How to Maintain a Healthy Weight by Developing Resilience
"Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems." — Gever Tulley
Have you ever done a "kitchen cleanout"?
If you're like most of the women I work with,
Then you've probably done it more than once...
Because it's the standard way to begin any new diet.
A kitchen cleanout gets rid of the not so healthy and/or trigger foods and then replaces them with a stockpile of healthier options.
In practice, it goes a little something like this:
Declare that you "are not screwing around this time" and that you are "all in" on getting healthy
Take inventory of all the junk food in your house
Spend the weekend eating as much of it as you can, because "come Monday, this stuff is GONE FOREVER"
Throw the rest of it away on Sunday night and replace it with healthier options like fresh fruits and vegetables (feeling very righteous and admirable as you do so)
A kitchen cleanout can be a very helpful strategy in the beginning, as it makes it much easier to plan and structure healthy eating.
Creating a home environment that supports your goals will most likely lead to success...in the short term.
But it isn't a foolproof strategy for the long term.
That is...
Unless you want to live like a hermit.
Because REMOVING triggers doesn't teach you how to OVERCOME them.
And, at SOME POINT, you will need to engage with the "outside world"...
...where there are cookies, and pizza, and beer...
OH MY!
And if the only strategy available to you is to NOT ALLOW those things in your sight...
🙈
Your success isn't going to last very long.
And this is why so many women struggle with maintaining their weight loss.
They "do so well" when everything is "controlled",
But when the novelty of living out of tupperware wears off and they, heaven forbid, eat a meal outside of the controlled environment of their own kitchen...
...all hell breaks loose.
And they think that THEY are failures as a result.
Without ever stopping to think about how their DIET was setting them up for failure the whole time.
Because you cannot insulate yourself forever.
You cannot REMOVE all...
Sources of stress
Bad days
Unhealthy foods
Toxic people
...from your life.
But you CAN make yourself more RESILIENT to them.
Rather than avoiding and hiding from life's challenges, resilient women work through them by using:
Social support
Healthy coping strategies
Inner wisdom and self-awareness
A solutions-focused mindset
And, shockingly, a refrigerator full of broccoli won't help you develop those things.
So sure, you can throw out the literal (and metaphorical) cookies...
And create a "safe space" for you to start building healthier habits.
But eventually you will need to become STRONGER than the cookies.
You will need to develop RESILIENCE so that you can be successful regardless of your environment OR your circumstances.
And in order to build resilience you need to do the OPPOSITE of a "kitchen cleanout"...
You need to relinquish control.
And accept the fact that:
Stressful situations
Crappy days
Annoying people
Tempting foods
Are all a normal part of life that you CANNOT control or avoid,
And that, the only aspect you CAN control is how you respond to it all.
What are YOU doing today to develop resilience?
