Lauran Hymas Wellness

One of the biggest shifts I wish more women understood about body composition is that you do not need to be actively losing weight all year for your body to be moving toward your goal.

Sometimes fat loss is the appropriate goal.
And sometimes it isn’t.

If someone comes to me wanting to lose body fat, I’m not only looking at how much weight she wants to lose.

I want to know what she’s currently eating. How long she’s been eating there. What her training looks like. Whether she’s actually progressing in the gym. How consistent she is. How she’s sleeping and recovering. What her dieting history looks like. And what her life can realistically support right now.

Because two women can have the exact same goal and need completely different next steps.

One might be ready for a calorie deficit.
Another might need to spend time eating more consistently.

Another might benefit from increasing food, improving her training and building muscle.

Another may need to maintain for a while before asking her body to do anything else.

None of those phases are wasted time.

Sometimes the work you do before a fat-loss phase is exactly what allows you to have a more productive one later.

I think we get into trouble when every season that doesn't involve weight loss starts to feel like we're doing nothing.

You’re not doing nothing.

You may be building the foundation for what comes next.

Every season has a purpose. 💗

Save this for the season when progress doesn’t necessarily look like weight loss.

If I wanted my body to look different next summer, I wouldn’t wait until January to start thinking about it.

But I also wouldn’t automatically spend the next four months trying to lose weight.
I’d look at what my body and my habits actually need right now.

Maybe I need a few months of really consistent strength training.

Maybe I need to eat more.

Maybe my nutrition is technically “good,” but inconsistent enough that I don’t actually know what my baseline is.

Maybe I need to build muscle.
Maybe I’m already training hard, but my sleep, stress, and recovery are making it difficult to progress.

Or maybe a fat-loss phase does make sense.
That’s the part that gets lost when we reduce body composition down to “eat less and move more.”

There are different phases for a reason.
And what I’d recommend for one woman in October could be completely different from what I’d recommend for another woman with the exact same goal.

The goal isn’t to spend every month of the year dieting.

It’s to know what to work on now so the next phase actually has something solid to build on.

And then January doesn’t have to feel like another dramatic Day 1.

It’s just the next phase of a plan that’s already working. 💗

Save this instead of waiting until January to make a plan.

The way I take care of myself today looks very different than it did six years ago.

For a long time, I thought being “healthy” meant doing more.

Train harder. Eat less. Be more disciplined. Push through.

And I was disciplined.

But I also probably spent years working incredibly hard while not giving my body enough of what it actually needed to build the muscle and physique, I was working so hard for.

My definition of health has changed a lot since then.

I still train hard. I meal prep. I pay attention to my nutrition. I have structure, goals, and things I’m working toward.

But I also eat enough.

I walk because I genuinely love walking. I hike. I prioritize sleep and recovery. I pay attention when my body is asking for something different. I care about my stress and my nervous system.

And I actually live my life.

I think sometimes we talk about sustainability as though it means caring less, trying less, or having no structure.

That hasn’t been my experience at all.

I still care deeply. I still work hard.

I’ve just learned that taking care of myself doesn’t have to mean constantly asking more from myself.

Sometimes it means asking what I actually need.
And these days, all of it feels a lot less like something I’m doing to my body and a lot more like an expression of respect for it. 💗

What does taking care of yourself look like in this season of your life?