Seven Ways You Sabotage Your Journey to Health

As I reflect on the past year, I realize I've made great progress.  I lost 75 pounds, about 24% body fat and 12 inches around the waist.  I feel much better, I have more energy. And yes, I would say that in general I'm a happier person.  

Over the course of the year, I would say my success was 60% mental and 40% physical. Meaning that there were more mental obstacles along the way the physical ones.  Here are five of the primary ways my mind tried to sabotage me and how I got through them.

1. I've tried this before and failed.  Why will this time be any different?  It's true that if you keep trying the same thing over and over again and have had the same results, you shouldn't be surprised.  If you want real results and haven't had success in the past, something has to change.  For me, contacting a personal trainer who coached me on exercise and nutrition was a key difference to my success.  But that won't necessarily be the right path for you.  Get excited about being fit, adopt a professionally developed program of exercise and eating right. Another problem with this point is the whole mindset that health and fitness is something "you try."  You don't try to be healthy.  As Yoda said, "Do or do not, there is no try."  You don't go on a diet.  That implies from the outset that you're going to try it, and if you don't see the kind of results you'd like in a short time frame, you'll give up.  NO.  You need to decide that you're sick and tired of being sick and tired and want to do something about it.  You gain an inward drive to want to feel better and do whatever it takes.
2. I've been trying to eat right and exercise for a while now, and I'm not seeing results quickly enough.  This basically means that you're not seeing your weight on the scale going down quickly enough for your liking.  But if you're weeks into truly eating better and exercising, even if the scale isn't budging you are seeing other positive changes.  You feel better.  Your mood is better.  You're sleeping better.  Your clothes are looser.  I have to admit that my weight loss started as soon as I began to eat right and exercise consistently, but I realize that isn't the norm. Especially for women, it seems like the body has to go through several internal adjustments before the scale starts to move.  But don't be discouraged by that.  Recognize the positive changes and be patient.  You're not a freak of nature, you aren't the only one in the world that can adopt a healthier lifestyle and see no results.  How long did it take to put on the weight?  Read this blog post.
3. I need to eat a lot less to lose weight.  This one really took me by surprise.  I realized that although there is some truth to monitoring your calorie intake, it is far more the quality of calories you're eating that makes a difference.  I started to eat more often - 6 times a day.  Because I was eating more protein-rich foods, I found that I was never really hungry.  Going on a diet and starving yourself is the last thing you should do if you want to lose weight.  Your body thinks that you're starving it and will naturally slow down your metabolism, which is the opposite of what you want to happen.  Some weeks I had to increase my caloric intake in order to boost my metabolism.  See my blog posts here and here for more information.
4. I'm sick or injured, I'll need to fully recover before I can focus on health.  Well there's some truth to that, if you are sick or injured, you pretty much don't feel like doing anything but nursing yourself, and that should be your priority.  However, don't let a prolonged sickness or injury get in the way of treating your body right.  In other words, don't drown your sorrows in unhealthy comfort food.  That's the last thing your body needs to recover.  Remember that your body is built from what you put into it, so if you want to recover quickly, feed it healthy foods.  If you've been injured, work with a doctor if necessary, but get back on your feet and work on rehabilitation as soon as possible, rather than letting the injury heal improperly without normal body movement.  
5. I'm doing this so that others will like me better.  This is perhaps the worst form of personal sabotage.  Your motivation can be for a number of reasons - you're tired of being fat and sick, you want to look better, you want to be more active, etc.  But don't do it to please others.  If your motivation doesn't come from an internal reason to better yourself, it will deflate as soon as you believe you're not getting the reaction from others you were expecting.  And it is never possible to control other people's reactions, so it's a losing battle.  Do it for yourself.  As you become healthier and feel better about yourself, your self-esteem will naturally improve and you won't need to seek for approval from others.
6. I can do this alone.  Well, perhaps you can, but to achieve true, long-lasting health requires a lot of knowledge about yourself and your body.  You'll need to understand more about nutrition and exercise.   You'll need to avoid current fads and recognize time-tested truth from temporary quick fixes.  Read up, ask others, consult a personal trainer - do whatever you need to do to get the information you need in order to achieve success.
7. The pain isn't worth it.  Ok, there is a certain amount of adjustment needed to adopt a healthier lifestyle.  It isn't fun those first few weeks where you are having to change what you eat and avoid the unhealthy foods you were used to eating before. Going to the gym or doing other forms of exercise may leave you exhausted and sore.  But it gets better.  Much, much better.  Stick to it and over time the fog will clear, your body and mind will feel better and you'll naturally gravitate towards foods and activities that bring you better health.  Tell me the last time you binged on treats or pizza and woke up the next day feeling fantastic.  So you need to choose your kind of pain, because being unhealthy in the long run is far more painful.

There are obviously many ways you can sabotage your journey to better health, these are just a few.  You need to do some personal reflection about your life, what you want out of it and what you need to do to achieve your goals.  Then realize that it's normal to get discouraged and have setbacks, but those don't need to prevent you from achieving the results you want.