The mental side of weight management

Weight loss or gain can be mentally exhausting. First of all, the scale can lie. Muscle tissue weighs more than fat. So if you are wanting to loose fat and gain muscle you may want to rather take body measurements or see how a certain pair of jeans fit in order to guage your progress.

You may also want to consider the greater perspective, of what does having a healthy body weight and good metabolic health afford you? The reality is that not only does your metabolic health determine your body composition, it also determines your cardiovascular health, mental health and even your risk of cancer and many other chronic diseases. Good metabolic health is the biggest predictor of longevity. These are powerful long term motivators for health.  When one takes a long term view, it becomes about much more than whether the scale is up 0.5kgs today, or the inner critic inside you telling you that that you may as well eat the entire packet of cookies because you gave in and ate one. If one can start to think about gut health and metabolic health, it starts to change the dialogue in your head.

The great news is that if you can start to make positive changes to your nutrition, gut health, sleep, exercise, and mindset, all these elements have a positive impact on all the other areas. So even if you just start in one area, that areas has the opportunity to start you on a positive upward spiral to better health.

Making these lifestyle changes into sustainable habits is key, and doing them consistently is what creates long term metabolic health.