“I already know what to do, I just can’t do it!”
“I’ve tried every diet under the sun and NOTHING works for me!”
“I’ve just got no willpower!”
Do any of these sound familiar?
The truth is, most people really don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to weight loss, and that is usually proven by the astounding amount of diets so many people have tried (remember the cabbage soup diet?). It’s one thing to know that fruits and vegetables are good for us and we could probably do with cutting down our portion sizes, but the challenging part is how we use that information. If we don’t know how to use that information, we often blame it on ourselves with negative self-talk like:
“Why can’t I just stick to it?!”
“Nothing is ever going to work for me!”
“What’s the point in even trying, everything I do just ends up with me losing a bit of weight but gaining more back in the end!”
In reality, we are completely overwhelmed with so much ‘diet info’ that picking a specific diet feels like an impossible task. Here’s some of the reasons why:
- If you type in “how to lose weight” in Google, you get over 3 BILLION results – good luck filtering out the genuine information there!
- When you turn on the telly, there’s some new program about a new diet, or meal company that can help you lose weight, or product that you MUST HAVE to “burn belly fat now!”.
- Whenever you open any social medias there are ads trying to sell you the “best way to shred belly fat!” and guaranteeing “FAST RESULTS!”.
- Then you have family/friends – “did you hear how much weight [insert person’s name] lost doing the [insert random diet]?!”
- Money – The global weight loss industry was estimated to be worth over $175 BILLION in 2022 (that’s around £133 billion). Do you know how many zeroes are in that number?! This many: $175,000,000,000 – there’s an unimaginable amount of money being made from the misfortune of uninformed people who are desperate for a solution (Hint: you do not need “fat burner” pills).
There’s no wonder it’s so bloody confusing.
Skip past all the misinformation – let me guide you
If you want to skip through all of the misinformation out there, and want someone who’s been there, done that, got the (XXL) t-shirt, to guide you, there’s a good chance I can help.
If you’ve read my about me page, you’ll know I was obese growing up. I completely understand the frustration and confusion when it comes to figuring out how to lose weight. Don’t get me wrong, you can definitely be classed as overweight and be healthy (weight classes are a controversial topic for another day!) assuming you lead a healthy, active lifestyle.
I’m well aware that there’s a big movement these days towards the “health at every size” ideology and I can certainly appreciate that weight loss isn’t the answer to everything.
However, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight, be it for reasons such as:
- Improve confidence or self-esteem.
- Manage/reverse certain health conditions e.g. type 2 diabetes, hypertension.
- Reduce or come off certain medications.
- Improve mobility / joint pain.
- Reduce the risk of many health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, breathing problems (e.g. sleep apnoea) and many, many more.
- And more…
There are also times when weight loss isn’t the answer. For example, if you have or suspect you may have an eating disorder, weight loss is not the answer and can often make the problem worse. Eating disorders are a psychological issue, not a dietary one and won’t be solved by weight loss.
How Can I Help You?
A plan just for YOU
Assuming we’re a good fit to work together, we will work together to come up with a completely individualised plan just for you. By this I don’t mean a diet plan whereby I tell you “eat this and don’t eat this”, but a plan of simple changes you can make to help bring about weight loss.
Because, what’s the best plan for weight loss? I’ll let you in on a crazy secret… there isn’t one.
The best plan is introducing changes that work for you – changes that you can sustain. It doesn’t matter what other people might’ve done, or whether your best friend’s auntie’s brother-in-law lost 30lbs on the keto diet (and probably gained it back shortly after they returned to their normal dietary habits). What may have worked for other people, may not work for others.
People will often describe a particular, restrictive diet as having “worked” for them because they lost weight even though they gained it back when they returned to their usual eating/lifestyle habits, but the diet did work… right?! I don’t think so. Nobody wants to lose weight, to then gain it and have to do the same restrictive, soul-destroying “diet” all over again, from a place where you’re now heavier than before.
