10 Obstacles That Are Keeping You Overweight (And How To Break Past Them)

I believe that losing weight is a skill that anybody can learn and execute successfully.

Any progress you make as a result of learning this skill however, can easily be undone or even reversed if a lack of awareness leaves you running into the same obstacles over and over again.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

My goal with this post is to leverage off my mistakes (and I’ve stumbled with many of the obstacles I’ve outlined below) to build that awareness within you and help you pin-point what yours are—if you’re struggling with this particular area of your life—so that you can start clearing the path to your goal.

Let’s dig in:

Obstacle #1: Your mindset is working against you

Every failure that you experience, setback that you encounter, or ounce of confusion and frustration that you feel takes you 10 steps back and leaves you stalling. Why? Because these disappointments mean that the goal you want so badly is meant to happen for other people, not you. So instead of seeing these setbacks as feedback and lessons you can learn from, you see them as irreversible, devastating signs that you’ve reached your limits.

BREAK PAST IT: The next time you feel like giving up when disappointment sets in, ask yourself “What can I learn from this so I can have another go at this in a smarter and more efficient way?”. One thing I’ve learned from struggling with my own weight for over 10 years is that if my external situation isn’t changing, something that’s inside of me has to change first, and often, that ‘something’ involves learning from my past and tweaking what’s in the present.

OBSTACLE #2: You’re eating your emotions almost daily

You’re stressed out from work, sinking under waves of sadness from a painful break up or bored in the evenings because no one else is home, and you’re coping…by turning to food. And it’s not just any food that you want—it’s GOT to be a big, gooey bowl of mac n’ cheese and a glass (or three) of wine to wash it down with. You try to go on a diet to lose the extra pounds that seem to be piling on, but you just can’t seem to say “no” to the pasta and wine when your cravings creep in.

BREAK PAST IT: Identify the triggers that are driving you to eat when difficult emotions surface and practice coping with them without food. Overcoming that initial resistance you feel when you try to not turn to your usual source of comfort  will be hard, but once you move past it and start to drop your old habit in favor of a new one, your weight will too.

OBSTACLE #3: You’re on a highly restrictive diet

The number on the scale keeps triggering a rush of panic and anxiety. You’re thinking “what if I never get this weight off?”. So you do the most logical thing you can think of: You Google “best diet for weight loss” and pick the one that tells you to eat as little as possible. It seems to be working, but six months later, find yourself slowly regaining all the fat weight you’ve lost.

BREAK PAST IT: Yes, cutting back severely on your calorie intake can help you lose weight in the early stages, but studies are showing that that huge, initial loss is often followed by a plateau, weight gain and eventually, an increased inability to lose weight thanks to a metabolism that’s gone haywire. Your best bet when it comes to weight loss that you can sustain and maintain for the long term? Sharpening your ability to listen to your body’s hunger cues and learning how to  stop eating when you’re no longer hungry (which sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised to know how many of us fail miserably at this).

OBSTACLE #4: You’re surrounding yourself with people who constantly sabotage you

You’ve set goals for yourself. You’re ready to put a stop to your chronic overeating, feeling anxious around food and finally, you’re ready to feel good in your own skin. But your friends are making you feel bad about your new habits, constantly making fun of your new choices and always trying to talk you out of the 7PM workouts you’ve scheduled into your day, so you can get sloshed with them at the bar.

BREAK PAST IT: The saying goes that you’re the average of the 5 people you associate with the most, and as cliched as that sounds, it’s absolutely true. This means that if you want to conquer your first 5K but spend most of your time with people who hate running, guess what? Your 5K dream is probably not going to happen. I’m not suggesting that you cut these people out of your life entirely, but try working towards spending more time with people who are already doing what you want to do—this will greatly increase your chances of reaching your goal and getting the support you’ll need to succeed.

OBSTACLE #5: You’re not getting enough sleep

You spend your nights tossing and turning, and often, find yourself jolting into consciousness by a rush of anxiety. No matter how hard you try to empty your mind or stop thinking, thoughts race through your head at what feels like a million miles per minute. When morning rolls around, you’re frustrated, exhausted and hungry…for comforting, sugary foods.

BREAK PAST IT : Chronically falling short in the snooze department won’t just leave you feeling lethargic and grumpy—it can also impair your metabolism by messing with essential hormone functions and increase your cravings for sugar, all of which leave you predisposed to weight gain. What’s helped me go from sleepless to heading to la-la land in a matter of minutes is this: A sleep ritual. This means that an hour before I go to bed, I make it a point to slow down my body and mind to prime it for sleep with genlte yoga, meditation, light reading or a hot bath. Your sleep ritual doesn’t have to be complicated, it just has to work for you.

