Sheri’s Rants #38: Consider the ‘Comfort’ Zone

These are real questions that have been sent to me by email:

“I have heard about your program and my neighbor that did it looks amazing.  I did some things that she suggested but every time the scale goes down a couple pounds I start eating fast food or ice cream!  I know this is mental, in my own head.  Do you know a supplement I can take to stop me from doing that?”

“…one and a half years ago I lost 63 pounds with the hCG diet.  When I was done I was so excited that I went on vacation; ate everything in sight!  I didn’t do the maintenance cos it seemed too hard and long.  Now I’m up 93 pounds and no matter what it won’t budge…I’m not convinced you can help me either but I don’t know what else to do.  My health is worsening… doctor says this weight must to come off but now the hCG isn’t working…”

“You told me four years ago that there is no physical plateau.   I didn’t believe you!  Every time my hard work in the gym is rewarded by fat loss I do something crazy and the weight goes RIGHT BACK to that same 150 I’ve been fighting for so long.  THIS IS NUTS!  At least now I know it IS in my head and I need some help…”

The Comfort Zone – that limited range of experience that you feel solid in.  A Comfort Zone is a way of being and behaving that keeps perceived risk (read: change) low.  It’s a mental conditioning that creates boundaries in your experience and your thinking.  Those boundaries create an unfounded sense of security.  It’s unfounded because every single Comfort Zone eventually works against you.  Every one of them.  Our Comfort Zones limit our experience of reality – of LIFE.  We humans are here to expand, not contract, our lives. As we grow, change, mature – our Comfort Zones should follow suit.

You’ve heard it, seen it, in other people right?  That unreasonable attachment or view of the world that obviously isn’t working?

Many, many years ago I made a decision to quit drugs and alcohol as they were becoming a problem for me.  I sought some help, and did it – cold turkey.  I began feeling better quickly.  Two weeks later, I woke up one morning feeling extraordinarily good.  I had a level of awareness and clarity that I’d completely forgotten about – or never had.  As the day wore on, I began to feel increasingly anxious, unsettled, irritated and nuts in the head.  By that night I was at a neighbor’s house, drinking hard.

The next morning I woke up feeling like absolute hell.  Headache, vomiting, dizzy.  And I noticed something.  I felt NORMAL.  NORMAL.  I liked that, feeling NORMAL. Then it hit me, uh oh…my comfort level is extreme pain! WHAT?

I got help and worked through my self esteem issues;  I altered my Comfort Zone to include contentment, clarity, and awareness. No, it wasn’t easy.  But a Comfort Zone of pain was not okay with me.

A Comfort Zone is an arena of reality that you created.  And when it comes to fat loss, as your body changes your Comfort Zone has to change as well, or you’re not going to be able to handle feeling lean, healthy, strong, and sexy.  I’ve seen it happen. A lot.  As in, almost everyone goes through this.

The hardest part of Transformation is that day of reckoning when you catch yourself self-sabotaging (accidently!  of course! It wasn’t your fault!) your fat loss… and you see this go on for weeks, or months…and you don’t know why.  You’re outside of your Comfort Zone and it’s risky stuff to be feeling good, looking good (after all, who do you think YOU are?).  Transforming your body means unprecedented change…and we humans don’t be digging that.  We resist.  We insist on our Comfort Zone.

Make no mistake.  Transformation is heady business.  It’s why diets don’t work – if you don’t work out the changes to your lifestyle, your thinking – the very things that got you into this condition! – there’s no way to keep what you created.   That is why coaching is so integral to a successful Transformation.  It takes some guidance.  Another highly effective tool is personal journaling.  By journaling, your chats with you will clue you into what’s going on between your ears, so that you can start pushing the boundaries on that Comfort Zone to include health, enjoying life and feeling delicious!