For many that have been dieting and/or working toward body change, for as long as they can remember, they have been *chasing*.

• Chasing a lower scale number.
• Chasing a smaller waist measurement.
• Chasing a lower body fat %.
• Chasing being lighter this week than they were last week.
• Chasing the body they used to have; before kids, before a stressful job; before life took off.

After a long time spent in that mode, the idea of being content at any given point (even the point they stated WAS their goal), is VERY very uncomfortable.

It’s easy to feel like one is settling and giving up, when really they are making the calculated decision to learn to *embrace* where they are now.

I feel like much of my time coaching these days is spent actively trying to dissuade folks from continuing to chase once we hit that point. That continuing to push, continuing to move the goalpost just a little further, continuing to make tradeoffs and sacrifices, is likely not worth it, and that we’re at a perfect place to start embracing and work on maintaining and developing a new natural set point.

It’s a HARD sell as our brains trick us into believing we’re settling, and so I’m most often met with pushback.

“Just 5 more lbs coach”

“Just one more month in diet mode, Coach”

“If I give up now I won’t forgive myself, Coach.”

I’ve been there done that, I’ve coached many folks through the same, and I always encourage folks to think long and hard about going further.

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Many have the ability to lose 5-10 more lbs.

For most all of them, that 5-10 more lbs means trading off the joys in life, the rare date nights, the impulse dessert that happens twice a year, the shared cone with their kids, the mythical last minute weekend trip spent enjoying.

It means having to continue to be just as singularly focused, just as precise measuring and tracking. It means moving just a little bit more, getting that extra workout in when they’re already tired, being hungry just a little more often, saying no to things just a little longer.

I try to explain this and it’s difficult to understand if one hasn’t lived that last phase of dieting, the final push for just a little leaner, before.

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The more we can change our mindset away from “settling” toward “embracing,” the more we can begin to enjoy the fruits of all our hard work.

30 lbs ago, you’d have given anything to be where you are today.

While you could likely pull out every last stop and go hard and live very strained and get that last 5lbs off, ask yourself if right now is worth it, and if you’ll be able to live life with the balance you want to live with.

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Embracing where you are after hard-earned changes is one of the greatest gifts one can give themselves, and it’s also a very, very rare one.