So what’s the missing link? Here’s the truth. Whenever I talk to a woman who is complaining with any of the previously mentioned phrases, I always find out the same thing. 

They are winging it. Yup. Winging it in every way. 

What do I mean by that? When I ask what they are doing to lose weight they’ll say “I eat healthy! I barely eat any carbs, I have maybe one drink a week and I work out every day!“. Now, you might read that and think — HELLO KELLY HOW IS THAT WINGING IT? Here’s the truth that many women don’t want to face. To lose weight after the age of, say 30– it’s going to require diligence and focus, and a PLAN that you TRACK along the way. It’s NOT ENOUGH to just “eat healthy”. Nope. It’s NOT ENOUGH to just add in working out every day (sounds harsh right? A lot of people think that if they just start working out they are set– and for sure, if you’ve never worked out and you suddenly add in 30 minutes of walking per day- you’ll lose some weight. But it’s not a sustainable plan for weight loss. Inevitably your body gets used to that activity and more importantly– if you aren’t controlling your FOOD intake, you can overcompensate for your workouts and potentially GAIN WEIGHT.) 

Are you thinking I’m going to tell you that you have to add more work in- in addition to eating healthy and working out? Are you thinking holy cow I am already doing enough and now she wants me to do more??? 

There is MORE to do but it’s not more restriction (necessarily) in your diet. There is MORE to do but it’s not hours more of working out. 

The more is this. YOU NEED TO DO MORE PLANNING. You need to in some way – figure out your ultimate GOAL. (your goal weight or body fat percentage or clothing size etc.). Then, you need to REVERSE ENGINEER THE PLAN TO GET TO THAT GOAL. Lastly, you need to monitor your activity on the way- tweak as needed, and do the same thing until you reach your goal. 

And if you DO THE ABOVE- you WILL reach your goal. If you keep being casual about your weight loss journey “I’ll JUST cut down on carbs” or “I’ll just start running again” or “I’ll just eat clean foods no packaged foods”– then you will get casual, random results. 

If you want CRAZY AWESOME RESULTS- the kind where you feel amazing naked or in a bikini- that takes A PLAN. 

I’ll use the story that’s been used time and again as an example– if you were invited to a friend’s house for dinner (pre-quarantine of course) and you had never been to their house– how would you get there? You’d probably pull up Google Maps or another Map app on your phone and it would tell you and your vehicle what to do along the way TO GET TO YOUR DESTINATION. Yet, why is it when we have a destination/goal we want to get to– we have no PLAN to get there? If we have no PLAN or way to measure progress – how do we know what is working and not working? 

Here’s an example of what a PLAN is vs. winging it. If I am a female who weighs 150 pounds and my ideal weight is 125 pounds, I know I need to lose 25 pounds.  A plan: I know that it’s doable to lose 2lbs a week but that losing 1lb a week is more sustainable. And will require less of an intense diet. So I decide I’m going to aim for losing 1lb a week. And I should expect that if I stick with a diet, it will take me 25 weeks or approximately 5 months to reach my goal. So I should get a planner or a notebook to record my food and my workouts- personal preference if you want it all in one notebook or to use different things. I use a wall calendar to record my workouts and a notebook for my food. Now- there are myriad diet calculators we can use to figure out what should be our daily caloric intake for reasonable fat loss. I use Jordan Syatt’s model which has you take your goal weight and multiply that by 12 to get your caloric deficit baseline. Then what I’ve done (click here to listen to my DETAILED 3 part podcast on this topic) is taken that caloric deficit number and figured out by tweaking the numbers and incorporating calorie cycling and intermittent fasting/fast days– how to have my cake and eat it too. I have made my diet so that on Fridays I have a cheat day of 2500 calories– and every week I have alcohol and “cheat food”- I eat carbs and sweets but I just make sure I’m in my caloric deficit. I WRITE DOWN ALL MY FOOD- so even when I go out to eat and enjoy myself it’s all being accounted for. 

Ladies, if you are just randomly choosing healthy foods and not tracking them and further- you don’t even KNOW what your caloric deficit number IS– and you think — because of all the fitness BS out there that you can “Just go keto” and not have to track calories or “just eat whole foods” and not have to track calories or ” just go Paleo” and not have to watch portions- you are woefully misinformed. If you don’t have your caloric deficit number defined, and you don’t have a PLAN to FOLLOW each week to get toward your goal– and you aren’t weighing and/or measuring yourself and/or taking the body fat measurements etc. — then you are WINGING IT. And — you can GAIN WEIGHT– eating all organic. You can GAIN WEIGHT eating paleo. You can GAIN WEIGHT eating tons of vegetables! NEWS FLASH; TO LOSE WEIGHT YOU GOTTA BE ON A PROGRAM. You gotta track it like it’s your money in a new hedge fund and you want to ensure there’s no hanky panky going on. 

IF YOUR GOAL IS IMPORTANT TO YOU- understand these 2 most important things. CALORIC DEFICIT TRUMPS EVERYTHING ELSE when it comes to weight loss. And a PLAN based on your goal and using your CALORIC DEFICIT- is how you reach your goal. 

So tell me — after reading this and thinking about what you’ve been doing the past few years– are you able to tell me if you’ve been in a caloric deficit for all the time you’ve been saying you’ve been trying to lose weight? Can you tell me how many workouts you actually did in January? 

What gets scheduled gets done, they say. Well I say, what gets PLANNED OUT gets executed and accomplished. 

So how bad do you want it? If you want it bad and need help, I would love to help you figure out your customized diet/caloric deficit plan that lets you have carbs and alcohol and sweets– while dieting and losing weight. I’m happy to make workout recommendations and you can join me in my next workout challenge group. Comment below or fill out the contact me form– we’ll set up a time to talk and I’ll share what options I have. Make this the time you FINALLY make this work for you. I’m seeing amazing results after a month of really taking it up a notch– let’s roll together shall we?? P.S. Another thing that’s helped me in a big way is cutting out snacking- CHECK OUT THIS POST to listen in and hear what I mean. I think you’ll dig it. You’ll also like this post: CLICK HERE for how not to gain weight during quarantine and CLICK HERE for detail on what I’ve been doing to gain muscle and lose fat during quarantine.