about here, so you need to pay attention to that.

Speaker 1:

The other thing that I want to also make clear when I work with people in the Transform Coaching Program or just even in my classes, one thing I have always said is that if you want to maintain where you are right now, then I recommend you work out two to three times a week. That is maintenance. If you want to lose weight, you need to be working out four to five days a week, and this does not mean move. This is not walking, this is not your leisurely walk. That is to help control cortisol, that is to help decrease stress levels, decrease glucose in the blood. So don't count that. We're talking about getting some sweat going, okay. So if you work out and you're only being consistent two to three times a week, then you're looking at maintenance and if you want to start to see results, you need to bump it up. And I'm going to get into what I recommend for workouts and all of that in future podcasts.

Speaker 1:

But I just wanted to kind of give you some information about what to expect when losing weight. I do take a more I don't want to say relaxed approach, but I'm not one who. I'm not a big calorie counter. I'm not a big macro counter. Do we look at macros? Yeah, but it's not a strict macro program. Do we look at calories? Yeah, but it's not a strict calorie protocol.

Speaker 1:

What I need you to focus on is living healthier, practicing controlling your stress, getting better night's sleep, following more movement, rich exercise, rich lifestyle and eating healthy, more fruits and vegetables, but also more protein, because most of us women don't need enough protein. But by doing those things, these are the things that you can expect to lose weight when you start working on losing weight. So about a half a pound up to about two and a half pounds a week, depending on how regimented you are with your program. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found something to take away to help you practice healthier habits, move more or handle the midlife in aging with grace. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review to help us reach more. Moms just like you Head to movingthroughmidlifecom to join the free community or learn how you can move more and feel better in your daily life.