Losing weight is perhaps a universal struggle familiar to all of us. It’s one thing to know that you need to lose weight, but it’s another thing to do something about it.

However, there may be times when we hit a roadblock wherein we just can’t lose any more weight than we already have. This bums a lot of people out and often discourages them to continue. Leading to a cycle of motivation and demotivation because of hindrances unknown to them.

Worry not, for here are some reasons why you just can’t seem to shed that extra weight off:

Desperation

When we don’t lose as much weight that we did before or when we don’t lose it as quickly as we did in the start, lots of intrusive thoughts start to swarm our minds.

Thoughts such as “I’ll never lose weight!”, “When is it going to happen….is it ever going to happen?” There’s no point!” and other negative thoughts that weigh in the backs of our minds.

Therefore, people get on the weighing scales EVERYDAY!  (For emotional reassurance, not data). And now this is their only way to stay motivated or committed when progress is being measured every day.  

Making progress is important, but don’t let the lack of progress hinder you from achieving it further!

Overthinking

You tell yourself that you must achieve a certain weight goal within a certain time limit. Then you end up thinking of a million ways to achieve it.  You don’t let yourself rest until you’ve thought of everything that may go wrong, and how you’re going to handle it. All-to-do lists are completed, and all problems are solved.  And you probably even convince yourself you don´t have enough time or energy for healthy living.

 This just leaves you mentally exhausted and not have energy left to do something that’s productive such a planning a “healthy meal”.

Remember that you don’t have to burn yourself out when chasing after your goals. Take much-needed rest in between and recharge your batteries to continue your weight loss journey.

Self-Doubt

Self-doubting doesn’t just spring up out of nowhere. There are several causes for this which leads us to thoughts such as, “I’ll never be enough!”, “I’m really just not good enough!” and anything else.

Firstly, self-pity is one of the causes of self-doubt. Thinking about how poor or pitiful you are compared to others leads to more self-doubt on whether you can achieve your goals.

Perhaps, you’ve seen your other friends lose weight faster than you do or you know someone who has superhuman metabolism and doesn’t gain weight no matter how much they eat. This then leads you to pity yourself for not being able to have the same ability as they do and gain a lot of self-doubts.

In addition, generalizing the past leads to more self-doubt. Saying that you’ve done “everything” and nothing has worked is just another way of giving up, but this is simply because you´ve trained your brain that food is the most rapid, effective, and most reliable source to switch off, chill out, relax and get a sense of release from all the stress.

 Trust me, there will always be something that you haven’t tried out yet.

In conclusion, there are many hindrances that block us from the weight that we want to achieve. However, there will always be a way for us to overcome them and let ourselves achieve the body we want! It’s only a matter of overcoming self-doubt, self-pity, overthinking, and generalization.  

Know that you must conquer your mind for you to conquer your body as well.

Louise xx