Weight Loss: The Missing Piece

By Kim Galbreath, Personal Trainer and TRIBE Coach

Everyone knows the key to weight loss: Less Calories In + More Calories Burned =  Skinny! But what if it isn’t that easy? What if no matter how hard you try, you can’t make yourself submit to that equation? No matter how hard you try, you somehow find yourself at McDonald’s. No matter how many alarms you set, you seem to always oversleep for the gym. What if you did lose some weight, but it just keeps coming back?

When I went through my weight loss transformation, I found the above equation to be pretty easy. I was able to commit myself to a healthy way of eating that I could sustain for a lifetime. I was able to get myself to hundreds of workouts and runs. I even changed my whole career and started working at Club Greenwood. But then, even with the weight off, I wasn’t any happier. I was thin but not happy. That’s when I found my missing piece: Mental Wellness.

We are quick to forget how important our mental wellness can be. When I get busy, it’s the first thing to go from my schedule. After a few days, I notice I’m more stressed out. If I go a week or two, I’m getting into a funk. After a month, I’m starting to not really like myself anymore. Mental wellness looks different for everyone. For me, it’s music, poetry, reading a book at the coffee shop, making art or hiking on my own. Wellness can be anything you’re doing for you and only you, that has nothing to do with calories or activity.

Now I wonder if I could have lost the weight sooner if I had focused a little more on whole-body wellness and not just the scale. With proper alignment of the mind, body and spirit, I no longer worry that I’ll gain the weight back. I’ve given myself the tools both mentally and physically to be successful and healthy in the future. As a personal trainer, I love having a hands-on portion of the physical change my clients need. But what really fulfills me the most, is seeing the changes they make mentally. Without both, you’ll never complete the puzzle.