Episode 2: A Meal Plan & Hitting The Gym 5 Times A Week Is Not Your Sustainable Weight Loss Solution

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Welcome to the Reclaim podcast. I’m your host, Leah Van Dolder. I’m a weight loss dietitian and mindset coach and this program is for you if you’re a busy working woman or female entrepreneur, and you’re ready to take charge of your health, you’re ready to lose weight and make lasting positive change in your life. The only kicker is that you’re on the brink of burnout, you’re exhausted, you are frustrated, you’re feeling discouraged and uncomfortable. And this is how I help my clients, giving you simple, practical and savvy strategies to help you achieve your goals while reducing your stress boosting your mood, your energy and your self confidence. To learn more about working with me, check out my website at leahvandolder.com Welcome to the show.

Hey, guys, welcome to this week’s episode of the Reclaim podcast. This week, I’m talking about sustainable weight loss solutions. And I’m just gonna say it, that meal plan and hitting the gym five times a week is not your solution. I’m going to talk about simple and practical ways that really help you achieve your weight loss goals without it feeling like a total chore. Let’s get right into it, shall we? Let’s talk about what you think will work for weight loss versus what actually works for sustainable weight loss. And I’m sure you guys can relate to this. But how many times have you attempted to lose weight get healthy, and your mind immediately goes to Okay, I gotta find a meal plan for seven days. And I gotta get a gym membership and get in there five times a week for these hour long, intense workouts.

How was that turned out for you? I don’t know about you. But a lot of women that I work with, they have said things like, well, it works for a couple of days. But then you know, come Wednesday, things just fall off, fall off track. And I feel like a total failure because I can’t keep up with things very long. But what if the issue wasn’t you? What if the issue was your plan your plan to get healthy and to lose weight.

And I’m going to tell you going into your weight loss journey with the mindset of I got to follow a meal plan and I gotta go to the gym five times a week is not going to work because there’s no wiggle room, right? You don’t even give yourself any room for error. You don’t take into account the things that happen in life, right? Not every day is going to be butterflies and rainbows. I mean, we all know that. But the kicker is, we don’t even plan for it. So it’s really hard to quote unquote, be consistent or stick to the plan. Because you’re not allowing yourself any room to be human. Right.

So instead of thinking that you need a strict meal plan and hitting the gym every week, what if it didn’t have to be that hard? What if it didn’t have to feel like a chore? How amazing would that be right? Instead of this feeling of dread and you know, overwhelm and anxiousness around oh my gosh, like, here we go again. What if you actually felt excited about what you were working towards? What if you actually felt focused and you know, just really good about your progress, don’t you think that would make it way easier to continue what you’re doing, and this is how I help my clients. So let’s talk about strategy instead of a rigid plan. Now I’m going to use a client story for this because it just stories are the best and they really paint the picture. Now I was talking to a client this morning and she’s like, you know, I always thought that the meal plan and going to the gym five times a week was going to be my answer but clearly it wasn’t because I would have figured it out I would have lost my weight for good instead of going through that yo yo dieting trend and just stuck in this all or nothing mentality. Now as soon as her and I started working together, she said the biggest thing Leah was removing the focus from the scale and focusing more on the processes those back to basic things versus just slapping her with a meal plan and saying, all right, you gotta get back into the gym five times a week because I knew that wasn’t working for her.

And that was a big shift for her. And that’s honestly a big shift for so many of my clients are like, What do you mean, we’re not focusing on weight loss, even though that is my main goal.

Like, yeah, because when we focus so hard on the result that you want, if the only, you know, measure of success that you are using is just looking at the numbers on the scale or the inches that you lost, you are going to feel so overwhelmed, you’re going to feel more frustrated, more ticked off, and you’re gonna give up more often. Versus choosing to measure your success by the processes by the things that you do on a daily regular basis that get you the results that you want over time. Now, I want to give you some examples of these. Hey, just to let you know, too. If you want to learn more about working with me, check out the show notes. And follow me on Instagram @leahvandolder. So let’s talk about the process goals. So instead of following this super strict meal plan and exercising five times a week, because we know that doesn’t work, a total overhaul never works very long. We want to talk about some simple steps or tweaks. I love tweaking your nutrition plans, your exercise your hydration, all that good stuff. So when Carly and I started working together, you know, we talked about her outcome goals, right? Her weight loss goals, her energy goals. And I said, All right, this is great. But instead of focusing on those as your successors, we’re gonna focus on things like your morning routine, what you’re having for breakfast, moving your body on a daily basis versus, you know, getting into the gym for a crazy workout, and prioritizing some time to prep some vegetables and lean protein throughout the week. So for her, I mean, those are our starting steps. And you’re probably thinking those are so easy.

