Do You Ever Stonewall Your Weight Loss? by Joan Kent, PhD

 

When I was running a weight-loss program, participant resistance was such a big part of it, I just accepted that it went with the territory.

 

“Resist” has many synonyms: oppose, battle, combat, duel, fight back, put up a fight, defy, struggle against, stonewall. Why would someone join a weight-loss program – and pay lots of money – only to do these things?

 

Below are only a few examples of actual participant behavior during the 13 years I ran a program that combined athletic performance training and a robust nutrition plan geared to weight loss and ending sugar addiction.

 

Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

 

Jeffrey

Jeffrey was our first participant. He got used to having my full attention and turned petulant when other participants joined. From that point on, he continually criticized the program and stopped following instructions. When I said peanut butter was okay to eat, he ate a 1-pound jar in a day.

 

John

John participated for almost a year before he lost any weight. Once his weight started dropping, he told me that, at first, he wanted to prove it wouldn’t work, so he made sure it didn’t.

 

Kathy

Kathy complained about hearing sugar addiction info in both a live class and a webinar, never realizing she heard it twice because it was key. Once, after a private consult, she waved to me from the window of Pete’s (the coffee place) while eating. Based on Pete’s menu, draw your own conclusions about her food.

 

Kimberly

Kimberly was a vegetarian, miserable, touchy, and quick to anger. She masked it with a phony-soft voice but complained to management about everything (especially me). Even her doctor had told her she needed protein. On Day 1, I knew she’d never finish the first quarter. She didn’t.

 

Tom

Tom reacted to the rule about avoiding alcohol with a strange grin. He dropped out and rejoined over a year later. He reacted to the alcohol rule with the same grin, dropped out again and never came back.

 

Shelly

Shelly was in sales and said she had to drink with clients. She had many reasons she couldn’t get around drinking. She never lost weight until she did the AIDS ride from San Francisco to L.A.  Without alcohol, her weight finally dropped.

 

Kristin

Kristin’s attendance at trainings was poor. Because it was a progressive, periodized training program and not a drop-in class, she didn’t progress. She also demanded detailed menus instead of guidelines. When we didn’t supply menus right away, that became her excuse to eat pizza, drink wine, and never keep a food log.

 

When we developed menus, she complained they weren’t specific enough. She wanted to know precisely what SHE should eat every hour of every day. She gave me The South Beach Diet and said our nutrition program was just like it. It wasn’t, but I never understood why she didn’t just follow that diet instead of eating nachos and drinking margaritas. Or what any of this had to do with never logging her food intake as instructed.

 

So….

 

Why do people pay lots of money and then resist? Here are a few reasons.

 

Alcoholism

Addiction defies rules of reason and logic. It’s a complex topic, very briefly covered in previous posts. Alcohol can also sabotage weight loss, as covered in another post.

 

Sugar Addiction

See above. People will go to extreme lengths to avoid giving up their favorite foods. Lots of blame gets thrown.

 

Not Taking Responsibility

They’re overweight because of their spouse’s work schedule. Or they go to restaurants frequently. Or they never learned what to eat as kids. Or… fill in the blank.

 

Plausible Diversion

Registering and paying for an expensive, intensive program showed their sincere desire to lose weight. If they didn’t lose, it was the program’s fault, not theirs for never doing the work to make it happen.

 

These stories aren’t pretty – and they’re crummy memories – but they’re 100% true. If you’ve had a similar experience, why not let me help you start moving in the right direction? Just visit LastResortNutrition.com and grab your Weight Loss for Real consult. Discover how easy it can be to get – and stay – on the right track. You’ll love the results.

 

Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar.