Resilience Tips to Keep Your Weight Loss on Track
December 19, 2022Resilience Tips to Keep Your Weight Loss on Track: Changes in diet and lifestyle can be very daunting. The journey to weight loss can seem long and winding, making it difficult to stay on track. Fortunately, there are steps we can take to ensure we remain committed to new, healthier ways of eating and exercising.
For starters, it is important to commend yourself for having enough self-awareness to begin a weight loss journey in the first place. You have acknowledged that your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors contributed to your excess weight. Now, you are taking steps to reverse your weight gain, thereby improving your health.
Modifying longtime thoughts and behaviors can be challenging, at best. Although countless advertisements will push a magic bullet for weight loss, we must acknowledge that no such pill exists. There are no quick-fixes. Weight loss requires resilience – a quality which allows us to bounce back from setbacks as strong as or even stronger than we were initially.
We must embark on a weight loss journey fully committed for the long haul and willing to do the hard work.
We may encounter stops, starts, and detours along the way, but the key to success is to keep your eye on the goal and continually get back on track. Learn to accept that you are a flawed human, exerting your best effort yet still subject to the occasional blunder. The quicker you get back on the proverbial horse, the quicker you will reach your ultimate weight goal.
Weight Loss Plateaus Are Common
Even with “perfect” clean eating and adequate exercise, weight loss plateaus are common. During these times, we must remind ourselves of all the work we have already put in. At this point in a weight loss journey, it is very likely that the new routines you have developed have begun to increase your self-confidence and improve your physical health. You feel more in control and disciplined, despite not being at your target weight yet.
If you are to make the goal, you need to reinforce your efforts thus far. Accept your frustration with the number on the scale and keep working your new routines. You might also review your plan. Is there anything that needs to be tweaked? Are there things your doctor, dietician, or coach have recommended but you have neglected to do? Take time to be honest with yourself, and then stay the course. Good things come to those who wait and put in continuous effort.
Much of overeating is fueled by emotions. Despite being very motivated to lose weight and develop healthy eating habits, patterns of overeating can seem impossible to overcome. Mindset is a key component to successfully defeating the habitual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that led to weight gain and inactivity. It is important to identify the motivation for changing one’s habits. Strong, internal motivation will be necessary to exercise resilience in the face of setbacks along the way.
Additional Resilience Tips
Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Commitment to our goals and consistency in our new habits are the key ingredients in long-term weight management and physical fitness. Below are some additional resilience tips to keep weight loss on track:
- Develop a daily schedule
- Have a meal plan and an exercise plan
- Take consistent action
- Keep things in perspective
- Remind yourself that it gets easier over time
- Surround yourself with like-minded individuals
- Get the support of a coach to help identify negative thought patterns & habits and hold you accountable
- Appreciate your body’s ability to exercise
As you go through the process of losing weight, develop an awareness of what you use food for? Is food fueling your physical needs or something more? Decide on other things to do instead of turning to food for solace. Make gradual changes rather than trying to change every habit at once. Try to attach a new habit to something you are already doing.
Finally, recognize that failure is an event, not a person. One slip-up in your weight loss journey does not indicate that all is lost. It does not give you license to continue to overeat. Decide ahead of time how you will respond to mistakes along the way. Make an effort to avoid berating yourself or labeling yourself as a failure. The ability to deal with setbacks constructively separates those who reach their goals from those who do not. Cultivate a spirit of perseverance – an important life skill that will carry over to the other areas of your life!
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Coach Jenna Nocera, MA, MFT, CLSC, CPFT is a Life & Wellness Coach, Psychotherapist, and Personal Fitness Trainer with advanced degrees in Behavioral Science, Psychology, and Marriage and Family Therapy. She works with clients to redesign their lifestyle habits. Subscribe to the Formula For Excellence® newsletter to receive a Free Habit Tracker and occasional health and wellness tips. Read more articles by Coach Jenna! |
