Easy weight loss…it seems like that would be ideal for anyone who wants to lose weight- no food is off limits, you can have whatever food they want as long as you’re balancing it out over the course of the day and you’re being mindful of portions and servings.  For some, though, feeling like they’re not even dieting is causing feelings of guilt.

Despite all the amazing progress my Fat Loss Crew is making doing everything I just mentioned above, it is also one of the things some of these guys are struggling with. They feel like they’re not struggling enough, and if they’re not struggling then how can they possibly be making progress? But progress is happening.  We can tell by how their clothes fit, by how energetic they’re feeling and how mindful they’ve become about making food choices.

So what’s up with the guilt?

When weight loss gets easy, we think we should be doing more, working out harder, and making our diet more extreme. If we’re not struggling we must be doing something wrong.  This is sort of what we’re taught indirectly by lots of diets out there:

Go low-carb. Along with dropping some water weight real quick you’ll also get a side of low energy, mood swings, cravings and bad breath! 

Try counting macros, just be sure you count every gram  of protein, fat and carbs for every single thing you eat so hit all your numbers accurately! 

Just use supplements.  You can gain muscle, lose fat just by following a meal plan, taking a fist full of pills and drinking two shakes per day all for only $200 per month!  Who needs real food anyway?!

All the sacrifice and extra hard work makes us feel like we’re super powerful as if to say “look how strong my willpower is!  I haven’t had chocolate in two weeks!  I’m working harder than anyone else I know and I’m sacrificing so much!” There’s some sense of pride in all that sacrifice.

But where does that struggle and sacrifice get us and is it really working?  My guess would be no.  In my experience, deprivation and restriction = overeating or bingeing, meal plans set us up for failure because if we don’t follow them exactly we tend to throw in the towel, and using supplements as regular meal replacements is just not something I’m on board with for lots of reasons (I touch on that topic a bit here but it’s really another post for another time) 😉

So, if you can still get great results without going to extremes, wouldn’t that be a great place to start?  I certainly think so!
For example, let’s say you’ve got all your meals prepped and packed for the day.  When you get to work you remember the office is ordering pizza for lunch and you really want a slice.  You tell yourself “no I’m eating what I brought.  Pizza is bad for me, too many carbs, too much fat, and besides, I can’t have it because it’s not on my meal plan.”  With this kind of thinking you are pretty much guaranteed to be thinking about that pizza before, during and after lunch which will lead to feelings of deprivation and restriction, which will lead you to overeating something other than what you really wanted in the first place (pizza) or going home and ordering a pizza and inhaling it without thinking. 

So what can you do instead?  If you really want the pizza and have made a mindful decision to have some, eat a couple slices.  Pizza has carbs, fat and some protein so you can eat some veggies alongside it if you have any handy and there’s your meal. At your next meal or snack you can just pick up where you left off.  Simple, right?!

Instead of focusing on feeling guilty for not dieting hard or feeling like you need to sacrifice more, just be happy that it doesn’t have to be that hard!  There’s room for everything in your diet, you just have to know how to balance everything out.  In my #simplesanesuccessful Fat Loss Nutrition Guide I show you exactly how to do that and it’s a great way to get started.  The entire goal of this guide is to show you that weight loss doesn’t have to be SO EFFING HARD, in fact, it can be pretty simple.  You don’t have to struggle, restrict and suffer.  If you have the option to make weight loss simple, why not give it a shot?