A sentiment that gets echoed time and time again in my work is people's sense of failure and disappointment when it comes to weight loss.
The roller coaster of losing weight only to regain that weight over and over again after each significant weight loss is exhausting and distressing.
Here's the thing though! You haven't failed. You never failed, the diet you were on failed you. However, the way the weight loss is spoken about in diet culture, has wrongly become a reflection of the individual's lack of compliance, dedication, and commitment, and in an even more damaging dialogue an indictment on who that person is.
This makes me sad and mad at the same time.
If weight loss were easy no one would struggle with his or her weight. Weight would not come back on often with ferocity after an initial loss. No one would eat to self soothe pain and trauma; no one would have a genetic predisposition or injury or a complicated relationship with food.
I am aware that my approach to weight management is somewhat unconventional, as I do not push people to reach goals or critique their eating with a stern eye. I do not weigh people, I do not chastise if they have had a bad week.
What I can do is catch you if you fall. Hold a safe space for you to work through a difficult week, pick you back up and see what else might make the week a little bit better.
I create a soft surface to land on rather than a hard surface to land on.
For this reason I am launching a weekly online support group where we do exactly that.This is a place to come each week where we look at the science, the emotional, the psychological, and the ups and downs of trying to sustain long-term weight management in all its messy complicated human struggles.
This group meets for an hour each week on a Wednesday evening commencing May 5th from 6pm to 7pm and is a completely confidential and judgment free zone.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to be in touch and for expressions of interest please send me an email or call me.