87. Weight Loss Is Not the Goal

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 87 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, weight loss is not the goal. As a weight loss coach, I work with a lot of people whose main goal is to lose weight. So as runners people come to me because they’ve put on a few dozen pounds over the years.

And no matter how many more miles they put in, they just can’t seem to drop those pounds. They want to get back to their natural weight. So they come to me for help reaching that goal. And this all makes perfect sense, right. But once we start working together, I let them in on a little secret. Weight loss is not actually the goal.

What I know, there’s something much bigger at play here, there’s something much more important, a much more important goal that you should be focused on. So in this episode of the podcast, I explained why weight loss is not the goal. And the one thing that you should be focused on instead.

But first, if you like this podcast, you have to come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook. This group goes hand in hand with the podcast, it extends the conversation it gives you a voice. You can ask questions and get answers. You’ll find positivity and encouragement support from a group of like minded people just search for Running Lean community on Facebook, and come and join in all the fun.

And here’s another five star review of the Running Lean podcast. This one’s from Lori Lori says, “A regular dose of encouragement, motivation to eat healthy and be active can easily wane. And this podcast brings all of my goals back into focus for the rest of the week. Each episode leaves me with something to ponder.”

Well, thank you so much for an awesome review, Laurie, and if you want to leave a review, I would so appreciate it, you can share the love. Just scroll down on your podcast listening device. Apple podcasts, tap the stars write a few words.

And right now you can even submit your review on a rate and review post little contest that we’re doing over in the Facebook group. So all you have to do is tap the stars, write a few words, take a screenshot of your review, and then comment on the rate and review post in our Facebook group.

And at the end of the month at the end of August. I’m going to pick one of those reviews and one lucky winner will get free coaching with me. How cool is that? So just go to Apple podcast, tap the stars write a few words, take a screenshot, boom, paste it in the group, you’re done. Okay. And there’s instructions on how to do all that pinned to that post in the group.

And then people ask how can they how can they work with me people come to me they’re like, Patrick, I want to work with you. What do I do? Well, there’s two things, two ways you can work with me number one, the Running Lean coaching group. So all during the month of September. So starting next week, next week is September already you guys by the way.

But next week starting into September, we’re going to be doing the four weeks to fat adapted. And this is going to be the focus for our whole month is fat adapted running, becoming a fat adapted runner, exactly how to do it step by step, which foods to eat, which to avoid the kinds of carbs you should be focusing on the kinds of carbs you should definitely stay away from how to get through that tough transition period without losing your mind.

Basically, I want to teach you step by step how to become the lean, fat burning running machine that you want to be and you’re going to learn the mindset that’s required to make it last for life. So join the group. That’s one way to work with me and just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and you can sign up now and get started.

The other way to work with me is to hire me as your coach you and I can work one on one together and I will show you exactly how to become the healthiest, most badass version of yourself. We’ll put together you know custom plans just specifically just for you. You get one on one coaching with me every week.

And something that you may not know is that when you sign up for one on one coaching with me you also get membership in the Running Lean coaching group. So it’s kind of a two for one So if you want to apply for a one on one coaching, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply. That’s it, you want to join the group, just go to Running Lean podcast, comm forward slash join, and for one on one coaching with me runningleanpodcast/com/apply, okay?

Got all that out of the way, let’s talk about weight loss not being the goal, what I know, it’s so funny. I am a weight loss coach. And I’m telling you weight loss is not the goal. And you’re probably like what is happening here. But people come to me all the time, and they want to lose weight, right.

So they have this goal, they want to lose 30 pounds by November 1, you know, they want to run a marathon, they want to be healthy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right. So we put together a plan, they start making changes to their diet, they might change up their running program, they might start doing some weight training, which I highly recommend, by the way.

They start working it things going well, for a while, maybe they, they they’re losing some weight, they’re feeling good about themselves, and then maybe they hit a stall, their weights kind of stalled. This pretty much always happens by the way, okay. And then they get frustrated because their number on that scale is no longer moving the way it was before, their weight loss has become slow or stalled.

And this frustration they feel causes them to act out. And they start eating their feelings and maybe they start gaining more weight, and they become even more frustrated, they start eating their feelings even more. And you understand the cycle here, right, this is not a good place to be. Something else that always happens almost always happens is the stall kind of comes to an end if you just kind of keep going.

