I’ll never forget a few years back when I posted a selfie of myself in a bikini on my birthday as a “check in,”—mostly to show that over the last several years I have stayed pretty much the same physique-wise, and a gal responded, “This photo is body shaming!”

After feeling initially taken aback because anyone who knows me knows that shaming someone else for their physique is so incredibly not my style—in fact years of my post-competition work has been dedicated to helping women feel powerful, confident and valuable outside of their physique—I actually loved the comment because it gave me so much insight into where we’ve moved in terms of our body esteem.

Trends come and go, and as an industry, we move with them.

For years it was: lose weight, get stick thin, don’t have any muscle.

Then it became: “toned” is good, but leave it at that.

Then it was: don’t lose weight, lose fat.

And then it moved to: if you appreciate your body then you don’t need to change a thing.

And then finally became: if you’re trying to lose fat, you must hate yourself.

Zero nuance!

And what this gal’s comment taught me is that so many of us have moved totally to the side of legit fearing trying to lose fat because if we do, it must mean we feel shame around our bodies and that’s not good.

I do 100% agree that feeling shame around your body, no matter what size or shape is a huge waste of time—not only because it keeps us miserable and our size has zero to do with our self-worth as a person—but because hating ourselves into thinness doesn’t work anyway as a tactical strategy.

But isn’t it okay to want to pursue something?

Not because we hate ourselves but because engagement is energizing and attaining hard-earned results feels amazing? We don’t pin our self-worth on our results, but recognize that the act of pursuit is valuable in and of itself.

Because if we can’t see a photo of another woman’s physique without feeling shame about our own body, then in my mind, we have some serious mindset work to do, no??

You know what I feel when I see another woman’s bangin’ body? I feel appreciation. I admire it. But I don’t want it. I don’t need to have it. And I don’t feel bad that my own body does not look like hers.

THAT is emotional detachment. Ease. Gratitude, even. And in my mind, the emotional detachment from not needing to look a certain way is THE key in being able to pursue fat loss without making it mean that you’re not good enough as-is.

Let’s get this clear: you are fine, perfect, valuable and worthy right now.

Appreciating how your body looks and performs right now, and wanting to pursue physique change are not mutually exclusive.

You can have both, so long as you are aware of why you are doing it. Not to earn affirmation or approval from others or society, but because it feels good to work toward something or for health reasons.

Fat loss, the way I think of it, is simply a puzzle. And all the moving parts can just be data: this food works, this one doesn’t. This exercise works, this one doesn’t. Oh wow, this mindset trap is coming up for me, how can I navigate it?  Etc.

No one needs to lose fat, but I talk to a lot of women all the time who want to. But they might feel guilty saying that out loud.

Wanting to lose fat is not a crime. It’s fine.

When it comes to nutrition, I always default to Metabolic Effect’s approach of finding what works for you. It’s a process and a practice. And it requires investigation and time and patience and putting your blinders on what everyone else is doing.

It’s easy to program-jump and to look around and want to follow the latest trend. But keto and Paleo and Clean Eating and The Cookie Diet and this juice cleanse or that celeb’s diet are all just distractions from you doing the work it takes to create the exact right approach for you.

These kinds of workouts optimize hormones for fat loss while maintaining muscle. Muscle is our most metabolic organ, so when we have more of it, it keeps our metabolism cranking. And the more intense your workouts (can be weight lifted or speed or volume), the more you’re stoking that metabolic fire.

Which is why I felt compelled to create an exact workout program that would do just that.

Because the women I work with still want to lose fat. And they want to look athletic. And they want to be challenged. But they don’t want to spend hours in the gym.

#treadLIFT is that program. It’s high-intensity short-duration workouts, a combination of cardio and weight training. 3-4 days a week, all workouts are 30 minutes or less. All you need are dumbbells.

If you have not grabbed a copy of the program yet, I want you to do that today or tomorrow because it’s 50% off this week only!

The 50% discount goes away tomorrow (Friday) at midnight.

If you are serious about your results but don’t want exercise to feel like a fulltime job, then this is the program.

P.S. Scroll down to see some seriously awesome sweaty selfies from #treadLIFT gals!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Xo,

Jill