There are 4 steps you must take if you want to be able to achieve limitless weight loss.

You might be thinking that you have somewhat of a ‘set-point’ when it comes to weight loss.  That set-point is also known as the sticking point.  It’s that point that no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get below it.

For me, it used to be about 180lbs.  My weight has fluctuated wildly since my teens.  At my heaviest I was about 230lbs, and my lightest in my adult years has been about 160lbs, but for many many years, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to get below 180lbs.

I would diet like crazy, calculating every gram of food I ingested, sticking to my meal plan with and almost obsessive-compulsive mentality.  I would work my ass of in the gym everyday, and I would get up at 5:00am to log another 30 minutes out on the road, desperately trying to run off a few extra pounds of stomach fat.

But guess what?

It made no difference.

Eventually I would get frustrated, and just as I would nearly start to see a pay-off from all my hard work, I would self sabotage.  I would give up on exercising entirely for a couple weeks, or I would let my diet completely fall off the rails.  I was convinced that I was just destined to be a certain weight, and that, genetically, I had no control over this and should just accept it.

But I stumbled across something in my later years that allowed me to blast through my sticking point almost effortlessly.

I dropped through the 180lb mark without even breaking a sweat (figuratively speaking).  The change seemed almost effortless, and so simple, but it made all the difference in the world for me.

And here’s the secret…

It’s called the law of ‘Secondary Gains’.

This is something I picked up in my studies of sports psychology, hypnosis, and other mind-body areas that I have a passion for, and here’s what it’s all about…

There is ALWAYS a benefit to your current situation AND, subconsciously, the benefit of your current situation outweighs the benefit of what you are striving for.

Let me explain…

Let’s say you are overweight by 20lbs, and you desperately are trying to lose this extra weight but you are having no success.  What the law of Secondary Gains states is that you subconsciously perceive their to be MORE benefit to remaining 20lbs overweight than the benefits of losing that 20lbs.

For someone this might mean that they subconsciously perceive that if they are 20lbs lighter, that they will no longer be the ‘fat friend’ and therefore might be shunned by their peers due to ‘competition’.  This is not an uncommon fear, and although it might not sound rational, it doesn’t have to be.  In your mind, if you feel that you will be more widely accepted and apprecaited at your current weight, there is little chance that you will be able to successfully lose weight and keep it off.

I can’t tell you what the secondary gains for you personally are, this is something that you will have to discover for yourself (and I’ll tell you how to do that in a moment), but you must first realize that your subconscious mind is an incredibly powerful thing, and you must not underestimate it’s influence on your physical appearance.

When I have worked with clients that run into this wall where they can’t seem to get anymore resutls, I often do this exercise with them to help them determine their secondary gains.  We then establish meaures to neutralize them, allowing them to move forward in their goals.  The results can be incredible!

4 Steps To Limitless Weight Loss and the Law of Secondary Gains

Answer these following questions….

1)  What is the BENEFIT of NOT changing your current situation.

2)  What is the DETRIMENT of NOT changing your current situation.

3)  What is the BENEFIT of changing your current situation.

4)  What is the DETRIMENT of changing your current situation.

Take some time and really think through these four questions.  This is not something you want to answer as if you were writing a quiz.  Take some time and do some serious personal interrogation to get down to the real deep reasons.  This can be life transforming if you take the time to do this right.

What do you do once you have found the answers to these four questions?

Once you have come up with your answers, you will probably have a few light bulbs go off in your head.  This exercise can be incredibly humbling and revelaing as well.

Now you should have some insight into a few deep-rooted thinking patterns and behaviors that are keeping you trapt in your current body.  What you must do now is take some steps to correct these patterns and you will start to make incredible progress.

Sarah’s Example

I worked with a young woman named Sarah (not her real name) who was desperately trying to lose weight, and as soon as she would get within 15 lbs of her goal, she would completely fall of the rails.  She would quit exercising and starting drinking a lot of alcohol and consuming sweets in the middle of the night.  She also would have a family gathering each Sunday for dinner, where there was always a lot of really rich food that she felt unable to turn down.

She said to me that she felt ‘compelled’ for some reason to let go of all the progress.  Of course, within a week of this new behavior, she would realize what she was doing and try and correct it, but by that time the damage was already done and she spent the next couple weeks just trying to get back to where she started.

I sat down with her and had her do this exercise.  It was difficult for her to do, but she was determined to make the change, so she swallowed her pride and went for it.  Her results were very eye opening.