And they start losing weight again, but sometimes it takes a few weeks or whatever, okay, but here’s what I’m trying to get to with all this losing weight, it’s not a linear process, you don’t lose, you know, half a pound every day or whatever, yeah, it just does not work that way, it goes up, your weights gonna go up, it’s gonna go down, it’s gonna go up, it’s gonna go down. Obviously, we want to trending in the right direction.

But when you become obsessed with that number on the scale, that obsession will drive you crazy. And if you want to learn more about this whole scale drama stuff, listen to episode number 66 of this podcast eliminating scale drama. And I go into a lot of detail about this. Okay, so I want you to, to do that. If you haven’t listened to that, it’s, it’s really good because it tells you about my feelings on on the scale, what it means how often you should weigh yourself and all that other stuff. Okay.

But here’s the thing, if all you’re focused on is your weight, how many pounds your body weighs? You’re kind of missing the point. And the big secret is that, listen, weight loss is really not the goal. Getting to some arbitrary number on the scale is not what you should be after fitting into those jeans you rock 10 years ago is not your only objective. Although that’s pretty awesome. If you could do that.

So what are we talking about here? What’s the real goal, Patrick? Well, here it is, the real goal is to become the healthiest version of yourself losing weight, you know, getting back to your natural weight, whatever that is for you. That’s a side effect of becoming healthy. It’s secondary.

But most people have this backward. They think that, you know, they need to lose weight to get healthy. But it’s the other way around, you become healthy, and then the weight comes off. You stopped putting a bunch of crap into your body and your body responds, inflammation disappears, your hormones get back in line, blood sugar and insulin levels become normal, you start feeling better, you’re not hungry all the time, you start sleeping better, you no longer feel stressed out about everything, you’re you have tons of energy running becomes easier, your cravings for sugar go away.

And you seem to be able to think more clearly all of these changes in your body start happening. And then as a result of all these good changes happening in your body becoming healthier, then you start burning fat like crazy, then the weight starts to drop off. Alright.

And remember, we store body fat when we have when we’re taking in all this extra energy usually in the form of sugar in our body can only use so much of that energy and the rest of it gets stored away to be used later. But later never comes where we’re always storing fat. We’re really good at storing fat, we’re just not really good at burning the fat, okay?

So, we’re really good at storing and storing and storing fat. We want to be good at burning and burning the fat, right but all these other things have to happen in order for you get your body into that fat burning mode in order for the weight to start coming off. Okay, so you get your body healthy first and then you start losing the weight making sense. So it’s less about the number on the scale. And it’s more about becoming the healthiest human being possible.

So I’ve said this before, and I want to go on to explain this a little bit more your health, it’s not a destination, it’s not some, there’s no finish line, it’s not some place you’re trying to get to. It’s a way of life. Health, your health is not a destination, it’s a way of life. You will always need to be mindful of what foods you’re putting into your body. You know, just because you hit your goal weight, doesn’t mean you’re done. You got to keep eating healthy foods forever.

People ask me all the time, okay, so I’ve been eating great. I’ve lost almost all my weight. So I’m almost at my goal weight. Now, when I get to my goal weight, what do I do differently? And the answer is basically, nothing like you pretty much keep doing the same thing. If you’re eating healthy today, why would you stop eating healthy when you get to some number on the scale?

You know, what got you here is what’s going to keep you hear eating real food, healthy, nutrient dense food that does not cause you to gain weight. That’s what you want to keep doing. Why would you want to go back to doing something that that got you unhealthy and overweight in the first place?

You know, you’re always going to need to do some sort of resistance training, some sort of strength training in order to maintain your muscle mass, especially as you get older. Interestingly, a major cause of injury and death in older people is falling down. And here’s a quote from this is crazy. It’s from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. There’s a report for you.

Oh, yeah, it’s the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. There’s some cheerful reading right there. But anyway, here’s what they say every second of every day in the United States, an older adult falls down, making falls the number one cause of injuries and deaths from injury among older Americans.

In 2014 alone, older Americans experienced 29 million falls, causing 7 million injuries and costing an estimated $31 billion in annual Medicare costs. This is crazy. And really, the the reason these people are falling down is because they just keep losing their muscle mass is called sarcopenia.

