“Tell me what your life will look like when you’ve lost 40lbs. That’s what you want, so go do it now!” – Sarah Jenks, founder of Live More, Weigh Less.
I recently interviewed Sarah Jenks, founder and weight loss coach of Live More, Weigh Less, for our Mind/Body Weight Loss Summit coming out in the next few months, and I wanted to share a really powerful concept I learned from her:
“Don’t wait on the weight.”
I see this all the time with people I work with who are waiting to get a job, to fall in love, or to make other life changes after they lose weight.
Sarah’s message, and one we at The Gabriel Method fully support, is essentially to live your life now.
The idea is so contrary to what’s currently out there, and Sarah really gets to the heart of what’s important by reminding us that we should live our life, love ourselves, and treat ourselves with respect and dignity right now, even before we lose the weight we want to lose.
Watch the interview with Sarah to discover:
- How to overcome the belief that happiness “is only another 20lbs away” (2:15)
Sarah discusses the common belief that everything will change for the better if we just lose the weight we want to lose, and how holding on to our weight can be the excuse for not living a better life.
- How to understand “why” you are eating emotionally (5:22)
Here Sarah talks about how our use of food is really a reaction to our identity and emotional state. She makes the connection that no amount of food is going to satisfy what we need from our relationships or our personal and spiritual desires.
- How our perceptions drive us to be “skinny for a living” (10:58)
Sarah explains how the way we look at other people around us and in the media can affect the way we think we should be. Rather than accepting and being comfortable with ourselves the way we are in a normal, healthy state, we often find ourselves trying to live up to another ideal, and this pursuit can cause us to make weight loss about an image rather than about health and happiness.
- How the way we eat tells us what’s going on in our lives (16:52)
Do we eat for nutrition or do we eat to fill a void? Sarah talks about our eating habits as a measure of how fulfilled we are and how the way we eat creates a “roadmap” for what’s happening in our lives.
- Why focusing on just one thing in your life will make a positive change (19:53)
The process for changing everything for the better in life is to focus on one thing you want to improve and work towards that. Sarah and I both agree that if you want to see improvement, focus on making one thing better and the rest will follow.
Sarah’s ideas complement The Gabriel Method so well and serve as an important reminder that we can make positive changes by living our lives now. Sarah is offering a special opportunity to the Gabriel Method community through her website “Live More, Weigh Less” for those interested in learning more.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas about emotional eating and the courage to live life beginning now. Please join the conversation by commenting below.
About Sarah Jenks:
Since 2009 Sarah has been helping women lose weight and heal from the experience of emotional eating. As one who struggled with weight for the majority of her life, Sarah came to the realization that dieting and a desire to lose weight did not result in actual weight loss. There was a reason why food had become the only source of happiness in her life, and once she realized it, she became determined to find out what it was she really needed to start living. Sarah’s message of self-acceptance and emotional healing is one we share at the Gabriel Method. Here the focus is not on dieting and restriction, but on living a vibrant life, free of the emotional barriers that hold us back.