They are, and they’re not overwhelming, and was my way of doing things and helping busy working women and female entrepreneurs is we start with small actionable steps. You practice those for a few weeks, maybe even a month, you start Nayla knows awesome, then we layer something else in. So for Carly, starting off with getting up at a bed when her alarm goes off versus pressing snooze three times, taking her supplement in the morning with a big glass of water, having a high protein, high fiber breakfast, simply moving her body on a daily basis and getting some veggie prep done every week. She told me the other day, she’s like I started doing those things on a regular basis without it feeling like much effort. And she said before I know it I was achieving my results. Without even realizing it. I was achieving my weight loss and my energy goals and you know those physical and emotional goals without even realizing it.

Like how amazing does that feel? Versus looking at the scale multiple times a week and saying nothing’s working and then just tossing in the towel and feeling shitty about yourself. Right? Now, you may be thinking what did these simple steps or these little things? Do they really make a difference over time? Yeah, they do.

You’re able to stick to small, actionable steps, you’re more consistent. The payoff is massive. Carly was just telling me today she’s like since December. So that was three months ago from when I’m doing the this recording. She’s like, I just decided to take my weight for the first time ever, just to see. She said I’m down almost 20 pounds. I’m down to pant sizes. I have way more energy. I have no aches, no pains in my body and she’s like Frank, I’m 35 I shouldn’t be having these aches and pains in the first place. She’s way more productive in our work day. She’s a busy female entrepreneur.

And she said it’s not just the physical wins that I’m experiencing but it’s those emotional and those personal when she say I look in the mirror and I am happy with what I see. I look in the mirror and I don’t hate on myself. I love where I am at. I appreciate how far I’ve come and I also have have goals to better myself over time. And I just want to remind you to because we often forget, but it is so important to acknowledge your progress instead of just thinking about, Oh my gosh, you know, all the other things that I need to accomplish or trying to rush the whole journey, right?

Acknowledge and appreciate where you’re at what you have achieved over time. You can love yourself with where you’re at, and have goals to better yourself and work towards things down the road, those two things can coexist, right? You don’t have to reserve feeling happy and accomplished and good about yourself.

Only when you achieve your, you know, big goal, do it now. Do it through the process. It feels so much better. That’s something that I’ve learned too, is building a business over the last couple of years instead of feeling like you’re not doing enough and not celebrating, you know, your accomplishments thus far.

It is so much more of an enjoyable process. When you appreciate what you’re accomplishing, acknowledging where you want to go. And just loving on yourself every damn day.

I hope this is hitting home today. And if you’re listening to this episode, and you love it, I would love if you could review and give this a five star rating because it honestly really helps the growth of this podcast and it helps reach more women that needs to hear this message. Because we’re so hard on yourself and in this world that we live in today, weight loss you know quote unquote solutions are ridiculous. So many of them are unsustainable and really affect not only your relationship with your with food, but the relationship with yourself and your body. And I’m here to stand up against the diet culture and helping women build and create healthy habits for themselves to you know, reduce their stress, boost their mood boosts their self confidence, and achieve their goals without feeling like they’re a total chore. So thanks so much for tuning in today. I really appreciate connecting with you and I will see you in the next episode.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Reclaim podcast. If you enjoy this episode, I encourage you to follow rate and review. To learn more about working with me check out my website at leahvandolder.com Thank you again for being here. It means the world to be able to connect with you, girl keep doing amazing things. You have everything that it takes to achieve your goals and be successful at anything that you want.