And as you get older, most people, they lose their muscle mass and they become weaker and weaker and weaker, and they can’t even stand up anymore. And when they fall, they break a hip, then they become bedridden, and then leads to escalated death to a faster death. We don’t want that.

Okay, so we want to continue to stay strong. Not only do we have to be mindful of our food intake, as we, you know, as we keep going through our life, we want to always eat healthy, we always want to be doing some sort of resistance resistance training so that we stay strong, right, we don’t stop because we get to some goal weight, or because we hit some sort of body fat percentage, or whatever we keep going right.

You’re always going to have to, you know, stay with some sort of cardiovascular exercise to you’re always going to want to walk or run or do some swimming or whatever it is that you like to do. You know, you don’t stop running just because you lost 30 pounds, you keep running because running is good for you. It’s good for for your physical, mental and emotional health.

When you run, you know, you release endorphins and serotonin, these are chemicals in your brain that actually improve your mood. So running regularly, improves your mental health. Running also improves your memory and your ability to learn. So running helps you to reduce stress, reduce depression, reduce anxiety, and I don’t know about you, but I want to continue to keep running and to have all these good things in my life.

I want to continue to feel good. I want to continue to improve my mental and emotional health. These are some of the many many reasons why I love running so much. Right? Running just feels good, right? So these are things that we want to just continue doing. We want to continue eating right, doing some sort of strength training and continue doing some sort of exercise in you just have to accept that becoming healthy and and living a healthy life that this is just your new way of life.

And until you accept this fundamental truth, you’re going to be kind of unhappy and frustrated. Because if you’re expecting to like lose 30 pounds by a certain date and you don’t hit that goal, then you know, it doesn’t really matter. If you’re committed to this as a way of life, it doesn’t matter. When you’re committed to the process of becoming healthier as a way of life, it doesn’t matter how long it takes, you’re just you’re all in and you’re good to go.

Right, you have to commit to this to becoming healthy, as a as a lifestyle, it’s a full time gig, it has to become just a part of who you are and what you do, you have to be all in forever. And this is not bad news. When you when you’re committed to this for life, it actually, it’s a good news, it gives you an opportunity to learn a lot about yourself.

So the longer you stick to something like this, like being healthy. The more you learn about yourself, like the more you grow internally, because as you know, the way you learn and the way you grow is you have to face and overcome challenges. And all kinds of challenging stuff will come up for you I promise, the longer you are committed to eating healthy, for example, the longer emotional and mental and emotional things are going to come up for you people are going to judge you, people are going to say things to you, you’re going to feel like you’re missing out on something, you’re going to feel sorry for yourself, you’re going to get frustrated, you’re going to get angry, you’re going to want to quit, you’re going to feel like a failure, all these things are going to come up for you.

When you embark on an epic journey like becoming, you know, a healthy person for the rest of your life, like this stuff is all going to come up for you. But again, this is not bad news, this is the good news. Because when these things come up, then you can deal with them. You can learn how to navigate these things, you can learn how to overcome all of these challenges. And when you do that, then you become a mental and emotional badass, it’s totally worth it. It’s totally worth it to to face all of these challenges, okay?

So it’s not so much about the goal. It’s about who you become in the process of going for the goal. And I love goals. I love big impossible goals, especially, you know, if there’s something that seems impossible for you right now, like for some of you, it may be like running a marathon, like that’s something you want to do. But it seems impossible for you, or losing 50 pounds or 100 pounds, it may seem impossible for you right now.

But here’s the thing, it’s impossible for you now, because who you are today, can’t do that. Who you are today, you’re not the person that can achieve that goal today. But here’s the cool thing. When you set out to achieve an impossible goal like that, you become a different person in the process of going after it. You change. You learn new things, you develop new habits you grow, and you become more. And honestly, this is the real goal.

The real goal is to always become more and I talk about this a lot I talk about becoming more I want to explain what I mean by that. What is more, and how will you know when you get there. This is exactly what I’m talking about here in regards to losing weight. The goal is not a number, but a way of life. Right? So becoming more, at least for me, it means I’m always learning. I’m always growing, I’m growing mentally, I’m growing emotionally, I’m always becoming stronger.

