5 Secrets

Lasting Weight

Loss

to

Michaela Ballmann, MS RD CLT

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Nice to Meet You!I get you. I totally understand how you’re feeling and whatyou’re going through. I’m all too familiar with what it’s like to hate my body, overexercise, undereat, get entranced with the claims of superfoods and diets, and spend all my time, thoughts and energy on controlling my weight and food intake.

It’s not a happy place to be.

I also am not in that place anymore and I know that you too can experience healing and restoration. You too can find your way back to intuitive, mindful, normal eating and lasting weight loss.

Onward and upward!?

Michaela Ballmann, MS RD CLTFounder, Wholify

­ ¬ŧ Ȟ

www.wholify.com

They woo you with their flash and charm, they promise you everything you ever wanted and more, they give you a semblance of hope, control and change…but it’s all a lie.

Diets are deceptive

That’s how the $64 billion dollar industry makes their beaucoup bucks year after year. The diet industry has based their business on the diet failing and then blaming it on you. All of these weight loss plans, however glamorous, blame you when they fail.

Diets don’t work

You’re not the reason why every diet you tried hasn’t followed through with it’s promises. It’s because the promises are empty. Diets are incapable of making good on their promises.

The truth is that you’re not the problem

• It’s because you don’t have enough willpower!

• You’re weak and didn’t overcome your hunger!

• You’re a disappointment. Why can’t you follow the (highly restrictive, unrealistic, unsustainable)

plan?

• You need to exercise more!

• What’s wrong with you?

95% of people who go on a diet will regain the weight they lost...and sometimes more.

Let me say that a different way.

That’s a really bad track record. Anything else with such a bad success rate would be laughed out of town.

It’s time to find a real solution

• no more yo-yo dietiting

• end your struggle with food and weight

• goodbye to hunger, restriction, guilt and shame

• find freedom and confidence with food

• feel happy in your own skin

• discover lasting weight loss and never diet again

Diets fail people (like you!) 95% of the time

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Here are my

the diet industry doesn’t want you to know:

5 Secrets to Lasting Weight Loss

1.Discover true nourishment and how it makes you feel

If you’ve been on a diet, you’re familiar with bland food, steamed vegetables and the dreaded chicken breast. No wonder you were hungry! and bored. and craving carbohydrates. and eyeing your spouse’s dinner plate. and on the verge of a binge. Our bodies want real food because that it what makes them thrive. True nourishment means eating foods that are wholesome and satisfying, providing rich nutrition so that our minds and bodies have what they need to run optimally. It also means

And it helps to be curious about what nourishes you:

• what foods make you feel energized? • what do you eat that makes you feel tired or lethargic moments later? • what tends to satisfy your hunger and also provide contentment at the end of the meal? • what foods do you eat just because you think you should? • what foods do you crave because you’re “not supposed to have them”?

Nourishing you is a one size fits one approach. It’s all about you, which means it will change as you change and it will adapt to what you need here and now. The timing, quantities and ingredients should all be personalized to you and what makes you feel your best. For most people, this will be accompanied by natural weight loss. Imagine that! A body and mind that thrive, weight loss that doesn’t have to be forced, and a new way of abundant living.

Start getting curious about what nourishment looks like for you. Do you remember a time or a meal when you really felt nourished?

eating foods that we truly enjoy. Eating can nourish both body and mind.

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2.Give up rules and restriction for good

Restriction (both physical and emotional) backfires. Diets are restrictive by nature. There are lists of foods you cannot eat and there are very strict amounts of food that you cannot exceed. It not only creates physical deprivation but also emotional deprivation. These are both dangerous.

This is what keeps you stuck in the vicious cycle of losing and gaining weight. One day you are “good” and on the plan, though you feel horrible. The next day, you can’t deal with the hunger or that deep desire for bread so you are “bad” and promise to be better tomorrow. This is a recipe for lasting weight cycling up and down. Giving up rules about when, where and what to eat gives you freedom.

Giving up lists of foods to eat or to avoid releases your innate wisdom and insight.

Letting go of labels and judgments of food takes away their power and the temptation or cravings to binge on them.

We need to realize that binges and weight gain are a direct result of restriction. Unconditional permission to eat whatever it is that we want is the path to weight loss.

The fear is that you will start eating donuts and never stop. Or chips. Or whatever food you don’t allow yourself to have even though you really want it. But if you started with #1 and are learning what it means to nourish yourself and discovering how foods make you feel physically and emotionally, this won’t happen.

What rules are you holding on to? What foods are you scared to eat? What would you like to eat but feel guilty just thinking about it?

