Want To Lose Weight? Lose The Story and Lose The Weight

Does that sound harsh? It’s not intended to be. Rather, it’s meant to jog your mind a bit with the bigger intention of freeing you from a limiting belief.

Andrea is a bright, busy, self-employed boomer. We work together on occasion and spend time chatting about this and that as we go about our work. Recently she mentioned that she was doing Atkins. “I’ve got to get 25 pounds off and it’s just impossible because 5 years ago I had a hysterectomy” she explained. Hold this thought.

A client I’ll call Joanne decided to take on her midlife health issues which include Syndrome X, bad knees, and high blood pressure. She knew her weight was too high for good health but pretty much felt resigned to being overweight because “the women on her mother’s side were all heavy.” “It’s my genes you know?” she lamented. “There is only so much I can do and the weight just comes back if I do lose a few pounds.”

Do you see yourself in either of these women? Is there a similar theme running through your life?

Stories are born in many ways. As we are growing up we weave the beliefs we learn from our parents, relatives, and others into stories that define us. Another reason we write a story is to protect ourselves, to keep us comfortable and safe. Do you have a story that you tell over and over, one that is familiar and habitual but upon closer examination doesn’t have a good foundation?

Here is where Andrea’s story is weak. Having a hysterectomy has no direct connection to getting fat. If you have a total hysterectomy you will no longer have ovaries which produce estrogen and you will have to adjust to that lack of estrogen, but that alone is not a fat sentence.

Having a history of any disease; diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease; does not automatically translate into your having it. As Dr. Pam Peeke says, “Genes load the gun but lifestyle pulls the trigger.”

If you’ve got a story that is holding you in a place you no longer want to be, why not write yourself a new one? In Joanne’s case she could say, “wow, all these years I’ve been living someone else’s story and it’s killing me. I’m going to get healthy and I’ll be an example to the rest of my family that it’s possible.”

What’s your story about the weight? Why not write a new story with a happy ending.

And see what this small change can do for your whole life.

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