It’s Okay to Seek Help on Your Weight Loss Journey
Many people feel like they can’t seek help when starting their weight loss journey, they feel that is something that they have to do on their own. This simply isn’t the case. You might be surprised to hear that it is even recommended that you seek help! You don’t need to do it all on your own, nor should you have to. This short blog post is going to cover the common pitfalls people face and how seeking the help of a health care provider can make the difference. Hopefully, by the end, you will feel more confident in your decision to visit a medical clinic.
Everyone is different:
Everyone is different. This term gets throw around a lot when it comes to preferences, likes and dislikes, and in weight loss terms often metabolism. But it goes one step further than that. Each person has their own nutritional needs, what these needs are is almost impossible to find without having some tests done. Your primary care physician will be able to take care of this for you. Once you know exactly what you need, exactly how many calories you can/should eat, your diet becomes much easier to plan. Your health care provider can help you plan the right diet for you to ensure you stay healthy while losing weight.
Setting healthy goals:
Setting healthy goals is important for two reasons. One, it gives you something to aim for. Two, it gives you something realistic to aim for. When people start their diet they typically look at their end goal weight, their current weight, and make a calculation. It could be, “I want to lose 50 pounds”. This is great, you now have an end goal in mind. But this isn’t the healthiest mindset. It is far better for both your confidence and your motivation to set small easily achievable goals. Looking at the scales and seeing you still have 48 pounds to go is daunting. Instead, you should reprogram your brain to think in increments. Start by trying to lose just 5 pounds. Once you hit that target, aim for another 5 pounds. Then another five. And another five. This way you are constantly hitting your targets.
The problem with having just one end goal is that it will take so long to reach it. When you start to hit slumps, which you will, it will be very tempting to quit. You may think to yourself, “I have been dieting for months and I still haven’t reached my goal”. This is such a negative mindset to have. On the other hand, you could be thinking “Wow, I’ve only been dieting for a few months and I’ve already hit 4 weight loss targets”. Mindset matters, your primary care physician will be there to keep giving you new, attainable, goals.
Motivation:
Losing weight is hard work, anyone who says otherwise is being disingenuous to you and themself. Many people rely on self-motivation throughout their whole weight loss journey. This is risky, to say the least. Our minds are very good at convincing us to give up on things we don’t want to do. With the help of your health care provider, you will always have someone in your corner rooting you on. This applies most of all to parents who are supporting their kid’s weight loss journey. Children need extra help with staying motivated. They don’t always appreciate the importance of why they are losing weight. It can be tough, they may feel upset and insecure about the whole process. Luckily, by visiting a family practice you can employ the help of a professional. Not every medical clinic is equipped to deal with children specifically, you will need specially trained physicians that are better equipped to help children. For that reason, it is important to visit a family practice.
The difficult questions:
Sometimes you are going to have to ask yourself the hard questions. Is my diet working? Am I doing
enough? Do I need to increase/decrease my calorie intake? Do serious steps need to be taken? Sometimes being able to answer these questions yourself isn’t possible. You might need an outside perspective, the professional opinion of your primary care physician can be very beneficial. It can even go further than that, you might not even know what questions need to be asked in the first place. You don’t have the training or experience to tell whether or not there is something seriously wrong with your diet. How could you? You didn’t go to medical school. Sometimes the best course of action is to visit a medical clinic and ask, “what should I be doing differently?”. It is important to feel like you can ask for help, that means picking a health care provider that is a good fit for you.
Procedures:
Sadly, sometimes extreme steps need to be taken for your safety. This is an unavoidable fact that many people find hard to face. And that’s okay. If you should need some kind of procedure to help you lose weight, your primary care physician will be able to point you in the right direction. Whatever that procedure may be. Alternatively, your physician will be able to convince you NOT to get a procedure done. Most of the time, hard work and a strict diet alone is to get your weight within a healthy range. Many people start to struggle and may end up truly believing that they need some kind of procedure done. This is rarely the case. Your primary care physician might stop you from making an unnecessary drastic choice.
Conclusion:
Hopefully, you can now see the value that visiting a medical clinic to discuss your new weightloss plans can provide. Whether you are just starting your diet and are looking for some helpful pointers or have been at it a while and are wondering why you aren’t getting the right results, your primary care physician can help. Again, it is not just okay to seek help it is highly recommended there is no shame in asking for help. Whether it’s for you, or a member of your family.
Sources:
https://www.verywellfit.com/get-your-doctor-involved-3496368
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/weight-loss-mistakes
https://www.webmd.com/diet/lose-weight-fast
