I've now been instructing for about 6-7 months, and last week was the second class I taught where I wasn't covering for someone else; it was actually *my* spot on the timetable. It's a little frustrating that I only teach my own class once every two weeks, but that's a decision that the management has made about the timetable and I have to roll with it.
After my class, one of the members started chatting to me when I was making my way from the RPM room to my car, and she asked me advice about weight loss. She'd been going to the gym for quite some time and hadn't been able to lose weight, while others had been going to the gym for a much shorter period of time, doing less working out, and had dropped 3 dress sizes.
Of course, I am the least qualified person on the planet to give any advice about weight loss. I've spent the best part of 2 decades trying to lose weight and failing, so how am I supposed to give advice to a member trying to lose weight when it's something that I've never been able to do myself?
Here's what I told her:
My personal story with weight loss is this. I tried for the majority of my life to lose weight - my parents began monitoring my food intake when I was 5 and I started dieting and training when I was 7. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, it never was enough and my body just didn't change the way I was expecting it to. I was getting fitter, but I still looked the way I did while people around me were putting less than half the effort in and dropping the weight.She went on to say that since she'd been doing RPM in mine and the other instructors classes, she found that she was able to do more high impact work in the other classes - in particular, BODYATTACK which is predominantly high impact. I said that that's the evidence that what she's been doing is having a positive impact on her body and that is something she should be proud of.
The body is a complicated thing and too often we're bombarded with messages saying that it's 'simple' to lose weight, which it's not. What is simple, is being healthy, and after failing at weight loss for so long, I finally went, "Sod it." and focused on something I *could* do, which is be healthy. Whether that leads to weight loss or not is something that I won't hang myself up on.
I was a bit wrecked about the conversation for a few days... sometimes when you've shifted from weight loss to size acceptance, when you talk about it from people whose goal it is to lose weight, it's at the back of my mind whether they'll interpret the message as, "Just give up, there's no point", when that's not what I'm trying to say at all. I'm trying to say, "Don't give yourself a hard time if it doesn't happen for you, and don't lose sight of the positive changes that you are making and the impact they are having."
Thankfully, I spoke to a friend of the member about the conversation and she said that the impact of it was that she was *buzzing* afterwards, and the reason why she'd spoken to me is because she felt I could empathise with her and that the other instructors may not.
Phew!
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6 comments:
What you said is exactly what I tell clients who are feeling as though they've failed because they haven't lost weight (or as much weight as they'd like). There are always signs of improvement in other ways than weight loss - increases in strength or fitness, or improved health markers, like blood pressure or cholesterol.
As long as they can see that what they're doing is contributing to good health, they're unlikely to give up. And whether they lose weight or not, they're still better off. :)
I think what you said made lots of sense, and it sounds like it made sense to her too. One more reason I think you are exactly where you are supposed to be - because people WILL feel they can talk to you because in a way you are less intimidating. I know I would never go up to one of the hard-body teachers and ask them something like that bc I would feel like they were judging me or they would just tell me everyone can do it, just try harder. Blah!!
I think what you're doing is awesome both for you, and the positive impact i know you are going to have on many many people.
Hi! I'm so glad I found your blog. I'm just starting to lose weight, and I think blogging is really going to help me out. Congrats on everything so far. I'm definitely bookmarking your link!
Thanks for sharing your personal story with us. I also think a healthy lifestyle is important whether one is trying to lose weight or not.
That was great advice you gave her!
I needed it for myself! Thank you!
Have a pretty day!
Kristin
I think another issue to is how people just can't seem accept that it takes time. They want results fast and that not how it works. Ultimately people need to realize it's get healthy lose weight not lose weight get healthy. Starving yourself by cutting calories is not healthy.