Why you can’t lose the weight

You can’t out train a negative mindset. Mindset is everything. How you think about something determines if you do it — and how well you do it. That’s certainly the truth for exercising and eating healthy. If you get up everyday and think, “It’s hard,” “I don’t want to,” or “Uggghh, I just can’t eat another salad!” it’s unlikely you will stick to the routine you’ve set for yourself.

How many times have you set a new goal, only to fail? You plan to get started on Monday morning, and over the weekend you hit the farmers market to stock up on everything you need.

A couple of scenarios play out here:

1. You hit snooze and say, “I’m just too tired, I’ll go later.” Ding! The first hit to your integrity and your belief in yourself.
2. You get up, complaining and moaning the entire time, but eventually show up to your workout. You hate yourself and everyone in your vicinity for the first 20 minutes, but then the endorphins kick in and you’re super proud of yourself.

Now, let’s say the first scenario happened. Integrity to ourselves is the best thing we can do for ourselves. Every time we “fail,” we take another hit to our self esteem, because we promised ourselves something and then didn’t do it. You get down on yourself throughout the day and think, “Why can’t I get it together?” The bad news is you won’t get it together, at least not as long as that negative talk continues. You don’t believe in yourself and your chances of success are much lower.

Now, let’s say the second scenario happened. You’re pumped. You had a great workout, so you’re eating healthy all day. You’re feeling amazing, and are now looking forward to healthier lifestyle. In this scenario, you are positive and focused on what you did accomplish. You did what you promised yourself you would do, so your integrity is intact. You’re focused on improvement and how good you feel — and you want to keep that feeling!

Get out of the spiral of negativity

Mindset is everything. When we’re focused on how we’re failures, how we can’t, how we’ll never get it together, then we never will.

If you’ve had a day like Scenario #1 — and who hasn’t? — your best bet for recovering from it is to focus on getting to the gym later. Reassess your early-morning gym plans. Maybe you’re not a morning person, and the lunch hour or after work are better times for you to schedule your workouts. Maybe you need a little more incentive, like hiring a personal trainer or motivation coach until you get into the routine of things.

Sometimes you just need the time to create a habit, and you need to put things in place to help you along the way. Instead of focusing on how you’re a screw-up and won’t ever lose the weight, focus on what will work for you. Set yourself up for success by selecting a schedule that works for your lifestyle and personality, hire a coach if you need incentive to show up and focus on creating positive self talk.

It’s human nature to focus on our flaws or perceived flaws. We can be very hard on ourselves and that causes a spiral of negativity, making new-found goals almost impossible in the face of our own criticisms. I coach my clients to do three main things to help them overcome a negative mindset, improve their belief in themselves so they can overcome the battle of the bulge and make exercise and healthy eating a part of their everyday lives — and love it!

You can get the same results. Follow these tricks, and you’ll be moving towards your goals before you know it!

3 Ways to meet your weight loss goals

1. Practice positive self-talk.
   Write a list of the awesome things you are, do and have. Focus on those any time you catch yourself criticizing yourself. It can be difficult in the beginning, when you’re just starting out trying to focus on the positive. If you’re stuck, reach out and ask your friends and family to tell you some ways they would describe you. Write them down and keep them close!
2. Make integrity the most important thing for you.
   We often have integrity first for strangers, then for friends and family and lastly for ourselves. Reverse that! Have integrity first for yourself, which means doing what you promised yourself you would do when you said you would do it. Once you begin to make yourself and your goals a priority, it will become easier to do. Don’t consider it selfish. You’ll find you will enjoy helping people even more when you’ve taken care of yourself first, instead of doing things for people out of a sense of obligation at a cost to your own health and goals.
3. Schedule it and stick to it.
   Make your workout the most important thing on your calendar. Schedule it and do not change your schedule unless it’s an emergency. When we have consistency, we gain momentum. When we gain momentum,we get results, excitement and a new lifestyle!

Focusing on these three things will break your negative mindset, help create new habits and give you a positive way to think about other areas of your life — further impacting you in a positive way!