When someone has a challenging day on the Code Red Lifestyle™, we encourage that person to reach out for support, instead of disconnect and suffer in silence.
By challenging day, I mean maybe they didn’t get sleep, so the scale went up instead of down. Or something happened at their job, with their kids, or with their partner, and they went off the rails instead of following the program.
It can feel uncomfortable to ask for support when something challenging happens on your weight loss journey.
Plus, a lot of people experience guilt and shame, which tend to prevent you from asking for support.
I get it. But in all my years of doing this, I’ve noticed an unmistakeable pattern, and it’s this.
The Rebels who stay connected and seek out support keep getting results on their weight loss journey. Even if they hit a couple bumps in the road, the support lifts them up to the point they get back on track.
The Rebels who withdraw and disconnect, on the other hand, at best prolong their struggle. At worst, they go completely off the rails and start gaining their weight back.
Weight regain doesn’t happen because the program doesn’t work. You don’t lose 100 pounds on a program that “doesn’t work.”
Weight regain happens because you disconnect from everything that’s helped you stay successful, and go back to being alone with all the habits and mindsets that kept you heavy and sick in the first place.
Those old patterns don’t magically go away. I wish they did – it’d make things so much easier for you!
But they don’t, because our brains are wired to create patterns and habits. It’s a survival mechanism.
The problem is, your brain doesn’t always understand what’s best for you. Oh, it’s not out to get you or anything. It’s just doing what it’s wired to do. A car is wired to drive, your brain is wired for patterns and habits.
It just doesn’t know the difference between a habit that’s useful and a habit that isn’t.
For example, that habit you have of curling up on the sofa with a bottle of wine and a whole bag of popcorn? Or of eating an entire bag of Oreos at once to protect yourself from feeling things you’d rather not feel?
Those patterns might feel good in the moment – probably why you created them in the first place – but they’re keeping you heavy, sick, and trapped in your destructive old ways.
Breaking those patterns and habits up, and instilling new ones, isn’t something most people can do without support.
Oh, I’ve seen the occasional super-motivated outlier do it.
I also see a lot of people mistake themselves for that outlier, fumble around on their own, give up, and go back to their old patterns.
It’s time to stop suffering in silence. It’s time to stop thinking there’s something wrong with you because you need more support than you thought to stay on track.
There’s a misconception that’s abnormal, but it’s not. It’s just one of those things no one wants to talk about, out of shame, and out of the misconception you “should” be able to figure it out.
Stop “shoulding” on yourself. Get connected to your community of Rebels, and most importantly, STAY connected, ESPECIALLY when things get tough. That is not the time to pull away! The opposite – it’s the time to move in and get even more connected.
“Failure we can do alone. Success always takes help.” I see this ALL the time in the Rebel community. It’s a repeating pattern, and it’s one I’m gonna keep pointing out, because I see what happens when people try to “go it alone.”
Knock that off and join the community. Get the support it takes to end the yo-yo cycle FOREVER.