How Our Beliefs Influence Weight Loss/Gain
It’s Monday, we are so excited. We jump out of bed, go about our routine, follow a diet, do our exercise, drink our water and we feel so accomplished at the end of the day. This can go on for a while, depending on our level of will power, goal or the reasons behind our change in behaviors. It could be a few days, week or a month before we start having our doubts about the new regime. Perhaps there was a day when we weren’t quite successful in making healthy eating choices, or we were too tired or too sore to work out like we had envisioned - but slowly but surely our optimism, and the novelty is wearing off. This is when our beliefs start to erode our optimism and momentum. Slowly an old familiar story might creep in like “oh, why bother…I’m just going to gain it all back anyways..” or “see, I knew you couldn’t stick to anything…” or “I’m overweight and always will be no matter what I do…”.
When these thoughts sneak in, we often counter with strategies like giving up, or, changing strategies, we might become even more restrictive on what we eat, or exercise even more intensely, both of which backfire because neither are sustainable and will eventually fail - because we are either starving, exhausted or both. Alternatively, we may jump ship and try something completely different - which is also destined to fail because we didn’t stick to anything long enough to reap the benefits.
The belief that I will eventually fail is an insecurity and these insecurities lead to self sabotage. If, due to our beliefs, we think that the entire endeavor is doomed for failure, our brain will lead us to focus on something that is gratifying and is much easier to accomplish. So, instead of sticking to our original plan, we return to old habits and ways of life that lead us to where we were before.
This is just one of many limiting beliefs that prevent us from improving our health, losing weight and moving more here are a few more:
Genetics: “It’s my genetics - my entire family is “BIG.” This is a common belief that often prevents individuals from attempting to change their diet/lifestyle. It’s in the same category as an insecurity - it paints the picture that not matter what I do nothing will change, therefore, if the change in lifestyle starts to get difficult, tedious or results are slow to materialize, most likely the result will be giving up and doing what is easier.
Not Being Good at Sports: Not everyone is a world class athlete, nor, does everyone actually enjoy physical activity. Sometimes people get messages from their families as young children that they are not athletically inclined. If you believe this, you often act accordingly by not trying or making it harder than it is.
There is not enough time: Ah, yes, the “not enough time” belief. In reality, we have as much time in the day to do things that we want to do, but oftentimes blame the lack of time on why we didn’t accomplish our goals. Using time as an excuse not to do something is a limiting belief.
It’s impossible to stay in shape because of…Whatever the reason you cite, when we tell ourselves something will not work, we will act accordingly.
It’s too hard! Yes, making any type of change is hard, but oftentimes when things get really difficult that is when people are most likely to give up. How we areact to boredom, difficult decisions, pushing ourselves to exercise when we didn’t sleep well, meal prepping on the weekends when we’d rather be socializing, all these things are hard. How we approach hard things predicts success or failure.