Fed up with trying to lose weight with deprivation diets and bootcamp exercise regimens? Why not take a lead from French, Mediterranean, and savvy women around the world and give the pleasurable approach to weight loss a try? It works for me and it can work for you.
I listened to a great talk last night by Tonya Leigh, a Martha Beck Master Life Coach specializing in weight loss, who has a program that helps women lose weight by tapping into their desire for pleasure. Since this is the only kind of weight loss program I’m interested in these days, she definitely got my attention.
Tonya explained that her weight loss program is rooted in what she learned from the French when she visited her husband in the south of France, while he attended graduate school. So, what were her French slimming secrets, you ask?
Savvy Weight Loss Secrets
1. Focus on quality not quantity. Quality matters and the French cultivate quality time, relationships and appreciate high quality food. Increased quality means you are magically satisfied with less. Eat smaller amounts of really satisfying food.
2. Create supportive rituals. Establish regular meal times where you sit down and really savor your food, take time to honor yourself with a bit of self love and appreciation each day, spend a few minutes visualizing your perfect day each morning and then take little steps to realize it.
3. Savor life. Take time to smell the roses. Find simple pleasures. Engage your senses. Savor your food – see it, smell it, taste it, notice its flavors and textures.
4. Make time for solitude and relaxation. Take 5 minutes and do some deep breathing or read something inspirational. Find something to be thankful for.
5. Clear away some clutter. Any clutter, not just kitchen clutter. Getting rid of closet clutter can be powerful too since everything is symbolic and interrelated. Follow the lead of savvy French women and focus on simplicity and quality with your clothes. Get rid of the clothes that don’t fit or make you feel beautiful. You are better off with just a few articles of clothing that really ft and flatter you.
Isn’t this approach so much more interesting than counting calories and fat grams? If you have read, French Women Don’t Get Fat, you will recognize a lot of similarities here. In fact Tonya used a word – compensation – that I first heard author Mireille Guiliano use in French Women Don’t Get Fat, that essentially means making little adjustments in your diet. When you indulge a bit one day, cut back a little bit the next. (A common sense approach to staying in balance without having to resort to extreme diets.)
Why I Believe in the French Approach to Staying Slim
Everything that Tonya said reaffirmed what I have experienced for myself – losing weight is about so much more than what you eat and how much you exercise. I know that when I become focused on my weight and some new “diet” I’m doomed. I struggle, feel miserable and the weight becomes impossible to budge. Then, when I wake up and focus on things that make me happy – nourishing myself, learning something new, my family, my friends, quality food – and find ways to make my life a celebration, the weight melts away, just like it did this summer! ( In June I weighed around 148 and now I am down to 135 – the low end of my healthy range. Of course, summer is the perfect time to shed a few pounds since you have your natural rhythms working with you, but that’s a whole other discussion.)
I have experienced this paradox for myself. When I get caught up in the “diet” “good food; bad food” mentality that pervades here in the US, following the advice of all the “weight loss experts” I struggle, feel miserable and gain weight. Then when I say, “life is too short” and I embrace the attitude of the French, Mediterranean (or any other savvy women for that matter), indulging in delicious real food that is often higher in fat, chocolate and wine, while focusing on nourishing myself inside and out, I thrive and lose weight. It is so counterintuitive I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t experienced for myself.
I still find myself slipping back into “diet and deprivation” thinking every once in a while. (I am an American woman, after all.) Fortunately, it never lasts for long and that’s when I know it is time to start visualizing my next trip to France, or Italy, or Greece, or Spain (or at least spend some time with one of my favorite French or Mediterranean cookbooks).
Try it for yourself. (You don’t have to travel to another country.) Begin by adopting just one behavior that has you focusing on nourishing/pleasuring yourself instead of depriving and beating yourself up. Before you know it, you will be happier and your clothes will be looser.