Today I’ll be talking about the fourth principle towards healthy, permanent weight loss and body freedom. BODY FREEDOM is when you feel happy in your body, you feel in control of your food choices, and you feel mentally and physically free from weight issues. You know how to eat, and when it’s okay to indulge, without feeling guilty but while feeling in complete control. Ultimately, with BODY FREEDOM, your whole weight loss journey that you’ve been struggling with, is behind you, allowing you to dedicate more time and energy to more fulfilling areas of life. 

If you have tuned in for my recent posts, you’ll remember that there are five key principles of BODY FREEDOM, and we have gone over the first three principles thus far:

• The first principle: HAVING A PLAN. You want to develop a plan that works for you, to provide structure, clarity and direction. 
• The second principle: Your “WHY” You need to determine why you want to lose weight and be healthier. The “why” comes from a deep, value-driven motivation. 
• The third principle: Develop ROUTINES INTO HABITS. You need to develop healthy habits so that you can both lose weight and successfully keep the weight off.

The Fourth Principle: COURSE CORRECTION
Now, we are going to discuss the fourth principle. This principle is very timely as we are approaching the holidays. If you celebrate any holidays this time of year, you likely relate to the fact that there can be many temptations around food during this season. This fourth principle, I call it simply, COURSE CORRECTION. Often as people are on a weight loss journey, they may have some setbacks and fall off track a bit; so, with this fourth principle, we look at how to make a course correction if you’ve fallen off track.

This  particularly when people are maintaining weight, as they follow clear strategies in the losing phase, but have trouble doing so in the maintenance phase. A good example of this would be special events, or the holiday season, when eating habits have changed and they have trouble staying on track. Sometimes, even when you feel you’ve felt in control, life can throw us some curveballs and you may fall back into some of those “sabotaging” behaviours. Course correction means that you know what you need to do to get back on track, lose any extra weight you need to, and continue maintaining. 

As we discuss these principles, I encourage you to reflect on your experiences with weight loss, and identify the areas that may have been lacking in your experience. 

Did you have a clear, structured plan? 

Did you establish a deep, value-driven motivation?

Did you develop your routines into habits? 

Or, did you know how to apply course correction? 

Why Is COURSE CORRECTION So Important?
This fourth principle is often the trouble area, as people see themselves putting on weight, and just don’t know what to do. They think: I’ll just cut back, I’ll just exercise more again. But this is not a clear, structured plan, which is necessary so you can follow through and the slight weight gain becomes a non-event. Another amazing thing about adapting the course correction principle is that you don’t need to be as fearful about old habits coming back, or about putting on a little bit of weight. This is because you’ve made the mindset shift, you have the strategies, and you know what to do. This lessens the anxiety and stress around micromanaging your food, which is a major component of body freedom. 

What Does Course Correction Look Like For You?
As I mentioned earlier, this principle is very timely for the holiday season, so it’s helpful to keep this in mind. Just think about what could you do, what clear strategies you could use, to get yourself back on track if you do choose to overindulge. With my weight loss program, a lot of what I do is based on intermittent fasting. I do find that, since there is a lot of structure to intermittent fasting, people that have trained their body to be fat-adaptive (burning fat for fuel). Intermittent fasting is an amazing tool, especially if you need to do a course correction, and I use it myself.

When Christmas is coming, I know I’m going to have my sticky buns in the morning – that’s my family’s tradition – and I know I’m going to have a big dinner, and there’s going to be chocolates in my stocking. But rather than cut all of this out, I choose to enjoy it. Then, a few days after all of the indulgence, I know exactly what I need to do to get back on track. This is very liberating, because you can actually enjoy the indulgence as part of your plan, without feeling guilty, knowing you have clear strategies to follow for getting back on track. 

So there is the fourth principle of body freedom, course correction. It’s very relevant this time of year. Whatever you are doing in this season, if this applies to you, I encourage you to think of ways you can do your own course correction. If you do choose to indulge in some of the temptations of the season, rather than crossing your fingers and hoping you don’t put weight on, see what strategies you can plan to use to get back on track. I wish you all happy holidays and I hope you will join me next week to discuss the final principle of BODY FREEDOM.