Are you sabotaging your own weight loss effort? Do you get down a few pounds and then gain it back again? Do you feel like you are always on a “diet” but never lose any weight? Do you workout everyday to no avail?
Well then maybe you are sabotaging your own weight loss efforts!
In this blog I have written about 6 ways that you might be doing this, along with some suggestions on how you can overcome them and move on with reaching your goals.
1) Making your plan too hard or too big!
Have you ever been all gun-ho at the beginning and tell yourself you are going to commit to an hour of exercise every day. Only eat whole, organic foods. Not let any sugar pass your lips until you have reached your weight loss goal of 50 pounds …
Sounds like a great plan – right? Wrong, it is unrealistic and you are setting yourself up for failure.
What happens when your child gets sick and you can’t get your workout in? Or when you get invited out for a friends birthday party, and you have a glass or wine (or two) and a piece of that yummy birthday cake?
You feel like you failed – right? And worse, often when we “fail” we give up, tell ourselves we can’t do it and end up reaching for a second piece of that birthday cake you swore you weren’t going to touch, and you end up in a vicious cycle.
So instead of letting this happen, set yourself smaller achievable goals that over time will take you to your bigger goal.
For example, workout for 30 minutes 4-5 times a week. Eat healthy whole foods 90% of the time
It may take longer to reach your goal, but it will be sustainable and you are more likely to keep the weight you lose off long term.
2) Not admitting to your fears
Excuses, we all have excuses.
"I don’t have enough time",
"I have 3 kids to look after",
"I have a bad knee",
"I don’t have the support I need" …..
But all of these are just excuses, they can all be overcome if you REALLY wanted to.
So next time you start making an excuse as to why you can’t start a weight loss program now, take a step back and be honest with yourself. Ask yourself WHY?
3) Using food as a reward
This often stems from when you were a child. I know when I was good my parents rewarded me with candy, or used foods as treats. So we tend to think of it as a reward, something to use as a celebration. It is a habit we fall back into because we associate it with feeling good.
Having a “cheat” meal is fine, but don’t use food as a reward for reaching a weight loss goal.
Instead, reward yourself with a massage, new clothes, flowers, download a song, or get a haircut.
4) Not getting enough sleep
There is a connection between sleep and diet failure, this is due to the balance of two hormones ghrelin and leptin.
Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin.
Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.”
So more ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain.
This is why when you are tired you are more likely to binge eat, choose “junk food” or sweets.
So what can you do? Commit to an earlier bedtime and prioritize your health.
Need to find ways to save time? Check out my FREE guide to saving time in the kitchen
5) View a diet as a temporary change
If you truly want to lose weight and keep it off long term, you don’t need a diet. You need a lifestyle change.
You need to make manageable changes in your lifestyle that you can stick to for the rest of your life. There might be somethings that you just aren’t willing to give up (for example this mommy here NEEDS her evening wine!) but you need to look at your lifestyle and work out what changes you can make and stick too.
Some examples of simple changes are:
Removing pop from your diet
Drink your daily allowance of water
Switch potatoes out for sweet potatoes
Reduce your potion sizes (did you know you should only eat ½ a cup of rice as a serving – mind blowing right!)
Go for a daily walk
You can build up to these changes slowly, like add in 1 more daily glass of water each week until you are at your target.
6) Overestimate the impact of exercise.
Have you ever said to yourself “I can have a piece of cake, since I went for a 5k run today” and then a little later “sure I will have a second glass of wine today, I deserve it since I did my run today”.
Go on – you know you have said it …. I know I have (so don’t leave me hanging here).
An average person won’t burn off enough calories during a 5k run to account for a slice of chocolate cake (without frosting!) let alone that extra big piece that you served yourself!
You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. Weight loss is 80% diet and only 20% exercise.
So don’t exercise to eat, exercise to be healthy.
Which of these points are you guilty off?
Comment below and tell me what you are going to change.
And if this article did help, please share it with your friends and let it help them too!