Weight loss is hard. At least that is a negative mindset people hold onto, say, and then becomes their reality.
Well, you may be surprised to hear weight loss isn’t where people struggle the most.
People don’t really struggle to lose weight. They struggle to keep it off.
There are all sorts of diets and challenges people use to lose weight. The problem is this rapid weight loss never lasts. Once you stop the diet or challenge, the weight comes right back. You may even end up heavier than you were before the diet!
So, I’m going to give you 4 crucial mindset shifts you need to adopt if you’re tired of gaining weight after dieting.
1. Think long term habits not short-term fixes
You need to change your time frame. If you look for quick fixes, you’ll only get short term results. You need to stop thinking about losing weight quickly and start thinking about how to lose weight sustainably.
When deciding the actions, you’re going to take towards weight loss ask yourself if it’s something you could see yourself doing for 5 or 10 years. This is what I mean by changing your time frame.
Your results are tied to your actions. If you can’t maintain the actions that got you weight loss, you won’t maintain your weight loss.
Stop thinking weeks. Start thinking years.
2. Ignore shiny objects
This may be even harder than ever. Information and fads can spread so quickly with social media. There’s always some new, sexy secret that will be the answer to all your problems.
But I assure you, success is about mastering the basics. Not the fancy stuff.
It’s all about practicing basic and boring habits like:
- Eating more protein and veggies,
- Listening to your hunger cues,
- And getting enough sleep.
Not exactly marketable advice, but it works. Ultimately, any diet that works does so because it keeps your calories low. There’s nothing magic about it. In fact, most fads are just repackaging of old fads.
Unless you become a hermit and lock yourself away in a cave, you will be tempted by whatever is in style right now, or whatever your friends and colleagues are doing.
Ignore it all.
Those are all shiny objects that distract you from what you ought to be doing.
Stay focused. Stick with a program or plan for at least 6 months before you even think about looking for a new one.
3. Focus on the process
Weighing yourself every day is a good way to drive yourself crazy. You can do everything right and sometimes the scale will still go up! Daily weight fluctuations are unpredictable and uncontrollable because your weight at a given time is based on so much more than just how much fat or muscle you have.
Besides, you can’t control how fast results happen anyway.
You can only control the actions you take to get you those results. A better way to look at your journey is by developing a razor-sharp focus on the process, on what you need to be doing right now.
"Because actions cause results. So, it’s logical to focus on actions. Thinking about results won’t get you there, but actions will."
Celebrate all the little things you do well.
If you went to the gym, give yourself a high five. If you ate more veggies than you did last week, congratulate yourself.
These are the things that matter. So long as you keep improving your actions, the results will follow. Plus, this actually gives you a more accurate idea of progress because what your weight says on a given day doesn’t necessarily reflect how close you are to long term results.
For example, you could go out drinking the night before and see the scale go down. Or you could do a hard workout and see the scale go up. Which one do you think is better for weight loss?
Action is everything. Additionally, when you develop your focus, you’re less vulnerable to the distractions of shiny objects.
When you focus and celebrate your actions, those actions are more likely to become habit. And habits equal results