This is the absolute last day you can get into the Weight Loss for Black Professionals weight loss course in 2022! Once registration closes, I won’t open the course again until 2023. So if you’ve been waiting and considering and you really wanted to make major changes in your body and your relationship with food THIS year, don’t wait – register at this link!

 

It’s the final week in this series on permanent weight loss – I’m so glad you’re here! It’s time to close this series out, but before you jump in with both feet to make it happen, I want to give you the third thing you must have to get to your goal and stay there.

 

You’ve got to have a BIG reason.

 

Now, BIG isn’t an acronym. I actually mean that your reason for losing weight needs to be big, powerful, and compelling. It has to be something that will make you hesitate before you cheat or quit or make excuses for not following your plan. It has to be bigger than some of your ordinary, everyday reasons.  I want to share with you how I found my bigger reason because it helped keep me on track when I would have veered off much sooner without it!

 

But first…

 

I want to share the kind of reasons you don’t want to use to motivate yourself.

 

These reasons are no good because they’re beyond you. You can’t use them as a gauge for success, because you don’t control them. Here’s an example: “I want to lose weight so my kids will be proud of me.” Sounds selfless and noble, sort of. But you can’t use it. First, you have absolutely no control over what emotions your kids feel because they control their emotions. You can’t create their emotions for them. You might be able to influence how they feel, but honestly, it’s just as likely that your kids won’t even notice that you lost weight at all.

Choosing a reason like that is a setup for failure. Your reason needs to be about you. Likewise, reasons like “I want my husband to be proud of me when we go out on a date” or “I want my friends at book club/PTA/church to notice all the effort I’ve made to lose weight and celebrate with me” aren’t going to work either. You’ve got no control over other people’s feelings.

However…

You can choose to become the kind of mom who can run up and down the stairs and keep up with her busy toddler because you’ve got your extra weight off. Or to be the kind of mom who participates in the family kayaking expedition instead of staying behind because you won’t be comfortable fitting your body in a kayak the way it is right now. You may choose to create a stronger, lighter body that you’re proud of because that’s how you want to show up in the world.

 

When I made the shift to lose weight for good, I found a bigger reason than any other reason on my list. When I thought about my life, the common thread through it all was that God had always been there to help me overcome every obstacle to each accomplishment to achieve every goal. He’d been there to help me become the doctor I wanted to be, to marry the man of my dreams, to give me the children I longed for.

So much of my life was about intellectual and emotional pursuits, and I included God in them. But I left my body out of it. I didn’t connect that God was also the giver of my body with all the beauty and intricacies of its design. Of course God was powerful enough to create me – shouldn’t I trust and follow him as I cared for and fed my body?

 

 

My BIG reason for losing weight was to honor God in my eating. This was bigger than me. I was no longer going to grab and eat just because I wanted to, but I would trust the built-in gifts of hunger and fullness from God to guide me. When I didn’t want to stay on my plan or wanted to eat for reasons other than hunger, remembering that I was honoring God made me hesitate before I gave in to myself. Was I going to trust him or not?

 

You don’t have to have MY big reason to get to permanent weight loss. But you do need A big reason. You just have to decide what’s big and compelling enough to keep you on track when you want to quit. Because you WILL want to quit. Sometimes every day. You’ll have to question yourself before you grab the handful of M&Ms, serve yourself seconds, or eat the doughnuts in the breakroom that wasn’t in your plan. All the little cheats and giving up and restarting are undermining your progress! What’s going to compel you to keep going?

 

Maybe you already have your whole list of whys. And you might even have a BIG reason to lose weight for good. So what’s holding you back? You know you’re ready to do this, but you want some support and accountability. If that’s where you are, register for Weight Loss for Black Professionals. But don’t wait too long – registration is closing today. If you want help, let’s go! You don’t have to do this alone!

 

Here’s your video help for the week!