ONE thing that finally worked…

I stumbled upon it ​reddit thread​ that really caught my attention.

Someone asked, “What is the ‘one thing’ that made my weight loss work?

And this question had 5,400 answers (and counting).

Some of the responses included changes in the environment or changing the way they prepare food:

“Pouring snacks into little ramekins for them to eat. I suddenly ate a normal amount of snacks.”

“I prepared a meal for my typical amount of food and instead of putting it in 2 bowls, I spread it evenly across 4 bowls. I made myself eat only 1 box per meal and tricked my brain into thinking that was my normal amount.”

Others changed what they ate:

“I found a salad that I really like. It sounds stupid, but I’ve never really craved a salad before, and really liking one salad meant I went for a solid few weeks of eating a lot of lettuce – it snowballed from there, because I actually felt good, and then I started craving it good.”

Some took a more holistic approach that involved re-examining their relationship with food, hunger and discomfort:

“Understand that it’s a lifestyle change, NOT a diet.”

“Embrace the suffering. Expect to be breathing heavy and uncomfortable when doing cardio, expect to be sore after lifting, and expect to be hungry when you restrict your intake.”

Others used calorie-tracking apps, which made them realize how much they were eating:

“I use an app to track everything I’ve eaten. I realized that many of the “healthy” things I was eating, in the amounts I was eating them in, were much higher in calories than I thought. Just cutting back on certain foods did the trick.”

And some have succeeded thanks to an initial attempt at medication:

“I was seeing a doctor about my type 2 diabetes. I was over 300 pounds and I also had coronary artery disease. I have qualified for diabetes medications that also help with appetite control. I started tracking calories and exercising.”

“semaglutide”

Some prioritize physical activities instead of focusing on food:

“Finding a hobby. I overeat because I was bored. Coming home from work to sit on the couch would make it so much easier to eat like shit… now I just go and do something I love so I don’t find eating a distraction.”

“Walking. Proof that I lost 45 pounds in 7 months just by walking around my neighborhood every night. It was free and weak, I walked rain or shine even through snow storms. Now I have a treadmill and walk indoors, but it still feels as great as it did at the beginning.”

As we go through this list, reading thousands of comments from people who reflect on the ‘one thing’ that changed their life, and how different they are from them, we can draw some fascinating conclusions.

3 short lessons we can learn

LESSON 1: “Success is moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” -Winston Churchill.

The hardest part of being healthy is no losing hope when some strategy you try fails. I bet every person who shared their answer above has tried dozens of different strategies to try to get fit. Hell, I bet they tried most of the things that worked for other people until they found the one that worked for them.

What can we learn from this: “Hope is that ​warrior emotions that destroy cynicism​“, and it’s okay to hope that every failed attempt means one less strategy to try in the future.

For example, if you’ve already tried Keto 5 times and can’t stick, congratulations! You’ve found a diet that isn’t working for you.

If you can keep it ​‘beta test’ mentality​ from “I’m going to see if it works for me”, you might just find the first domino to fall on yours journey!

LESSON 2: Beware of charlatans.

Spend enough time on social media and you’ll eventually come across health and wellness quacks. These are the people who tell you that only they have one solution for all your problems. They often have a villain for all the world’s evil (“its sugar! It’s carbs! It’s X ingredient!”).

And sure enough, when they’ve got you fear-mongering and scared, they give you hope with their expensive unregulated supplement or secure system.

As you can see in the examples above, there is no “one size fits all” for these things. Each person is a unique weirdo with different baggage and triggers, traumas and experiences that make some solutions home-made, and other solutions not for beginners.

You can read more about how to spot and avoid charlatans in my previous essay here: “​How not to go crazy on the Internet​.”

Which brings me to the third point!

LESSON THREE: All fitness stories have 3 annoying things in common!

While all of these “one thing” solutions to getting in shape are different, they all have a few similarities.

Good news? None of these things are revolutionary, proprietary or fancy.

It literally boils down to 3 things:

• Consuming the correct number of calories for your goal weight
• Getting some form of physical movement
• Make these two things part of a lifelong lifestyle adjustment.

Weight loss is not magic. It’s math and behavior change.

As I cover in mine ​weight loss guide​science is focused on this.

Any diet can work if it puts us in a caloric deficit. We have ​coaching clients​ who are vegan, others who go keto, some who count calories, and others who do intermittent fasting.

Our ability to turn dietary changes into a lifestyle we can live with is how we find success, and that looks different for everyone.

Speaking of lifestyle changes, most of the answers above also include finding ways to make exercise a regular part of life.

Remember: It’s okay not to like exercise. We weren’t designed to like exercise! Especially if it’s an activity we don’t actually enjoy! We are designed to survive in times of scarcity, NOT to thrive in times of unlimited abundance.

So how do we make exercise a part of our lifestyle?

We have to find ways to ​make exercise fun, useful, or necessary​:

• entertainment: join a walking/running club with friends, give it a try ​temptation bundling​.
• Beneficial: fall in love with ​getting stronger​ and more confident and how much better you feel after exercising.
• required: Advance payment for the coach, parking at the end of the parking lot, bike to work.

Remember that hope is a warrior’s emotion.

We humans are incredibly adaptable creatures capable of change.

Keep trying different strategies, beware of charlatans and don’t forget the basics!

And pretty soon one day, you too could be sharing the first domino that fell and changed things for you.

-Steve

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