Reaching Your Health Goals

For years I watched The Biggest Loser (TBL) series. It was flat-out amazing that some contestants were losing 10, 20, and even 30 pounds in one week! For the excited television audience, TBL established some pretty unrealistic expectations about weight loss.

For many people, those expectations still exist. A special occasion—a wedding, reunion, graduation, vacation, or even the beginning of a new year—can inspire a crash diet almost guaranteed to drop some weight in a short period of time. Unfortunately, it is also almost guaranteed that the weight will eventually return, often bringing a few extra pounds along with it.

Why? Because losing weight and learning how to live at a healthier weight are two very different things.

Quick-fix diets usually have an expiration date. We "go on" the diet, follow a list of rules, eliminate certain foods, count points or calories, buy special products, or endure hunger because there is a finish line somewhere in sight. We tell ourselves, I can do anything for six weeks.

And maybe we can. But what happens in week seven? That's where the real work—and the real success—begins.

I have had the privilege of watching one client answer that question over the past 10–12 years. Her transformation didn't happen during a 12-week challenge. There were no dramatic television weigh-ins, trainers screaming from the sidelines, or confetti falling from the ceiling.

Instead, there were thousands of ordinary days filled with choices.

One meal. One walk. One grocery trip. One decision to keep going after a difficult week. One healthy habit practiced often enough that eventually it became part of everyday life.

Over those years, she has lost more than 100 pounds. She has gone from wearing a size 22W to a size 10—and even those size 10s are getting baggy! That's certainly something worth celebrating. But the number on the scale isn't what impresses me most.

She has kept going.

Her success didn't come from being perfect. It came from being persistent. She learned healthier ways to eat. She became more active. She made changes she could actually live with—not for 30 days, but for years. When life got in the way, as life always does, she didn't declare herself a failure and give up. She simply found her way back to the habits that had helped her succeed.

That's a very different mindset from the "diet starts Monday" approach.

We often underestimate what can happen when small improvements are repeated over a long period of time. A pound or two may not seem exciting when television transformations have taught us to expect double-digit losses. But sustainable change isn't supposed to be a race.

Think about it another way. If you improve your health a little this month and continue building on that progress next month, where could you be a year from now? Five years from now? Ten years from now?

My client knows the answer. More than 100 pounds didn't disappear overnight. A size 22W didn't become a size 10 in 30 days. Her transformation was built gradually, through consistency, patience, and a willingness to keep moving forward. And perhaps that is the lesson we need most.

You don't have to change everything today. You just must change something—and keep building from there.

There will be weeks when the scale doesn't cooperate. There will be vacations, holidays, birthdays, stressful days, busy schedules, and unexpected detours. None of those erase the progress you've already made. They are simply part of living.

Health isn't something we achieve and then check off our list. It is something we practice. So forget the dramatic television weigh-in. Forget losing 20 pounds before the reunion. Forget the latest promise to "drop a dress size by Friday."

Instead, ask yourself a different question: What is one change I can make today that I would still be willing to do a year from now?

Start there. Because the most successful health plan isn't the one that helps you lose weight the fastest.

It's the one that helps you build a healthier life you don't want to quit.