OBSTACLE #6: You’re MAKING UP FOR A BROKEN DIET WITH EXERCISE

You go to the gym six days a week and spend hours at a time working out hard. You have a good sweat and are burning hundreds of calories a pop. But still, those jeans you want to fit into aren’t any looser than they were six months ago. Even worse, they’re tighter.

BREAK PAST IT: Tackle your getting your eating right before jumping into an intense exercise routine that’s eventually going to burn you out, especially if you constantly find yourself going to extremes in an effort to burn off everything you eat. Making these changes are going to require a significant amount of willpower in the early stages of your weight-loss journey, so aim to focus on one thing at a time and ease yourself into your new routine so that it sticks.

OBSTACLE#7: You don’t believe that you can win

That shiny new weight loss diet and exercise program is calling your name, so you sign up. Your hopes are through the roof as you enter your credit card number, access your program material and shop for all the ingredients you’ll need to prepare your meals. You’re ready to see big results as you collapse in a heap of exhaustion after your first killer workout. But after two weeks, you feel like progress is coming too slowly, so your motivation and enthusiasm starts to wane. By month three, you’re back to your old eating habits and barely working out once a week. The hope you felt at the beginning of your program has gone flat because you just can’t see yourself crossing that finish line…ever.

BREAK PAST IT: Self-doubt can cripple you if you let it. The one thing that’s helped me move forward despite the doubt, fear and shaky confidence is this: Breaking down my goals into tiny, so-easy-anyone-can-do-it ones. Once I’ve conquered each tiny goal, I move on to the next goal, and eventually, these baby steps add up to something a lot bigger and help bring me closer to my big picture goal. This process helps me build the belief and trust in myself that I need to tackle newer, bigger and more challenging quests.

OBSTACLE #8: You’re constantly stressed out

Your heart takes a plunge the minute you notice the sky-high pile of papers on your desk that you need to work through. A buzz of anxiety, agitation and worry sticks with you as you go about your day, and you’re afraid that if just one more thing goes wrong, you’re going to lose your s***.  This agitation doesn’t go away when you get home, head to your workout, have your dinner, spend time with your family, turn in to bed and as you try to fall asleep.

BREAK PAST IT:  Being in a stressed out, ‘fight or flight’ state all day, every day, can lead to chronically elevated levels of the hormones cortisol and adrenaline, which in turn inhibit ‘less critical’ bodily functions like digestion, cellular repair, immune function, reproduction and….weight loss. In short, persistent stress can leave you in state that’s not ideal for dropping those extra pounds. No, you don’t have to head to an ashram in India to achieve a state of ‘Zen’, but what you can do is to find pockets of time (start with between 15 to 30 minutes) to ease yourself into a state of deep relaxation that’s free of anxiety and worry.

OBSTACLE #9: You’re relying on willpower and motivation to move forward

You keep falling off the diet and fitness wagon, and don’t know why. You start out each month on a high, ready to jump in 110% so you can finally reach your goal of losing 60 pounds. You’re fueled by motivational posters that you’d binged surfed through over the weekend. But by month’s end, you no longer feel like exercising. All you want to eat are pizza and ice cream. And the couch feels like the best place on earth even though you know that you should be getting your butt out the door for a run.

BREAK PAST IT: Avoid relying on emotional highs and bursts of hope-fueled enthusiasm to get your diet and exercise sorted out, because true motivation doesn’t work that way. And if you haven’t already discovered by now, this kind of motivation is fickle. It can go as easily as it comes, and when it does, you’re left wondering “why can’t I just stick with any of this?”. What you should be doing is to start using a scheduled routine that you follow through with regardless of whether you “feel like it” or not. Do this long enough, and you’ll end up wondering: “what can I do next?”.

OBSTACLE #10: You’re looking for a magic bullet or formula

Bold headlines that promise to help you “Lose 20 Pounds in 20 Days” or “Flatten Your Abs In 5 Minutes” often have your attention. You’ve tried every trick and tactic in the weight-loss book: Detoxes to “flush out the fat”, meal replacement shakes that relieve you of the pain of having to eat real food that you feel so out of control with, high-tech machines that will have you burning 700 calories in just 4 minutes a day….well, you get the picture.

BREAK PAST IT: Our brain loves shortcuts. In fact, this is how our habits (good or bad) form. But when it comes to weight loss, there is no quick, magic formula for success. The simple and most effective way to reach your goal is this: A system that shows you how to build the right habits, and consistency.

If this post has given you a better idea of what your weight-loss obstacles could be, go ahead and zero in on them so that you can finally reclaim the power that they have over you, with my FREE ‘Uncover Your Weight Loss Obstacles’ workbook.

I can’t wait to see you on the other side.

Photo credit: stokpic.com

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