“I’ve tried everything to lose weight and nothing works.”
I would bet that this is a statement that you have said to yourself at some point in your life. You’ve tried everything and nothings working – why? Dieting can be exceptionally frustrating especially when you feel like nothing is working.
Let’s pause for a minute and take a step back. If you have in fact tried “everything” and nothing is working maybe it’s you. You’re the common element in the equation. It is hard to admit to yourself, but maybe you are the reason why nothing has worked despite all of your efforts.
If you find yourself in this situation take a minute to ask yourself a few questions:
1. Are you a weekend binger?
Are you someone who all week Monday-Friday will eat strictly healthy but then when the weekends come around and you eat everything? If this sounds like something that you do – you officially have one reason for why it’s not working.
I completely understand that after a long hard week at work you want nothing more than to come home on the weekends and eat all of the food. I mean you ate healthy all week, so you earned it…right? Unfortunately that’s not how it works.
Taking in an excess amount of calories on the weekends will likely erase whatever progress you made during the week. If you truly do want to see some weight loss happen, you will have to make a better effort to plan out your spurges instead of making every weekend a treat weekend.
2. How often do you drink?
Are you someone who likes to drink every weekend? If you answered yes to that question – then you just found out another reason why this isn’t working. I know that when I was working a “9-5” which was actually more like a 7-7 job, I would be so burnt out when the weekend came that I would want nothing more than to come home have a glass of wine or 2 or 3 and sit on the couch to decompress.
When we drink, without getting too scientific in my explanation, our bodies go into fat storing mode. So basically, whatever you consume while you’re drinking will be stored as fat. Again, if weight loss is something that you really want to see happen you should try to save your drinking for special occasions instead of an every weekend type thing.
3. How often do you go out to eat?
Do you go out for lunch of dinner frequently during the week? While yes you can find some healthy alternatives at restaurants, it is hard to know exactly how each dish is being prepared. More often than not, you’re food is cooked with extra oil/butter and more sodium than you yourself would eat. If you’re answering yes to this question, then you just found another reason why it’s not working.
Going out to dinner is one of my favorite ways to have a date night. What’s better than going to a nice restaurant, having a glass of wine and having your food be prepared for you without have to worry about cleaning up the mess? There’s almost nothing better! We like to save our restaurant date nights for special occasions instead of doing this on a weekly basis.
Also, if you are someone who goes out to lunch with your coworkers everyday or does takeout for lunch everyday at work – that could be another reason why this isn’t working. If you really do want to start seeing results, try to limit your lunch outings at work and prepare your own lunch everyday instead.
4. Are you tracking everything you eat?
Do you like to nibble and snack on food throughout the day? Do you nibble and snack on your food with the thought process of “oh a bite of this wouldn’t hurt and oh I just had a handful of that”? I think you know where I’m going here, but if you answered yes to that question then you just found probably the biggest reason for why this isn’t working.
For example, say its your co-workers birthday and there are all these treats in the work break room, you say to yourself “one bite won’t hurt or oh just a small piece”, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that one bite and small piece can be hurting your daily progress. Another example, are you cooking dinner for yourself or family and sampling parts of it as you are cooking? I do this all of the time! I mean you want to be sure that the food tastes good, but again these small bites really do start to add up quickly!
Having a few bites of food here and there throughout the day can really add up – probably to more calories than you thought, especially if you are having bites and nibbles of unhealthy food throughout the day. More often than not we are eating way more food per day than we actually think that we are.
Tracking everything you eat can sound like an impossibly overwhelming task and at first it is, but once you make it part of your daily routine you won’t even notice yourself doing it anymore. Again, if you truly do want to see significant results in your weight loss try tracking every thing you eat.
These are just a few examples and scenarios of why all of you’re hard work could not be paying off. The next time you feel like nothing is working. Take a minute to ask yourself these questions and be honest in your answers. If you truly do feel like you are putting forth an extraordinary amount of effort without any of the results you could be self sabotaging yourself without even realizing.
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