How do you measure success?

We are asked so often about the success rate at Beyond Chocolate. Usually the conversation starts something like this....

"So, what is your success rate?"

"Well that depends on what you mean by success."

"You know....how many women actually lose weight with Beyond Chocolate?"

 
"Ahhhh you see. We don't measure success like that."

"But surely that's what women want when they come to you?"

 
"Oh yes, and many of them do, but weight loss is only one of the many benefits reported by our 'success stories'. Beyond Chocolate is about so much more than pounds or inches lost. The beauty of Beyond Chocolate is that weight loss is just a by-product of a happy, healthy relationship with food and your body. It's a bonus."

"In what way?"

 "How about I let our 'success stories'  tell you for themselves...

There's a thread on the Beyond Chocolate forum called I want to celebrate and this is what some women are saying - none of them mention weight-loss so we don't know if they have or not. But that is besides the point, these women are all 'success stories'..."

"I fit into last summer's clothes  

I do exercise I enjoy, when I feel like it

I glow 

Mostly I think I look good 

I don't have constant numbers floating around my head trying to calculate points 

I really do eat what I want 

I ate some Jaffa cakes last week and realised they were out of date in December last year!"

"This morning I was out with my friend and her little girl and we had arranged a picnic in the park. We had both taken food to share but she taken more than me (that's gotta be a first!) and it was clearly meant for both of us (whereas I had just taken a bit extra to offer round sort of thing). Anyway the very idea of saying no to food when someone has prepared it for me completely horrifies me but I knew I wasn't in the slightest bit hungry. I thought well, I will just have a tiny bit of the quiche that she has brought, as it seems rude not to. But then I thought maybe I would try saying no. And I did, and it was fine! She said, oh do have some quiche. And I said, actually I am not at all hungry. And she said, no I know, it's so hot isn't it. And we carried on... it was fine!"

"Chose buffalo mozzarella and beef tomatoes for starters last night at the local restaurant. Normally I would think of eating out as an excuse to overeat and choose something I would think of as forbidden or "bad". Instead I chose something I really wanted."

"I decided I wasn't going to try and squeeze into anymore too tight clothing and went shopping to get items that actually fit and it felt great. I even look better wearing an appropriate size. Felt good today taking my kids to school with my new maxi dress and co-ordinaring flower pinned to my cardi."

"I threw away some pieces of left over (and going stale) homemade cake recently. Never had to contend with left over cake in the past - would have eaten it all in a day or so because I only ever made them during the 'last supper' before I started a diet!"

Of course, there's nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight and when you focus your energies of having a healthy relationship with food and your body - rather than on shedding pounds -  weight-loss is a natural consequence of those changes. And that's how we measure success...


Can you imagine...

- a fantastic sense of freedom
- feeling in control
- liking the way you look
- having more self confidence
- biscuits going stale because you forgot they were in your cupboard
- eating whatever you want, all the time
- moving your body in a way which you enjoy and therefore do again and again
- wearing clothes that you love and feel good in
- being able to say 'no' to food you are not hungry for
- being able to say no to cake
- having a healthier diet

You can have all of this and more with our Beyond Chocolate: The 10 Principles workbook and ecourse and just because it's summer we've launched out summer sale today and you save 30%! This offer is only available for newsletter readers so sign up now or check your inbox for access to the special summer sale discount!