She confided to me that she secretly had a fear that if she reached her goal weight, she would start attracting a lot of unwanted attention from men, and since she was in a commited relationship, she found this very uncomfortable.

Additionally, she also said that whenever she would start making some progress, her family would make comments about her looking too skinny and try and force feed her at the family gatherings.  She would try and eat healthy, often bringing her own foods to the get-togethers, but she would get harassed so much by her grandparents and cousins that she would just give in and eat what everyone else was eating.

She also said that she was getting so stressed from school, that she was using alcohol and sweets to stabilize her mood and help calm her down.

As you can see, there were distinct benefits for her to continue the behaviors that she was so desperately trying to put an end to; she would avoid unwanted and uncomfortable attention from men, she would avoid harassment and embarassment from her family, and she had a coping mechanism for stress and anxiety from all her school work.

We spent a lot of time going through the rest of the questions, and I had her write a very extensive list with all the reasons why eliminating these negative behaviours would benefit her.  I instructed her to read this list every morning as she awoke, and every night as she want to bed.  I had her carry it with her everywhere, and when she felt compelled to stray from her program, I had her look at this list again.

I also had her listen to the Effortless Fat Loss Self-Hypnosis program and Subliminal Sleep Tracks each day for six weeks to help re-program these negative thinking patterns.

And finally, I had her take steps to combat her fears that she was experiencing.  I instructed her to speak with her family members individually, and explain to them why she needed their support, and how they were making it difficult for her to achieve her goals.  I had her explain that what she was doing was, in fact, very healthy, and that they needn’t be concerned for her, and would that she would be happy to assit them in making healthier food choices.  This shut them up in a hurry!

She also started meditating daily for stress reduction, and this helped emensely with her cravings for alcohol and sweets.

And finally, I had her do some serious thinking about her fear of attention, and she came to realize that it was a result of her years spent being overweight and all of the negative attention she got in high school.  Once she learned that people no longer looked at her as overweight, and that the attention was not negative, it no longer bothered her.

While this took a little work on Sarah’s part, I am happy to report that she was finally able to reach hear goal weight quickly and easily within 6 weeks of implementing these changes.

Your Homework:

Regardless if you have hit that wall, or have it it in the past, this exercise is helpful for EVERYBODY!

Answer the four questions I listed above.  Take some time and really think about this and put some serious effort into it.  Once you come up with the answers to these questions, post them in the comments section below.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to put your name if you are embarassed about your answers – put please remember this is a supportive and encouraging environment.  We are here to help each other, so please don’t be shy.

Once you have the questions answered, I want you to list the steps that you will take to ensure that you can blast through your negative programming from the past and move on to new and incredible things for yourself, and your body.

This process will launch your forward and I am excited to hear about what you learn about yourself!

Coach Rylan

Thanks to everyone for their contribution to the Healthy Recipe Challenge.

I hope this helped give you all ideas for new meals, and I also hoped it inspired you to start looking outside your usual cooking repetoire for new an flavorful, but healthy dishes.  After going through a number of these recipes, I have chosen three that I would like to add to the next addition of the Daily Detox Diet Recipe Book.  The reason I have chosen these recipes is for their attention to the guidelines of the Daily Detox Diet, and also for their variety.  I want to provide a lot of different options because we all have different tastes, so here are the three recipes that I found to be very different from what is currently available in the 50+ recipes I’ve included in the book, and of course, incredibly healthy and excellent in promoting fat loss.

Here are the winners…

Sally’s Oatmeal Breakfast Pancake

Shelley’s Nut Crusted Sole

Brenda’s Crock-Pot Chicken Cacciatore (with Brenda’s modifications)

Again, thanks to all, there were some really great meals presented here.  Good work ladies!

Coach Rylan

Want to share your cooking style and get your recipe published in the next version of the Daily Detox Recipe Book?

Keep reading….

First things first, thanks for all the emails regarding the private personal training.  The first three spots were snapped up within about half an hour so there seems to be more of you wanting me to train you one-on-one than I had expected.  With that being said, I am happy to open up two more slots for those of you who couldn’t get in.

If you are interested in online personal training with a completely custom training program designed just for you, by me, then email me right away.  It’s first come first serve, so if you want in, don’t delay.  Make sure to put ‘private training’ in the subject line, and email me at rylan (at) adonisfitness (dot) ca – this is my private personal training company.

