Happy Monday!! Hopefully you’ve been enjoying my Monday posts and finding them valuable on your fitness journey.

Today is a topic that applies to anyone who wants to LOSE weight or KEEP it off.

Both have their challenges. But they have many things in common.

Today I wanted to talk about the two factors that influence you changing your weight.

You probably have two-step authentication setup as security on your logins. Well these two factors safeguard you from slipping backwards in your weight loss journey.

1.) Change Your Plate

You’ve probably heard the phrase ” you are what you eat.” That’s literally true because our body takes the foods we eat and uses it to fuel all our bodily functions….including metabolism.

If someone eats alot of greasy foods they can get oily skin, zits, etc. Isn’t that interesting that teenagers can struggle with that but that’s also the time of their life when they get their first car and frequent fast food joints? Im not saying that’s the cause for all teenager skin issues but it definitely contributes. If someone eats a high protein diet. It tells their body to burn fat. It creates a “full signal” which is why it’s hard to over-eat high protein foods.

So the first step in changing your weight is to change the foods you eat. Over-eating can cause weight gain. Eating foods low in nutrition can also cause weight gain because we never feel full.

And eating too many processed foods can cause weight gain because the labels are allowed to be off as much as 26%

2.) Change Your State

Tony Robbins famously says “change your state, change your life.” That’s because our state is literally who we are day by day, moment by moment.

This is the less obvious cause of weight management.

You see, if you are an emotional eater and you find yourself in a down state, it can be easy to turn to food. Especially if that’s been your pattern in the past.

So, we have to be aware of our state and what causes us to get down and avoid those people, those situations and those environments.

That’s why it’s so important to tap into our community of positive, fitness-minded members. If you hang with people that put you in a positive state it’s far easier to maintain momentum.

But if people, places or things put you in a funk, it’s easy to relapse into less supportive eating patterns.

To change your weight you have to change your plate and change your state.

I know this might sound like some “foo foo” mindset tips but after two decades in the fitness industry, I can speak from experience that the people who are actively losing weight or keeping it off are making progress in these two categories.

They have a deeper knowledge of what they are putting in their bodies and have become food detectives. Sure they splurge and enjoy junk foods but they live by the 80/20 rule.

And they also protect their state by choosing to spend time with supportive, positive people that uplift them. Like-minded people they can have on speed dial to talk them off the ledge if they are letting their emotions get the best of them.

And finally they don’t beat themselves up forever if they slip up. They simply forgive themself and climb back on the wagon the next day.