The One Thing You’re Overlooking When It Comes to Weight Loss

It’s All About Perspective

We’ve all been there. A new year starts, and new goals are set, but after a couple of months it seems like you’re no closer than when you started.

So what are we doing wrong? In my experience, it’s about more than just laziness or procrastination. Over the years, and after working with a range of clients at all levels of fitness, the one consistent conclusion is that it has a lot more to do with your perspective than anything else.

Want to know what you may be doing wrong? Here are three of the biggest (and most overlooked!) reasons you’re not achieving your weight loss goals.

The Most Overlooked Reasons You’re Failing at Weight Loss

You’re Setting Your Goals for the Wrong Reasons

One of the biggest mistakes in goal setting is doing things for the wrong reasons. If you want to lose weight, it has to be about more than just about how people will perceive you. If all you care about is what other people think of you, you’re chances of success are going to be really slim.

You need to do things for YOU. Although fitting into a bathing suit might still be on your mind, you need to get motivated by things like self-improvement, learning, and mastery of your body. These kinds of things are going to keep you committed a lot longer. They’re what are sometimes referred to as intrinsic motivations, because they’re driven by what matters most to you. So try to shift your focus a bit.

You’re Overdoing It in the Decision Department

At the end of the day, your mental capacity to make decisions and control your behaviors is actually not as good as we all hope. We’d like to think we have an unlimited ability to think and make decisions, but it’s just not true. Even your brain needs a break.

How this interferes with your weight loss goals is pretty simple. If you have too much going on, and too many decisions to make throughout your day, you’re ability to control your eating habits as well will definitely be compromised. Mental fatigue is one the quickest ways to let the cravings take over.

It also gets harder to make the right decisions about your exercise. When you’re overwhelmed, you may skip the stairs and go straight to the elevator, or you may even skip the gym.

What’s the solution? Simply – plan ahead.

Prep your meals for the day, or even the week, and make sure you’ve already made those decisions for yourself in advance. What you can essentially do is cut down on the number of decisions you have to make about your weight loss goals, and you’ll gain a lot of control and stability.

You Believe Pain and Misery are Precursors to Success

No matter where you’re at with your weight loss and fitness goals, actual pain is not necessary to succeed. And you don’t have to be unhappy while you’re working towards your goals. Believing this is only going to increase your chances of failure, because you’re more likely to make extreme choices or try fads that won’t last over time.

Instead, start thinking a little more practically about what you’re doing, and make the choices that are right for you and that also make you happy. If there’s a fad out there you’re interested in, try it, but only if it fits into your lifestyle. And don’t force-feed yourself every superfood on the market. In the end, being happy will keep you more motivated to reach your goals than anything else.

Which mistake are you making?

You’ll probably agree that it’s very likely that at least one of these mistakes is something you’ve done in the past little while. So it’s time to change your thoughts, and really get thinking differently about your weight loss goals. A perspective shift is often the biggest lifestyle shift you can make!

For some more great tips on how to stay motivated, check out my articles on Weight Loss Motivation and Workout Motivation, and start getting it right!

Have any questions or feedback about the One Thing You’re Overlooking When It Comes to Weight Loss? Please leave a comment below…