The key to long-term success is thinking long-term. I don’t coach you through a ‘diet’, we work together over a reasonably long period of time to introduce dietary and lifestyle changes/habits based on your individual circumstances and preferences.
Save you time
(like you haven’t already spent enough time trying to figure this all out!)
I was just like so many others out there. I was desperate to lose weight and did what I thought best to do it. This included things like trying to cut out carbohydrates, completely cutting out foods and telling myself I was “cheating” if I were to have them, trying to exercise excessively, and so much more.
I’ve been there, and know how frustrating it is to read so much stuff online and really have no idea what to follow. Let me save you time by cutting through all the unnecessary rubbish. I promise I won’t ask you to cut out your favourite foods, or make you feel like you’ve committed a cardinal sin should you enjoy your food. Enjoy your food? How dare you!
Accountability
In any area of life, if we’re not accountable to someone, it can prove so much more difficult to actually follow through on the actions we’re wanting to take. If nobody is checking up on you and seeing how you’re getting on, it can be so easy to put it off until tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes, does it? And you put things off for another week, and another week, until you’re six months down the line and still at exactly the same point you were six months ago.
I will be there every week to check in with you via video call, to talk about things such as how your week has been, what have been the challenging aspects of that week, and to talk about the plan moving forward.
I want you to succeed. I went to university to ultimately help people like you, and I’ll help in any way I can to do so.
Support
I will support you regularly with scheduled weekly appointments via video call, and through unlimited email support. I’m well aware of the importance of regular support. A week between appointments gives you chance to go away and work on the plan we’ve come up with, and to have time to reflect on how that plan is working for you.
How Much Does It Cost?
A lot of healthcare professionals hide their prices and try to sell you after you’ve booked a call to speak with them. My intention is not to pressure-sell you, but to give you all of the information you need to make an informed decision as to whether you would like to work together with me.
At the moment, my service is:
The 12-week ‘Up and Running’ programme
What does the “Up and Running” programme include?
- One-to-one support – You and I will work one-to-one for 12 weeks to get you up and running on your weight loss journey.
- Initial assessment – our appointment (around 1-1.5hr) via Microsoft Teams which involves me really getting to know you, your current diet, your goals, and where we’ll put our first plan together.
- Weekly check-in appointments – (around 15-30mins) via Microsoft Teams to see how you’re getting on and to make any necessary adjustments to your current plan.
- Email support. If you have any burning questions between our appointments, you can shoot me an email!
- Personalised plan for you. This doesn’t involve me telling you what to do, but involves us working together to identify your areas for improvement and how we can tackle those moving forward.
- Accountability – I will check in with you each and every week to see how you’re getting on, giving you someone to be accountable to.
- Support – As above, our weekly check-ins allow me to support you regularly to help you on your way to your goal. Whether that be through dietary advice, or helping you identify or work through areas you’re struggling with.
- Simple, straightforward guidance. You don’t need to make drastic changes to your diet and lifestyle. My advice will reflect that, I will ensure that my guidance and the plan we come up with is simple and easy to follow.
What doesn’t the ‘Up and Running’ programme include?
- I don’t make meal plans. While they can be useful for some people, meal plans don’t allow you to change your dietary habits over the long term. They’re often restrictive and set you up with a bunch of ‘food rules’, which is exactly what we’re trying to move away from. We want less rules, more flexibility.
- I can’t help with eating disorders. These are beyond my abilities and are a much more complex issue than your diet; they often require psychological help, which I’m unable to offer as this isn’t my area of expertise.
- It doesn’t involve me just telling you what to do. This is a two-way relationship where we will work together to come up with a plan that is suitable for you. You know yourself better than anyone, and the best plan of action for you needs to fit in with your life.
What does it cost?
12-Week ‘Up and Running’ Programme
12-weeks of regular support to help get you up and running on your weight loss journey.
- 12 x weekly one-to-one appointments via video call (Microsoft Teams).
