All of us deal with hard things, challenging events, and crucial moments where it feels like there is only one right move and a million wrong ones.  When attempting to change our lifestyle after years of unhealthy habits, the hard stuff seems never ending.  You must re-learn how to shop in a grocery store, find the right gym that will hopefully motivate you to be consistent and not hurt you, figure out what foods to eat and what foods not to eat, and the list goes on.  What is the difference between you and your friend/family or social media acquaintance that recently had success losing weight and you? Why were they able to complete their mission and you keep starting and stopping?

Let’s start with the obvious. There is nothing wrong with you and you are not defective or damaged.  The main difference lies in their mindset and preparation prior to starting their weight loss journey.  Your ability to handle challenges is the difference between completing your goal and quitting before the end.  There is no “quick solution” on the path to weight loss and good health, though the process does become slightly easier as time goes on and those small changes you’ve made stack up into positive habits.  

When dealing with stressful events we have 2 very different decisions we can make.  We can choose to see the stress as a threat and alter our course – this is often how we cope with hunger at social events even though we came in with a plan – or we can seethe stress as a challenge that is meant to be beaten.  When we choose the path of taking on the challenge, we build resistance towards future similar challenges and events in our life.  That resistance over time becomes a reflexive response that we no longer even have to think about, it’s just our pre-designed response.  Those that have completed long battles to lose weight have built high resistance levels and no longer feel stress when encountered with situations that would make someone just starting out feel uncomfortable about.

The other pitfall comes in the way we set our expectations. According to the book “Doing Hard Things” by Steve Magness, when we set our expectations too high, we can set ourselves up for failure rather than success.  Your brain is designed to protect you from dangerous tasks and when you set the expectations too high your brain can read this as a hill too steep to climb and send messages back like “why even bother since it’s unachievable and probably dangerous”.  If we set our expectations too low, our brain can perceive it as “not worth the effort”.  It is very important we take the time to set realistic goals and expectations that align with what we truly want out of our weight loss journey.  At CFT, we offer regularly scheduled goal setting sessions as part of our service to ensure that your goals are aligned and manageable for the greatest chance of success.

When preparing to lose weight and change your lifestyle habits permanently, take the time to set realistic goals, expectations, and prepare yourself for countless stressful situations knowing that every success is another level of resistance in the fuel tank towards success.

If you are ready to take control of your goals, see those New Year’s Resolutions through to completion, and/or finally gain the confidence you’ve been lacking sign up for a complimentary No Sweat Intro HERE

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