Why You Should Let Your Amazing Results Speak for Themselves

Alternatively, please stop shoving your diet down my throat

Colleen Mitchell
3 min readJul 2, 2018
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

You know the joke about the vegan who does crossfit?

What does he tell people first?

While in poor taste, it highlights a stereotypical behavior that many people exhibit: unsolicited advice based on personal success and results from this behavior, that activity, these three diets, that lifehack they saw on the internet last week, blah blah blah.

Your Lifestyle, Guaranteed, Will Not Fit Mine

Just think about that for a second.

What you do for you works for YOU.

What you do for you would not work for ME.

And it’s the same vice versa. Things I do that work for me in my life would not work for you purely because everyone is different.

But First, A Few Universal Truths

  • Your “beginning” or “middle” will look very different than someone else’s “beginning” or “middle.”
  • It’s generally accepted that sugar, especially in processed foods, is hella bad for you. Regardless of what diet trend you’re following, the number one piece of advice is to cut down on sugar intake.
  • There are legitimate (medical, spiritual, cultural) reasons for following any diet, like paleo, vegan, keto, vegetarian, or Whole30.
  • Telling people things is less effective and less memorable than showing them the results.

Other People Noticed My Weight Loss Before I Said Anything About It

Walking into a bank branch to deposit a check, the last thing I expected when handing over my driver’s license was a dropped jaw and a drawn out, “Guuuurul! What are you doing??”

The first time I was honest on my driver’s license!

Before taking the comparison shot right here, I had NO idea the difference losing 20 pounds made to my face.

In fact, the difference between my highest weight and this morning’s scale reading is about 44 pounds.

That’s about the weight of an above-average four-year-old.

But before someone else noticed my results I had no inclination to discuss what I did to get there.

A coworker stopped me in the lunchroom a few weeks ago to ask if I’ve been losing weight, and then asked what I did to achieve it. At that point it was appropriate to share what I’d been doing and then provide the resources she asked for in order to try it herself.

Let Your Results Speak for Themselves

It’s so much more impactful to watch someone better themselves and then ask them what they did to get there.

But you should also keep in mind that what they did might not fit with your lifestyle or beliefs.

And that’s fine!

What you’ve got to do is find what works for YOU.

And once you do, don’t shove it down anyone’s throat unless they ask for it.

Let your results speak for themselves.

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Colleen Mitchell

Coach, YA fantasy novelist, podcast host, cat mom, Ravenclaw, hiker.