Next order of business is last week’s challenge:  Congrats to all who participated.  And an extra special pat on the back to all of you who took the time to encourage your fellow participants and offer support.  This sense of support and community is something I really want to foster here.  Don’t be afraid to post in the comments section, but just know that I have a zero tolerance for any sort of derogatory remarks made to or about another Go Sleeveless reader.  This is a safe and positive place, and I will not let it be brought down by any sort of childish negativity that can sometimes spring up in other blogs and forums.

And lastly, this week’s homework….

This week’s homework comes in the form of a cooking challenge.  When I left home for university I was the world’s worst cook.  I couldn’t make anything that didn’t come out of a box.  And when you are trying to lose fat and keep in shape, eating things from a box is a train wreck.  This changed out of necessity, and now I consider myself pretty well equipped in the kitchen.

Most of you know that I have provided over 50 recipes in the Daily Detox Recipe Book, and I have personally used every single one.  In fact, that’s the reason why I chose many of those recipes – they are my favorites that I refer back to time and time again.

But, variety is the spice of life, and we all have different tastes, so here is what you must do for this week’s challenge…

I want you to post one of your favorite healthy recipes in the comments section below. If you don’t have one, then I want you to look through a few cookbooks, find something that is healthy, and try it out.  Once you have sampled the results, post up the recipe and your review of it.  If it was great, then let is know, and if it was a flop, then that’s important to know too!

I will select one or two of the recipes to include in the newest edition of the Daily Detox Recipe book, and give you author credit in the book.  In order for this to happen though, they must meet my standards for being a healthy recipe (low saturated fat, low sugar, high protein, low or no starch, – basically all the things I talk about in the Daily Detox Diet).

You CANNOT use anything from the Daily Detox Diet, and try to make something you don’t think your fellow readers will know about.  In fact, I encourage you to try and find a new healthy recipe and try it out for the first time.

Each week my wife and I try and use at least one new recipe for dinner each week.  Sometimes more, but at least one each week.  Some we have once and never have again, but sometimes we come across a great new healthy recipe that then becomes part of our usual repertoire.

Eating healthy and losing weight can be incredibly tasty; I don’t know why so many people think they need to starve themselves and sacrifice flavor in order to ‘eat right’.

This will be a great way to have exposure to a variety of tastes, and I am really hoping that we get some recipes of Indian, Spanish, and other ethnic backgrounds to try out.  Thanks Ladies, and keep up the excellent work! Now get cookin!

Coach Rylan

First off, well done everyone!  I’m really impressed with how many of you took the time to actually complete the homework assignment as planned.  And as for those of you who didn’t, remember, these are NOT optional if you want to complete the transformation challenge, so find some time to get the workout done today or this weekend!  There is a specific reason for each assignment I give, so please don’t take them lightly.

Now, some of you have asked, is it even possible to get four sets done in 30 minutes?

The answer….

No.

So why would I give you something that is impossible to do?  It’s not to try and be sneaky, although it might sound that way.  But here’s the real reason…

After you have completed one set of this program, you finally realized how difficult it actually is, right?

Now, by giving you the target of completeing four sets, you knew you had to really move your ass to get through just two or three, while four just seemed like an impossibility now.

This means you kept your rest intervals short, you hussled, and…

YOU DIDN’T WASTE ANY TIME!

Let me guess, those 30 minutes flew by right?

The point is this.  Too many people think they need to endure these long boring workouts that go on for 45 minutes to an hour or more to get any results.

What this challenge proves to you (if you did the workout correctly) is that in 30 minutes you can get a killer workout, you don’t need a gym pass or any special equipment, and if you worked as hard as I hoped you would, you would be DONE by the end of it.

Let me guess…you were destroyed by the end but felt great right?

Yes, I want you to improve on this challenge when I re-issue it at a later date, but more than anything I wanted this to prove my exercise philosophy…

Shorter, Harder Workouts = Better, Faster Results

Coach Rylan

PS.  For all of you who sent me emails regarding the private training, I will be sending you my responses very shortly.  Things are crazy around here as I am in the middle of a big move (tell you more about that shortly) and on top of that, today is my birthday so I promised my wife I would take a little time off to hang out with her.  Talk to you all soon.

This is such a dirty and misleading marketing ploy – these 100 calorie snacks.

Want to find out why even 100 calories of this stuff can put your fat loss progress to a grinding halt?

Check out this post on 100 calorie snack scams.