Bringing Coaching to Weight Loss

So many weight loss programs focus on what you eat, with a meal plan, calorie count, point count, etc. etc.  I wonder if some coaching techniques will work with weight loss, too.  Any of you who are interested in losing a little winter weight might try this, too.  Let me know how it goes.

Future Self

Many of you are familiar with the Future Self visualization, in which you get very relaxed and imagine the you that you want to be ten or twenty years down the road.  I think it would be interesting to take that same idea and apply it to weight loss.  So imagine yourself five, ten, twenty pounds lighter.  How will you look?  How will you feel? Take a pen and paper and make a list of how you want to be when this goal is accomplished, something like this:

I will wear fashionable summer clothes in size ____.

I will have more energy.

I will get lots of compliments from my friends and family.

I will feel more optimistic.

I will feel wonderful about accomplishing a goal that's important to me.

Make as many "I wills" as you can think of.  This is the visioning/motivating part of the goal.  Make several copies of the list and keep it in handy places.  Now make the commitment to read your list every morning and at least two more times during the day until you have reached your goal. You can add more "I wills" to it if you like.

The Plan

Of course, you will need a good diet plan, too.  If this was another goal you wanted to accomplish, you would pull out all the stops to get there, right?  So research a good plan that is sustainable.  Weight Watchers works.  I have also had excellent results with The Beck Diet Plan Solution Weight Loss Workbook by Judith S. Beck (available at Indigo, or Amazon) that explores cognitive therapy in conjunction with weight loss.  I read another great book called "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite" by David Kessler.  It's not a diet plan, but an explanation of how our abundant society "cues" us to overeat.  Very interesting.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Coaching goals are about making S.M.A.R.T. goals.  Specific.  Measurable.  Accountable.  Resonant. and Thrilling.  And weight loss can include all these things.  You need a specific amount you want to lose in a specific time.  It is measurable. Your coach can help you be accountable... or you can join a program with a weigh-in component for the accountability.  To make the program resonant, you really have to want to lose weight.  The "I will" technique above should help with that.  And it has to be thrilling! Make sure your goal includes losing only one or two pounds a week.  This will help with the thrilling part. Get some great recipes that you really like. The pounds will begin to come off and you will feel like you are really accomplishing something.

Weight Loss as the Path to Self Learning
Your coach can really help when you get stuck in your weight loss journey.  Getting stuck helps us learn so much about ourselves.  Where you get stuck with weight loss might be the same place you would get stuck if you were writing a novel or with a project at work.  The same saboteurs might be at play. And the things that you learn about how to manage these saboteurs will undoubtedly transfer into other parts of your life, too. 
Losing weight can be a wonderful gateway for opening up the Big Picture:  what you aspire to in your life and how to get closer today; how you get stuck on the path and how to move through that place; how to keep your life in balance; and how to fully appreciate wherever you are in the process.