9 Common Reasons You Stop Being Successful at Weight Loss

​Have you ever found yourself really serious about your weight loss goal, highly motivated, working diligently on it for a while, and then you find you just quit? This is such a common issue I hear with clients who come to me for help with weight loss. 
 
It can be very frustrating and discouraging. There are different ways you may have given up in the past, but what’s important is identifying the reason that you give up or quit trying to reach your weight loss goal. When you identify the problem, you can then discover the solution.
 
I want you to visualize right now where your life would be if you never quit anything. Just imagine how much you would have accomplished!  How great you would look… how healthy you would feel!

So, why do you quit? Here are 9 Common Reasons:

• You’re afraid you will fail. It’s common to be afraid of failing, but what are you actually afraid of?   Are you afraid of what others think? You might be surprised at how little other people care (seriously!). Everyone else is far too concerned with their own lives.  Are you worried that you’re not good enough? Maybe you’re not (right now). That doesn’t mean you can’t learn from your short-term failure and use it to be successful next time.

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• You’re afraid you’ll succeed. This one might be surprising, but many people are afraid of success. It can be comfortable to continue living the life you’re living, even if you want change. In order to succeed, you must want change or improvement more than comfort (and sometimes that is not comfortable!) Step outside your comfort zone.

• You’re uncomfortable with uncertainty. Does an uncertain future drive you crazy? Remember that the best things in life are often uncertain. I know it’s more comfortable to stay at the status quo, but allowing yourself to be comfortable with uncertainty in life can teach you so much and allow you to reach your goals.

• You’re not motivated enough to put in the necessary work. Maybe your “why”, your reason for change, just isn’t attractive enough to you to warrant the time and effort it requires. Think about what you’re going to gain if you keep on going the way you have been going. Six months from today, how do you want to look and feel?

• Insufficient results or reward. Maybe you’ve been toiling away for a while, but you haven’t seen significant results yet. This is common when starting any change. You might be putting in a lot of effort, but you’re not seeing the drop in numbers on the scale yet. The solution is to keep your eye on the long-term outcome you desire.

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• Feeling overwhelmed. When you have too much on your plate, the overwhelm you feel can be too much to handle. Try to cut back on other areas of your life that aren’t critical. Stress plays a big role in weight loss.  Learning how to handle stress more effectively is vital.

• Procrastination. Procrastination is a habit. Entire books have been written on procrastination, so plenty of information is out there on the topic. One quick tip is to remember that procrastination is largely about getting started. If you focus on just getting started, the rest will often take care of itself.

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• Listening to the wrong people. Sometimes people with the same challenges as you want you to stay the same. Get your advice from experts who want you to succeed and can help guide you along the way.

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• Your goals are massive. If you are trying to reach huge milestones overnight, it’s a recipe for disaster. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you won’t reach your weight loss goal overnight.  Start with smaller, manageable, realistic goals and move on from there.

Quitting is the enemy of success. It’s not easy to fail if you never quit, so learning how to continue when you feel like quitting is important. Learn why you give up and take the appropriate countermeasures. You’ll improve your odds of success a thousand-fold.