The Tribune

Health coach Ethan Quant, of Elite Wellness Solutions, has succeeded in his weight loss journey and now wants to share his methods with the Bahamas in an effort to foster a culture of wellness and conquer the obesity epidemic.

I know exactly how frustrating and downright depressing it can be when you want to see the numbers on the scale go down. Especially when your goal is weight loss. I know that for me it was bad, during my 110-pound weight loss journey. Sometimes I would suffer from severe anxiety just thinking about what the scale would say when it was time for me to weigh in.

I was really excited when the numbers dropped to what I was expecting and I instantly got upset when the numbers didn’t move, or worse, if they went up. But something else happened sometimes as well. I would see the numbers drop and still not feel good about it.

This is something that I struggled with throughout my entire journey; not being happy with the small steps. I think this was in part due to the fact that I was working so hard. I would follow my diet and meal plan with 100 percent compliance...well, I would mostly follow it most of the time. I would train hard and not skip a workout, and I would hop on the scale after a week of this “torture” only to have lost half a pound. I mean, what’s the point right if I am going to do all of that for half a pound, I thought to myself, I might as well not even try.

These were the conversations I would have with myself over and over again. And this constant roller coaster of emotions was not good for my mental health. Thankfully, I was able to push through, but if I am honest, I did so with my sanity barely intact.

It wasn’t until I got my behavioural change specialisation that I learned a much better way to process these feelings and actually guide others through this very challenging period of transition to a healthier lifestyle. It was the simple notion that you celebrate all of your victories no matter how small that did the trick. This may see obvious and an easy thing to do, but it’s not. We live in a world and a time where we everyone shares their wins, and so naturally we may want to compare ourselves to them. So if our friend is posting that they lost 10 pounds on this new diet, we may feel like failures for having lost just half a pound. However, if you truly celebrate every victory no matter how small you will feel a lot better during your process.

We are also often our biggest critics, and we can be so hard on ourselves, even to the point to where it’s just down right unhealthy. Even though wanting to do more and be better is a good thing, I encourage you to be very careful. You can want to do more and be better without discrediting yourself and by appreciating how far you have come on your journey. The key to this is celebrating all of your wins, and remembering that progress is progress no matter how small.

Remember, if you would like help with this or any other aspect of your health wellness and fitness journey please feel free to reach out to me directly.

• Health coach Ethan Quant, of Elite Wellness Solutions, has succeeded in his weight loss journey and now wants to share his methods with the Bahamas in an effort to foster a culture of wellness and conquer the obesity epidemic.