- Completely personalised plan for you based on your life, goals and current situation.
- Accountability and support – someone to keep you accountable to your plan and goals.
- Bypass all of the misinformation – guidance from someone who’s been there and understands the challenges of trying to lose weight.
Sound Good? Let’s Talk!
If you fancy working with me, or just simply want to find out a bit more, let’s have a quick chat first to see if we’re a good fit. I don’t just say yes to everyone; that’d be irresponsible as I won’t be a good fit for everyone.
Please note – this is absolutely NOT a sales call, there is no pressure from me at all.
Hit the button below to book a call with me!
Please see common FAQs below
Are you going to put me on a really low calorie or restrictive diet?
Nope! Going on a very low calorie diet would be effective at producing fast weight loss results, however, the big question is “is it sustainable?” The answer is almost certainly, no. I completely understand that you want fast results, but one of the most unfortunate realities with weight loss is, the more you aim for a ‘quick fix’, the longer your weight loss will take overall. This is because, usually, when we try and lose weight rapidly, we cannot sustain this for long, so we can lose weight quickly, but can also regain it even faster, with usually a little extra on top for good measure. We often end up in a never-ending cycle of:
Lose weight quickly –> Regain it –> Retry the same diet again because it “worked” last time
Sound familiar?
Do I have to calorie count?
Absolutely not! While calorie counting can be an extremely effective way of losing weight (if you know what you’re doing), it’s also something that people simply don’t want to do forever, and becoming reliant on a process you don’t want to do can be a problem when it comes to keeping weight off long-term. When it comes to losing weight, our approach must be realistic and involve changes we can sustain for many years to come – not just the amount of time you’re trying to lose weight.
When people do a specific ‘diet’ to try and lose weight, it may be effective at getting the weight off initially, but “what happens after?” is a question very few people actually think about. This often leads to our weight springing back quite quickly after we’ve been released from our ‘diet’ and we rapidly go back to our old habits. We haven’t addressed the root cause of why our weight went up in the first place; we just put a temporary plaster over the issues, and that’s why your weight over the years has probably gone a little something like this:
Calorie counting can be a great way of educating yourself about the nutritional content of foods, and I’m more than happy to support people wanting to explore this method. However, there are arguably more sustainable approaches that we can take.
How much weight will I lose?
How long is a piece of string?
In short, it’s impossible for me to say because weight loss isn’t black and white. It is not “do this and you are guaranteed to lose X amount of weight per week”. Anyone who tells you they can guarantee you a certain amount of weight loss, is lying. There are many factors involved in weight loss and your speed (or rate) of weight loss.
A reasonable, sustainable and healthy rate of weight loss is considered to be between 0.5 – 2lbs (0.2 – 0.9kg) per week. However, everyone’s rate of weight loss will be different. No two people, even if eating exactly the same amount of food, would lose weight at the same rate as one another; we’re all different.
You might think that a recommended rate of weight loss of 0.5-2lb might seem really slow, but losing more, faster, involves making changes often too large to sustain and has many other potential negative impacts.
It hugely depends on you, too. If you follow your plan, you’re more likely to make progress; if you stray from the plan regularly, you’re way less likely to make progress. If someone goes to the gym for an hour but sits on there phone for 90% of the time and doesn’t take much action, their results are going to reflect that. The same principle applies here; if you don’t take action and follow your plan, and adjust it as necessary, nothing will change.
I’ve tried every diet under the sun – can you still help?
I hear the phrase “I’ve tried every diet under the sun” a lot. When people say this, it simply tells me that whatever they’ve tried in the past has been something they couldn’t sustain long-term, otherwise they wouldn’t be asking for help. Our focus will be on introducing realistic and sustainable changes that fit in with your life that you can keep up even beyond your weight loss phase and not just while you’re aiming to lose weight.
I know it’s a cheesy old saying, but remember, it has to be a lifestyle change and not a temporary quick fix, which ironically, don’t fix anything and usually make the overall problem worse.