The Real Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight
Or regaining it after your crash diet
You don’t have to be a victim of your environment
Losing weight doesn’t have to be complicated. Yet, for most people it is — or at least keeping the weight off is. We diet, we exercise, we push hard, we go all in, we burnout, we binge, we start over. It’s exhausting and everyone hates it.
You’re not necessarily doing things completely wrong. However, making slight adjustments to what you are already doing and thinking, can go a long way. Often unknowingly, we get in our own way. We stop ourselves achieving the very thing we want to achieve, and below are some of the reasons why.
You put a label on yourself
Somewhat ironically, when you say to yourself “I need to lose weight”, you are inadvertently labelling yourself as overweight or fat. I often hear people even describe themselves with those very words.
The problem is, if you consider yourself fat or overweight, subconsciously, that is what you are — even after you lose weight. And ultimately, if that is how you see yourself, your subconscious will make sure you stay that way.
It’s a little bit like typing in your destination to a GPS. It may take you a while to get there, but ultimately you will end up at the desired or undesired destination.
What to do instead:
- Reprogram your subconscious and focus on your why — why do you want to lose weight? More energy, lower blood pressure, better health, etc.?
- Start learning to accept yourself for who you are now
- If you must use labels, make them positive — I am healthy, I am beautiful, etc.
You follow all the new health and weight loss advice
Advice can be great. However, you don’t always need to jump on the latest fad. You can be healthy without adding banana peel to your smoothie, going on a charcoal detox, or restricting how, what, and when you eat.
Fads keep you distracted from what you’re trying to achieve. There is so much advice out there, it gets confusing at best. We don’t need new “guidance” that ultimately leads us astray when we already have sound scientific proof of what actually works.
What to do instead:
- Unsubscribe from all your health and weight loss newsletters
- Unfollow social media “health” gurus
- Research and invest in a professional coach whose only focus is you
You try too much too quick
Your body does not like extreme and sudden changes. If you try, it will resist. Ever felt intense food cravings after a crash diet or burnout after a full week in the gym? That is your body resisting change.
Changing everything overnight, will only push your goals further away.
What to do instead (It’s slow, but it’s damn effective and sustainable):
- Slow down and do only one thing at a time
- Focus on small and incremental behaviour changes
- Don’t get discouraged if one thing doesn’t work — try something else
The food companies don’t want you to
Your body wants to be healthy. If you let it, it will tell you what it needs. The problem is, most of us (through no fault of our own) have learned to ignore our most basic needs.
Rather than listening to our bodies, we’ve given over control to the food companies telling us to buy their food and drink products. Many of these products are filled with chemicals that confuse the hormonal signalling within ourselves, essentially making us victims of our own internal environment.
What to do instead:
- Learn to ignore the noise
- Eat slowly without distractions (no phones or TV)
- Do a body scan after your meals
Final thoughts
For years, I fell victim to my environment. Both internally and externally. Over time I learned to make these slight adjustments to my behaviour and mindset which in turn helped me become the person I am today.
The truth is, we live in the age of information. Sometimes there is just too much of it and it gets confusing. If you can learn to block out the noise and get more in tune with yourself, you have a very real chance of becoming the healthy and happy person you truly want to be.
You just read another post from In Fitness And In Health: a health and fitness community dedicated to sharing knowledge, lessons, and suggestions to living happier, healthier lives.
If you’d like to join our newsletter and receive more stories like this one, tap here.
