Five Excuses and It – The story of weight gain
Chapter X
Admit it! How many times have you looked at the scales, thrown a tantrum and headed straight for the biscuit tin screaming ‘What’s the point? It’s not working!’?
I’d be a liar if I said I’d never done that. However, that was before I ‘needed’ to lose weight. In those days my goal was to ‘lose a few pounds’ or ‘tone up a bit’. What can I say? Fluffy goals will only be backed up by fluffy thoughts. ‘A few pounds’ is not a goal. ‘A bit’ is not a measurement. And ‘it’ can never ever EVER be blamed for your lack of success. Once you’ve got that straight, you’ll already have increased your weight loss chances.
So before you lay all that blame on ‘it’ …
1. Did you set yourself up with a number on the scales? (i.e. 3 lbs, 7 lbs, 1 ½ stone)
2. Did you set yourself a deadline between 2 and 6 weeks? Your goal must be achievable within this time scale. Remember, you can always set another goal afterwards but setting a 6-month goal is, for me, too demoralising. Do it in steps!
3. What plan are you following? Are you sure the balance of food is perfect – between complex carbs, proteins and fats? Are you working this out yourself or do you ‘know’?
4. Have you been following the same plan for X weeks?
5. Have you lost weight before and/or have you regained weight formerly lost and/or how much weight have you lost to date?
Now ……. things are not going to plan so you are blaming ‘it’. This tells me a number of things:
1. You have not stopped to think what ‘it’ is. ‘It’ is such a wonderful, easy scapegoat, eh?
2. You have not truly answered the question ‘How much do you want this?’ – otherwise you’d be approaching this from a different angle, rather than immediately laying the blame on ‘it’!
3. How much DO you want this?
4. You can’t understand why you’ve suddenly gained some weight (or plateau-d) since you’ve been doing exactly the same as before? I rest my case!
5. You’re not actually truly committed to losing weight. You’re not prepared to put in the work. You want ‘it’ to do it for you, right? So much easier to blame ‘it’ instead of working out what you did or didn’t do to get you to this place.
The solution?
Easy-peasy. Let’s clear this up once and for all and you will nail this weight loss battle.
1. IT = YOU
2. ‘It’ didn’t get you to this place. ‘You’ did! (How much do you want this?)
3. Change ‘It isn’t working’ to ‘I need to change something’.
4. Change ‘It doesn’t work’ to ‘I need to change something’.
5. Change ‘Sod it! Where are the Hobnobs?’ to ‘ I need to phone my trainer and find out what I need to change!’
You know where I am.
amanda@youchoosefitness.co.uk