The Secret to Weight Loss Success

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There are people all over the world who make a lot of money selling you weight loss miracles that don’t work.  There are pills that claim to do all the work for you.  All kinds of contraptions, belts, and balls that are guaranteed to make you shed the pounds.

 But there is only one thing that is always the key to weight loss regardless of what diet you try or workout you do, and that is consistency.  Without this secret ingredient you are doomed to weight loss failure.

 This is the biggest weakness I have when it comes to weight loss.  Whenever I struggle to lose weight or reach my goals it is because I lack consistency in my diet and exercise plan.  It doesn’t take much for me to fall back in to my old bad habits and my diet comes crashing down with it.

Sure I’ll do great for three days, and then on the fourth I’m a little to sore or cravings kick in and I decide to take a day off.   Soon enough I’ve taken three straight days off and I’m back to saying “I’ll start again on Monday”.

 So how do we break the cycle and improve consistency in our weight loss plans?

What’s your reason?

 Take out a piece of paper and write a letter to yourself.  Write a story about why you need to lose weight.  Why do you need to exercise?  What is the reason for working out?

Be very specific here.  Put some emotion in there.  You need a compelling reason to keep yourself on track.  Are you losing weight due to a health problem?  Do you want to live longer so you can see your kids grow up or your grandkids?  Maybe like me you are getting ready for a wedding and you want to look good for the honeymoon.

When you read this letter every day, you remind yourself of why it is so important for you to reach your goals. 

When you have a choice of skipping a workout or meeting your grandkids one day, I think you’ll get your butt on that treadmill.  Write a letter that makes it really hard to make a bad choice.  A compelling story could be just what you need to consistently reach your goals.

Reward yourself

This is my favorite part of a diet and exercise plan.  Some people call it cheat meal, I don’t care for that term.  It’s not really cheating if it’s in your diet plan to begin with.  Reward yourself for your hard work and dedication to reaching your goals.

I like to set my reward as a nice big pizza.  I know that if I am sure to get a pizza at the end of the week for one deliciously blissful meal I will eat salad for every meal if I have to.  And the beauty of it is I’ll still be losing weight.  I will still be attaining my goals.  

Many people are afraid of derailing their progress by having a big mac or a meatball sub once a week, but it is actually a good thing.   It will build consistency.  It will keep you going when you want to give up.  It may even trick your body into thinking you aren’t on a diet.  When it thinks you’re on a diet, your body can sometimes think its starving and start storing calories as fat to save itself.  And eventually you’ll be so determined to stay consistent that you will want to  change your rewards to more healthy options. 

If your plan says to workout 6 days a week, it will be a lot easier to stay consistent if you know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  If you have something short term to reach for you are much more likely to keep driving towards it.

Focus your attention on consistency and not the next big quick fix on the market and you will have a much higher chance for success.  Keep this a top priority, have a compelling reason to succeed and reward yourself for following through and you will reach your goals.

And that’s guaranteed!

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