Number one mistake when you want to lose weight
This week I wanted to talk about the number one mistake that I see you making when you’re trying to lose weight. You can watch the video I made on this below, or keep scrolling if you prefer reading!
“I want to lose weight so I’m going on a diet”
I hear people say this all the time and this is the biggest mistake that I see people make. They think to lose weight they need to go on a diet. This whole mentality of ‘going on a diet’ is kind of like ‘going on a bus’ – at some point you get off the bus don’t you?! It’s the same with when you go on a diet at some point you go off the diet…
Whatever you do to lose weight you need to do forever.
The problem is if you’re thinking “I’ll just follow this diet plan until I get to my target weight and then I’ll stop.” Or “I’ll just make some changes to my eating habits” or “I’ll just do this exercise boot camp until I get to my target and then I’ll stop.” The problem is if you’re in that kind of headspace, where you’re thinking you can just do something to get your target and then you don’t have to do it again – you’re just going to pile all the weight back on again.
I see this over and over again people follow a diet and then when they come off the diet they put the weight back on again! Because it all comes back to your normal day to day habits. Your daily habits determine what you weight is going to be. And even if you’re just trying to eat better or you’re trying to get fitter, it’s all about your regular habits. It’s not about what you do for a short time, it’s what you do forever. So whatever you do to lose the weight or to get fitter, or to eat better, you’ve gotta keep it going.
That diet is too complicated to stick to!
Another problem with going on a diet is often that diet is too complicated so it doesn’t fit in with your lifestyle for very long. Especially if you’re giving yourself big long lists of rules. Or there’s loads of foods that you’re not allowed to eat and foods that you have to eat. Or you can only follow special, complicated recipes etc… If it’s too complicated it’s not gonna be easy to keep going. Then you’re not going to be able to build habits for life. The minute that life throws some kind of challenge at you, you’re just gonna find it easy to give up, if you’re making it too complicated for yourself. So look at how you could make it easy for yourself to build habits for life.
Diets are too strict to stick to…
Another problem with going on a diet is they’re usually too strict for you to stick to. Especially if you’re cutting out food that you love like cake or chocolate or crisps. Or you’re cutting out whole food groups. If you’re depriving yourself or punishing yourself in some way, that’s not gonna help. You’re gonna find it really hard to keep that going. Instead you need to find ways that you can include the food that you love. You need to keep enjoying the meals and recipes that you normally have.
If you think you need to improve things, just tweak them a little bit. Think about how could you make this meal healthier – is it balanced enough? Ask yourself “how can I make this recipe healthier, how could I cook things in a healthier way?” How could you do things just a little bit different to make them healthier? But not too different so then it’s easier to keep going. Have a think about how you could tweak your normal habits rather than doing something strict.
You’re trying to change too much.
Another problem with going on a diet is often people change too much or they try to change too much. When you change too much you’re more likely to end up beating yourself up for not being able to keep it going. When you beat yourself up for not being able to stick to that diet ‘yet again’ you’re more likely to build this really shitty relationship with food.
Instead of trying to change too much about what you’re doing try and change your perspective about food. Change your perspective about eating and about managing your weight. Try to look at food for what it is – it’s fuel for nourishing your body. Change your perspective so that you’re looking at doing things to be happy and healthy and to feel good. Rather than focusing on the weight and the weight loss, or the number on the scale, or your dress size. Change your perspective away from it being something you either ‘fail at’ or you ‘succeed’. Instead focus on building healthy habits to be happy and healthy.
Keep it simple
Instead of going on a diet, stop making it complicated – keep it simple! The easier you can make it for yourself the more likely you are to keep it going. Like I keep saying over and over again it all comes back to your habits. If you make it easy for yourself to keep it going you’re more likely to build habits for life.
Here’s a super simple top tip if you want to lose weight; Just eat a spoonful less at each meal. Every time you eat, whether it’s breakfast, lunch, evening meal, supper or snack… Every time you eat something just think about how much you’d normally eat then trim a little bit off. Ask yourself “do I really need to eat as much as I would normally have? Could I have a little bit less?”
Of course it helps if you’re eating regular balanced meals and that’s something I can help you with. Check out my Super Simple Guide to Making Healthy Eating Easier to help you eat regular balanced meals. This way you’re more likely to be giving your body the nutrients it needs and then you’re more likely to feel satisfied till your next meal.
You don’t need to make big drastic changes, just make little tweaks that you can stick to forever and build new habits for a lifetime. You’ll be surprised what a difference little tweaks can make in the long term, but it’s about being prepared to keep it going in the long term. Forget focusing on the results, just focus on how you’re feeling. Focus on building habits for the sake of being healthy, looking after your body and being kind to yourself.
The results will show up eventually, I promise.
But it’s time to ditch dieting forever, coz you deserve better.
Need help to ditch dieting forever?
Want to eat normally again AND lose weight healthily? While still enjoying the cake & chocolate? Hell yes!
I will help you ditch dieting forever, either with my 1-2-1 support. Or if you prefer to work independently, you will learn all the skills I teach my 1-2-1 clients, on my ‘No More Diets’ online course.
Freebies!
My Weekly Round-up! AKA; what I’ve been up to recently…
- This week’s blog post has been brought to you by Ceylon tea. I realised there was a load left in a tin that I thought was empty. I’d kept it on the dresser coz it’s pretty – purple with elephants on it! The tea still tastes great and reminded me how I quite like Ceylon so planning to get more when I’ve finished it.
- Our family challenge ’22 Hills in 2022′ is still going well. This weekend we nipped across the border into Wales to go up Breidden Hill. At the top there’s a monument called Rodney’s Pillar. We’ve tried walking up there before, but somehow ended up on the wrong hill and found ourselves looking across at Rodney’s Pillar in the distance – oops! It was a long walk up, but luckily we found a shorter way back to the car-park. Although we couldn’t tell where the permitted path was so for a while we were worried we’d get told off by another farmer… it was a relief when we got back to the path we recognised!
- I finished another book to add to my ’22 new books in 2022′ reading challenge. This week I read another novel from the HG Wells collection – ‘War of the Worlds’. So I’ve had the song ‘Forever Autumn’ stuck in my head all week! My parents had the 70s ‘War of the Worlds’ musical on record when I was a kid and I remember I loved looking at the pictures in the case.
- We had a pretty quiet weekend this week so we got a spot of gardening done. I finally decided to remove an old rambling rose that hasn’t done well since we’ve been in this house. Even with a bit of TLC it’s just always been mouldy and withered. Just hoping the birds forgive me, as they used to love all the branches! We went down along the brook to do some litter-picking as well that day, so I feel like we’ve balanced things out a bit re looking after nature…
- It’s a bit hard to believe Genevieve has almost finished another year of school! She went to her ‘moving up’ day and liked her new teacher. I went to the open day to check out her school work, which was nice as we missed that last year due to pandemic restrictions. Then Sport’s Day went well this week… Now the summer hols are just around the corner!
- Despite all that going on, I’ve managed to keep doing a weekly punch-bag work-out, so I’m pleased about that. Plus I’ve kept up my daily walks and I’m still doing my little exercise routine most days too.
- Bird Nerd Report: Last week I saw a load of baby robins down by the brook, which was too cute! We saw a couple of bullfinches and a kite when we were walking up Breidden Hill. Then this week I keep seeing a pair of jays. I wonder if it’s the same pair each time… maybe it’s the pair I saw gathering stuff to make their nest a while ago. Speaking of jays, have a shown you my Jay on a Teabag? Check it out below.