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3.Make new habitsHabits are a huge, hidden part of our day. There are hundreds of actions that we go through every day that we don’t even think about - our morning routine, driving on autopilot to work, checking email after lunch.

We also have tons of food related habits, many of which may not be serving us:

• skipping breakfast

• a thermos of coffee on the way to work

• going to the vending machine around 3pm

• picking up fast food on Wednesdays

• something sweet after dinner

Think about how all these habits add up over the course of a day, week or month. Now think about how you can replace these habits that don’t contribute to your wellbeing with ones that do. A mindless afternoon candy bar every day can be replaced with an apple

or a cup of tea. You can make a habit of blending a green smoothie every morning or going for a jog after putting your coffee on to brew. Keep a food and feelings log or a daily gratitude journal. All of these healthful habits also add up, so don’t discredit the effect they can have on your weight over time. It’s easy to think that one small change won’t make a difference, but think of the change as a piece of grain thrown into a heap or a coin into a jar. The Sorites paradox (or paradox of the growing heap) has been summarized to say:

“If ten coins are not enough to make a man rich, what if you add one coin? What if you add another? Finally, you will have to say that no one can be rich unless one coin can make him so.”

If one becomes rich by adding one coin after another, you can become healthy and whole and experience lasting weight loss through the one thing you do today and tomorrow and the next. the morning walkthe lemon water instead of sodathe lunch you packed instead of eating out

What habits do you want to change? Give yourself credit and praise for every day that you add to your growing heap of health and happiness.

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4.Stop sabotaging yourselfIt’s funny and sad that we can be our worst enemies. We have great intentions but we get in our own way.

Sometimes we sabotage our own weight loss efforts by comparing ourselves to others. Or we make self-criticism one of those nasty habits that discourage us and keep us stuck. Or we buy a bag of cookies “because I deserve it”.

From personal experience and that of my clients, I’ve come to realize that we each have our own reasons. We’re scared of success. We’re tired and frustrated. We’re impatient with the process. We’re addicted to being on a diet and experiencing all the emotional highs and lows. We’re still using food as a reward, or exercise as punishment, or eating as a way of coping with difficult emotions. We need help to break free. Sabotage can be that sneaky vandal that

No shame. No judgment. Just grace, compassion and tenderness as we learn more about ourselves and also learn what else we need.

Having our needs met is essential for lasting weight loss. Sabotage often points to an unmet need.

How do you sabotage yourself? What do you think is going on? What needs (physical, emotional, spiritual) of yours are not being met?

undoes your hard work or at least stops you in your tracks. It’s also a super important sign that something else is going on. It’s time to ask questions, figure out what hidden belief or fear is behind our behavior, and have grace with ourselves.

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5.Trust your body’s innate wisdom

Trust your body. You’ve been with yourself your whole life, inhabiting your body, getting to know how you are like and unlike others. You know yourself better than anyone else, better than any book or plan. So why do you trust a diet over your own body? Why listen to how much a plan tells you to eat instead of your bodies own signal of hunger and fullness?

The most damaging message of diets is that you cannot be trusted. Your body cannot be trusted. It instills fear and doubt and also almost guarantees that you will keep dieting. You become reliant on diets, instead of confident, trusting and reliant on yourself.

Think of a young child who is vibrant and healthy. She has no conception of calories, points or exchanges. She has no idea what a starch or a fat is. And somehow she is able to eat when she is hungry and stop when she is full, choosing different foods, eating dessert without guilt, trying new things, and being present in the moment.

You have that wise child within yourself. You have those same innate abilities and wisdom to eat and enjoy food. You can trust yourself.

If I had to pick one thing that could completely revolutionize your health, relationship with food, and weight, it would be this.

Was there a time in your life when you trusted yourself around food? Why don’t you anymore? What is one thing you can do to reestablish that trust?

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Thank you so much for taking your precious time to read and reflect upon these 5 Secrets to Lasting Weight Loss. I am grateful for the opportunity to connect with you and help bring you to the other side of your struggle.

You may be feeling hopeless, stuck, frustrated and ashamed. You might think you’re never going to escape the yo-yo dieting cycle or have a body you love.

I’m here to tell you that there is hope. You can end your struggle with food and weight. You can have your cake and eat it too. You can lose weight, keep it off, and be happy in your own skin. You can have an abundant life

Will you join me?

­ ¬ŧ Ȟ

www.wholify.com

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Michaela Ballmann, MS RD CLT

Founder, Wholify

www.wholify.com