My body is becoming stronger, my muscles are becoming stronger and bigger. My mind is becoming stronger. I’m always becoming more of me and becoming more of who I am. And becoming more of who I am authentically and becoming more of myself. And this seems pretty basic, right? Just be yourself. People say be yourself. But it’s kind of harder to do then than it sounds on the surface. Like what does it mean to be yourself?

So for me becoming more of myself, it means really not giving a rip what other people think of me. Becoming more of myself means not judging myself, and not judging others. Not comparing myself to others. Not being afraid to feel any emotion. Not beating myself up when I fail to reach a goal. Becoming more for me, it’s a life long suit. It’s a lifelong pursuit of trying to answer this question. Who the hell are you? And here’s the thing, this pursuit it never ends.

Just like becoming healthy is not a destination but a way of life. It’s the same with just becoming more in general. It’s not a destination. It’s always a moving target. And that’s okay. See, for me, I’m committed to learning and growing every single day for the rest of my life, when I stopped learning and growing and becoming more, that’s when I’m just gonna die. Okay?

And I don’t want you to think of this as being overwhelming because when we start thinking about things forever, like, geez, Patrick, I had to do this forever. Does that mean like, I can never eat a piece of cake ever again? Does that mean I could never ever take a break from running again. And of course, it doesn’t mean that at all. Just don’t get caught up in the forever part of this. Just do what you can today.

There’s a saying in 12 Step programs, one day at a time, just take it one day at a time. It’s not a forever deal. I love this little concept. It’s it’s so simple, but so powerful one day at a time, just focus on today. What real food will I eat today? What strength exercise am I doing today? How far am I running today? Don’t worry about tomorrow, worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Today is about today. Okay, one day at a time. Don’t get too caught up in this forever thing.

But just know that there isn’t a goal, there isn’t a finish line, there isn’t a destination we’re trying to get to hear. Okay. The bottom line here is that your health is on going something that you have to be committed to for the long haul. And that’s good. This is good. If you’re committed to this for life, then you know that you’re going to be so much happier because this is just who you are and what you do.

But if you’re not committed to it for life, if you’re like, Well, I’m just going to get healthy, I’m going to get healthy. When I reach some number on the scale that I’m going to stop, then I’m promise you, you’re going to come to a place where you begin to become unhealthy, you begin to become overweight, you might begin to become sick. And then you’re going to have to like do it again. Does this sound familiar?

So many people do this, they call it the yo yo dieting, you know they they get healthy, then they get unhealthy. You know, they they lose weight, then they gain it back again. And this is a never ending cycle for some people. I don’t want that. I’ve done that before. I’ve gained and lost weight many times. And the last time I lost, you know, I started to gain weight again, and I lost about 40 pounds. I was like, this is the last time I’m doing this.

And so far, it’s been amazing. I don’t have to worry about anymore because I’m committed. This is who I am now. This is who I am. This is what I do. I would say just stay committed to your health and your fitness. You don’t have to worry about that happening. Okay. So I prefer to just stay committed, because this is what I do now.

And in my past, I used to be a wreck, I was overweight, I was sick, I was unhealthy. I smoked a pack of cigarettes every day, I drank 8-12 beers every single day, I couldn’t run to the end of a block if I tried. This wasn’t that long ago, this is like 20 years ago, like 2003. And I made that decision almost 20 years ago that I was never going to live my life that way again.

And of course, there’s been ups and downs during that process. And I you know, got healthy and got unhealthy again and all that. But here’s the thing, I wanted to be around for my two boys. I wanted to see them grow up and become men. Now my oldest son, Jack, he’s married and hee has a one year old. Oh my god, cutest little grandbaby in the world.

And you think I want to quit what I’m doing now? Hell no, I want to be around for a long time. I want to keep becoming more I want to see my kids become more. I want to see my grandkids grow up and become more.

And I want that for you to I want to see you become more. And I truly hope that that’s what you want for yourself as well. So let’s not focus on the number on the scale. Let’s focus on becoming the best and most badass version of ourselves. We owe that to ourselves. All right.

Well, that’s all I got for you today. Remember September is fat adaptation month over in the Running Lean coaching group four weeks to fat adapted. learn exactly how to become a lean fat burning running machine become the healthiest version of yourself yet and learn the mindset you need to make it last. Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. I really hope you got something out of this episode today. And if you did, please consider sharing it with a friend I love you all keep on Running Lean. Talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.