6 Things You Need To Know For Successful Weight Loss
Most of the weight loss advice that you get is usually focused around what to eat, what not to eat and how much exercise you should get, but while those are important aspects (exercise may not be as important for weight loss as we’ve been told…but that’s a post for another day), there is one piece of the puzzle that’s usually always missing – the mindset piece.
It's that piece that can really make or break your progress.
Let’s go over some top things you need to know to be able to lose weight AND keep it off.
Know that you can do this
It doesn’t matter if you’ve tried before and felt like you failed…don’t let your past experience predict your future results – they don’t have to unless you let them.
I get it – I had a history of chronic dieting and it can shake your confidence when you think about trying again…
But learn from those past experiences. There's some valuable information there.
What worked for you in the past? And by that I don’t mean specific diets I mean what things, what tasks, what actions worked before? Maybe, planning your meals the night before for the next day helped make things easier. Maybe you really enjoyed walking at lunch…you get the point. Find the things that helped and that you enjoyed.
Then look at what didn’t work for you. Maybe spending all day Sunday trying to meal prep was overwhelming to you and cut into your much needed R&R time. Or you absolutely despised having to weigh, measure, and track every bite that went into your mouth.
Take what worked and leave what didn’t. Or you can find ways to make those things that didn’t work, work better for YOU.
This next tip piggybacks on that one…
Don’t do anything just to lose weight that you can’t or don’t want to do for the long term
How you lose your weight is how you’ll maintain it – possibly with a little more wiggle room – but the foundation will be the same. So if you HATE what you’re doing you’re not likely going to keep it up long term.
After trying so many different diets over the years I finally had to get real with myself this last time (when I finally lost the weight for good) that I was no longer willing to do something just to lose weight, that I knew I wouldn’t stick to for the long haul…
‘Cuz what's the point of that? I wanted to lose the weight for good this time. I didn't want to stay stuck losing and regaining the same weight over and over again. I’d done that far too long already - can you relate?
I think when it comes to weight loss it's really easy to tell yourself – “well I’m just gonna suck it up and do this to get the weight off and I’ll just figure it out when I get to my goal…”
But that’s easier said than done, because you’re not building those doable healthy habits along the way – trying to figure it out once you get there doesn’t usually work, then you find yourself slowly slipping back into old habits again.
Your weight loss plan should feel realistic and doable in your life right now – if it doesn’t, it needs some tweaking.
Perfection is not required
One of the things that dieting does to us – is it creates an all or nothing mentality. You gotta follow these rules…you’re either on plan or off….you’re being good or being bad…
So when life gets crazy and the shit hits the fan it's really easy to think “well if I can't do everything and do it perfectly, why bother doing any of it?”
But there is another option between doing it all or doing nothing at all…
This is when I use what I call my non-negotiables. These are the 3 things (you can have as many or as few as work for you - these 3 work for me) that help me to feel like I’m still taking care of me even if it feels like everything around me is in chaos.
My 3 are (these don’t have to be yours - yours should work for YOU):
Start my day with 16oz of water before I eat or drink anything else.
I have protein at every meal
I get outside for at least 15 minutes everyday (preferably walking but sometimes not even that).
Know that you WILL mess up
Even with the utmost dedication, commitment and best laid plans, you will slip up sometimes. And that's ok, it's all part of the process of life and especially when you’re doing something new.
It does not mean you need to quit, start over or beat yourself up. You can get right back on track with your next meal.
Stay out of the comparison trap
There is something about weight loss that just makes it so easy to compare our progress with everyone else's. But that's not fair to you at all.
We all have different starting points, genetics, health issues, metabolisms, activity levels, etc etc. Even if we all ate the exact same things at the same times and did the same activities - we’d all have very different results.
It doesn’t matter how much somebody else is losing or how fast they’re doing it. Paying attention to that just sets you up for disappointment, frustration, or even thinking that you’re doing something wrong.
This is your journey - keep your eyes on your own paper
Don’t just rely on the scale to tell you how you’re doing
Somehow along the way we all got way too invested in letting the scale measure our progress. But that thing does not tell you the full story.
There are so many things that can affect the number on the scale that have nothing to do with whether you gained or lost FAT. And that's what we’re really concerned with right? Fat loss?
So many of the fluctuations you see - especially day to day - are just water weight.
How many times have you stepped on the scale to see that number go up 2-3 lbs, seemingly overnight, and got frustrated or pissed? I can almost guarantee that you didn’t gain 3 lbs of FAT overnight - you’d have to work pretty hard to do that - in which case you probably wouldn’t be all that surprised to see the number go up right?
So what do you think? I’d love to hear from you. Have you fallen into some of these weight loss traps before? Is there anything new that you’ll implement in your weight loss journey?