6 Big Weight-Loss Mistakes Ive Made As A Dietician (And How To Avoid Them)

My first year working as a dietitian and weight loss coach at a high-end health club, I cried — A LOT. Getting clients was hard. Figuring out my message seemed impossible. And trying to help people actually reach their weight goals, with just my nutrition training (I’m a dietitian), was draining.

I made many mistakes, and while at times they were painful, the lessons I learned were invaluable — for me and for my future clients.

I’ve come a long way from "weight loss" dietitian to "make peace with your food and love your body" wellness coach.

I got wellness coach training. I did my own personal work. I grew. And now I've helped hundreds of women successfully transform their relationship with food and their body.

Here are my top six mistakes and how my lessons can help you achieve a healthy relationship with food, body, mind, and soul.

1. Focusing on weight loss

Most women think a smaller jean size equals happiness. It doesn’t. Think about it, how many miserable thin people do you know? I'm guessing plenty. True peace of mind comes from appreciating where and who you are right now, as is. Ultimately, it’s about feeling good in your skin. You need to love yourself to be happy — not just lose weight. And when the whole loving yourself thing plays out, the weight takes care of itself.

2. Not addressing the negative self-talk

You can’t lose weight (and keep it off) without self-love. Appreciating your body exactly as it is right now will free you. Magical things happen when you flip the switch and start thinking about how you can be kinder to your body.

3. Asking clients to count calories

Counting calories isn’t the answer. Eating real whole foods, being present, and listening to your hunger cues is. Your body recognizes these foods and over time, as you really listen to your body, you’ll relearn how to eat when you’re hungry and be done when you’re full. Side note: there’s no such thing as off-limit foods.

4. Not helping people find their WHY

If you want to make healthy (lasting) changes, it’s gotta be really important to you. Not in an "I want six-pack abs" kind of way, but in an "I want to make peace with food and my body" kind of way. The desire has to come from you. You need to be ready. And it has to be important to you
on a deep level. It’s a journey.

5. Not helping clients break through what’s really holding them back

Successfully transforming your relationship with food and your body is way more than saying, "Eat this, don’t eat that." If you don’t change the way you think about yourself, each time you move forward you’ll have serious self-doubt pulling you back. Your thoughts affect your feelings, feelings affect your behavior, and your behavior affects your results or what you decide to do or not do. Choose kinder thoughts. You do have a choice.

6. Playing expert

An awesome coach pulls out your passion, shows you the possible, and helps you make it probable. They don’t judge, evaluate and remove you from the equation. You know what to do. You just need someone to show you your possible. To dig down deep with you, so you can you start living in the here and now.

Start doing things to take care of yourself. And start focusing on how you can be the best you can be. Because at the end of the day, it’s about cultivating the most important relationship of your life — the relationship with yourself.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

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