How long have you been overweight?
It seems difficult to take that first step toward weight loss, especially if you’ve put it off for a while. For a beginner, everything in weight loss seems to be a guess. You don’t know what to ask, you don’t know who is credible, and you certainly don’t want to make a mistake that will cost you time and money.
In addition to those challenges is another frustration that you may wrestle with but may find it difficult to articulate:
You want someone helping you who has gone through what you’re currently going through and felt what you feel now.
Having a washboard stomach or bulging muscles on a lean frame is great marketing for a weight loss professional. It seems to satisfy some initial concerns you may have regarding expertise. This is a great start in picking the right person to help you on your weight loss journey, however, there are some extra credentials they ought to have in order to get you where you want to go as effectively as possible.
After reading this short blog post, you will be able to identify a weight loss professional who will be true asset to you and your weight loss goal. You’ll be able to choose someone who has both expertise and understanding in what it takes for you, individually, to achieve your weight loss goal.
Let’s get to work!
Knowing the perspective of your weight loss professional matters
Despite all things you may not know right now, you’re probably not totally in the dark about how to achieve weight loss. You can probably put together that there is a ratio of eating to exercise that will lead to some progress, as well as some obvious nutritional practices that will lead to a better outcome for you.
*Side note: you are especially well-equipped if you have been reading the Cornerstone Weight Loss Blog. If you’re just starting reading, you can check out these blogs after you’re through reading this.
It’s important to know that weight loss in the context of eating less and moving more is not as easy as it sounds. If this is your first time getting serious, you’re going to find out that effective weight loss comes with some burdens, both mental and physical. There are some obstacles you will have to overcome if you want to get to your weight loss goal and having a guide who has already been through them who can help normalize your process is priceless.
Knowing the perspective of your weight loss professional is essential. If your guide has never had to struggle with weight before, how can he know what you’re going through? If he has not had to slug through a longterm weight loss program like you do, what light can he shed on your situation to get you through to the other side?
Questions to ask a prospective weight loss professional
Looks can be deceiving.
Sometimes the most fit-looking people now have been highly overweight in the past. People like this can look like they’ve been lean and mean all their lives.
The opposite is true for others. This seems obvious reading this here, but you would be surprised. In fact, if you use the questions presented here to interview your potential weight loss guides, you’ll be able to see for yourself.
When you ask anyone who claims to be able to help you with your weight loss goal, most will never turn you down. Quantity is not the challenge here. It seems best to look for quality here, especially in terms of your potential weight loss guide’s own weight loss journey.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of questions you can ask next time you’re doing your interviews.
*Side note: the word “interviews” was used above because that’s exactly what you’re doing. The weight loss guide does not interview you until you have already made a choice to accept the service being offered. You are the one choosing the right person for the right job for you. If you don’t like what you see, move on!
- How long have you been helping people achieve weight loss?
- What do you eat everyday?
- How do weekends change your eating habits?
- What is the most you’ve weighed?
- What’s the least you’ve weighed?
- What was your weight and height in elementary and high school?
- Which clients of yours can I talk for insight?
What answers you should have heard, and what you should not have heard
Instead of creating a list of “right” and “wrong” answers, let’s discuss what would make your weight loss professional right for you using the above questions for context.
It seems like the more time in the fitness industry would be a good thing, but that is not always the case. Some weight loss professionals find the one way that seems to work for them and, regrettably, fail to evolve in their methodology as new challenges arise. Some seem to be so stuck in concrete that if their approach doesn’t work, you are the one to blame. Finding a weight loss professional that contours their program around you is the right way to go. It seems best to find someone who is quality versus just time-in-service.
Additionally, finding a weight loss professional who walks-the-walk its essential, so make sure their path is something you’d want to walk down yourself. It seems best to find a weight loss professional who has balance and does not demonize certain foods. You’ll especially want to find a guide who knows how to transfer his knowledge unto you in order for you to eat the foods you already enjoy and achieve your weight loss goal.
Finally, and this is going to sound like it’s being written by a crazy person, but the right person to walk with you on your weight loss journey will have a history of being overweight. There’s just more things a former fat kid can help you with than someone else.
The end of the matter
In order for you to better understand how food affects your body in a common sense way that will put you in control of how you look, your best bet is to find someone who understands the weight loss struggle as well as the mechanics behind weight loss. It seems best to find someone who is equally as knowledgable about weight loss as they are empathetic. An imbalance in either expertise or understanding is not good for you. Use the questions above as a framework for learning about the character and credentials of your future weight loss guide before you agree to service.
At Cornerstone Weight Loss we help you better understand how food affects your body in a common sense way that will put you in control of how you look. In order to get in touch with a professional who can help tailor your weight loss plan to you, click below, fill out the information, and a member of the Cornerstone Weight Loss team will reach out to you to get the results in weight loss you deserve.