Struggling to lose weight? These four things could be holding you back from finding your healthy weight.
I was recently thinking back to when I first started my weight loss journey. I constantly felt overwhelmed by all the different diets, health magazines and wellness blogs.
I would start a plan, eat a food or meal that wasn’t on the plan, and feel like I totally failed. My guilt about failing yet another diet plan would send me down a spiral of binge eating, feeling guilty then looking for another plan to jump into.
I always thought it was me. I didn’t have enough willpower or I didn’t want it enough.
When I finally realized that it wasn’t me, it was dieting, I felt free! But letting go of that dieting mindset can be a challenge.
If you’ve been trying to lose weight or just eat healthier more consistently and you find yourself struggling, read on!
These are four things that held me back from losing weight. Once I let go of these blocks, I began to lose weight, love my body more, stop eating emotionally and create a healthier relationship with food.
- You’re still dieting. Diets don’t work. Period. Diets force you to overhaul your whole life, they don’t take into consideration your food preferences or lifestyle, and they’re often too restrictive. Making healthy eating part of your lifestyle and your daily habits is the key to lasting weight loss and longterm healthy eating.
- You look at food as being “black” and “white.” Labeling food as “good” or “bad” can really backfire on us. When we eat a food that we’ve labeled as “bad” or forbidden, it can send cause food guilt and shame. You may find yourself overeating that food or restricting yourself to cope with that guilt. What if you looked at food as being neutral?
- You let weekends be your free pass. You eat so healthy during the week that when Friday arrives, you feel like you deserve to indulge. When you’re so rigid with your eating during the weekdays, it can make you overeat or eat too many unhealthy foods on the weekends. Finding a balance will allow you to take your healthy habits into the weekend, and leave room for consciously indulging.
- You’re going it alone. Change is hard. Having support, guidance and accountability makes changing your life so much easier. Schedule walks or gym dates with a friend. Find a friend who loves to cook healthy meals, and swap recipes or meal prep together. Hire a personal trainer, take a healthy cooking class or hire a health coach ; )
Creating consistency is the key to lasting weight loss, and the best way to do that is by getting off the dieting roller coaster, being flexible, letting go of the ‘all or nothing’ mindset, and surrounding yourself with people who can guide and support you.
In my individualized one-on-one health coaching program, you’ll learn how you can create lasting weight loss, feel empowered around food, improve your energy, gain confidence and learn how to listen to your intuition to create a healthier life. Learn more here.